# Englander 25 PDVC not feeding pellets with error codes



## ej.nordstrom@yahoo.com (Feb 8, 2012)

I'm hoping someone can help me a little. I have a Englander 25 PDVC that i purchased 2 years ago off craigslist and it has been working great until recently. I only use on weekends in a garage and average about 5 bags per year of use so it's not a lot. What is now happening is that I can't get the pellets to feed in. I read other posts and cleaned thoroughly and also cut back the vac hose line 1" because it was cracked at the blower. When i turn it on the blower motor the hose is attached to is running. When i emptied the pellets from the hopper and cleaned out you can see that the auger tries to turn and moves a tiny bit and then almost rocks back into position so it appears to be getting power, but the E2 error comes back on every start.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. It is going to be a cold weekend coming up.


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## kofkorn (Feb 8, 2012)

Sounds like you may have some pellets jammed in the top auger.   Take the back panel off and try to move the upper motor.  The end of the motor should move 1-1.5" freely.  If it doesn't, then there are likely pellets jammed.   Sometimes I have luck simply wiggling the motor back and forth a bunch.  Worst case, you may have to remove the auger and dig the pellets out by hand (meaning with a tool of some kind  ).  Take the pinch bolt off the auger shaft. slip the motor off, then remove the bolts holding the auger to the feed assembly.  It should slide right out.  There is a rectangular hole between the top and bottom augers that will likely have pellets stuck in it.  Clear it out and re-assemble.

Good luck!


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## HD41 (Feb 8, 2012)

Because it is not feeding pellets the E-2 code is "fail to start" which is understandable. If you don't have a manual you may want to download one from Englander and keep it by your stove for reference.

When you start Is the lower auger turning and the upper does not? See if you can you turn the upper auger by hand as suggested. If so check the auger motor with a patch cord to see if it works.


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## ej.nordstrom@yahoo.com (Feb 8, 2012)

yes the lower auger is going the whole time


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## stoveguy2esw (Feb 8, 2012)

either a top auger jam or a plugged vac port in firebox area or bad vac switch, bad motor, several possibilities.

best thing to do is call my support line at 800-245-6489 talk to one of my technicians. phone based tech support is free for anyone who owns one of my stoves whether you bought it new from our vendors or if you bought it second hand, you,re still my customer, call me i'll help you. hours are 8-5 eastern mon-fri and for the next few weeks or so i will have technicians on saturday mornings from 9-12 eastern.


EDIT: oops re-read post, if the motor is trying to turn and rocking back you definately have a jam, clear the hopper out vacuum out the auger , reach in to the motor and see if you can force it upwards the back down several times and see if it starrts to move very easily, then try runing without pellets in it to push the impediment out through the system. if this doesnt get it we will need to pull the augers and go in and get it. relatively simple procedure but if ya want "coaching" or on phone direction give my support staff a call


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## ej.nordstrom@yahoo.com (Feb 11, 2012)

I think that last tip may have worked. Is the top auger only supposed to move about a 1/2 inch every 10 seconds or so?


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## ej.nordstrom@yahoo.com (Feb 11, 2012)

After shaking up the motor really good, the auger started turning a tiny bit every ten seconds and pellets started feeding back into the top hopper. It must have been jammed if they started feeding backwards.


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## imacman (Feb 11, 2012)

Tycam said:
			
		

> I think that last tip may have worked. Is the top auger only supposed to move about a 1/2 inch every 10 seconds or so?



Not sure about the exact "distance", but the top auger in that stove only runs a little bit for each cycle of pellets.....the bottom auger runs continuously.  10 seconds sounds about right, but that is determined by the heat setting, AFAIK.


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## ej.nordstrom@yahoo.com (Feb 11, 2012)

Yeah I got a little too excited. Fired it back up with a couple hand fulls of pellets and it gave the old E-2 again. 

Not sure what to do at this point.


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## SmokeyTheBear (Feb 11, 2012)

Is that top auger turning in the proper direction????

ETA:  And is the auger securely fastened to the auger motor (set screws in the coupling)?


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## HD41 (Feb 11, 2012)

Tycam said:
			
		

> Yeah I got a little too excited. Fired it back up with a couple hand fulls of pellets and it gave the old E-2 again.
> 
> Not sure what to do at this point.



Appears you have corrected the auger jam. Are you starting on 5-5 as suggested? Sometimes after cleaning my PDVC I will get an E2 the first time. Try one more time and see if the upper auger turns properly. Other than that check the items the stoveguy suggested as possibilities.


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## ej.nordstrom@yahoo.com (Feb 11, 2012)

It is turning properly because I'm getting pellets along with ground up pellets into the burn plate, but nothing seems to be igniting. It runs through and leaves a handful of pellets in the plate and then gives an E-2 code. 

So frustrating.


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## imacman (Feb 11, 2012)

Tycam said:
			
		

> It is turning properly because I'm getting pellets along with ground up pellets into the burn plate, but nothing seems to be igniting. It runs through and leaves a handful of pellets in the plate and then gives an E-2 code.
> 
> So frustrating.



Ignitor???  Try lighting it manually now.


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## HD41 (Feb 11, 2012)

Do they reach the ignitor? Is the ignitor heating?


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## ej.nordstrom@yahoo.com (Feb 11, 2012)

I'm not sure how the igniter is supposed to be positioned. It appears to be covering the left side of the hole. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be over the hole or completely away from it. As you can see from the picture it is set back and a little off centered. I'm assuming this is ok since i can't seem  to move it. The other problem may that it may not be feeding enough pellets in. Now that i opened to take the picture it looks like a small amount for 5-5 start setting.


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## slvrblkk (Feb 12, 2012)

Tycam said:
			
		

> I'm not sure how the igniter is supposed to be positioned. It appears to be covering the left side of the hole. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be over the hole or completely away from it. As you can see from the picture it is set back and a little off centered. I'm assuming this is ok since i can't seem  to move it. The other problem may that it may not be feeding enough pellets in. Now that i opened to take the picture it looks like a small amount for 5-5 start setting.



What brand of pellets are you using?  Your upper auger looks like it might be jammed up with fines and small pieces. Do what macman said and try lighting it manually.


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## ej.nordstrom@yahoo.com (Feb 12, 2012)

I'll give that a shot in the morning. I have never done that before. I'm assuming you just drop in a handful and use a match or something along those lines to get it going and then close the door?


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## imacman (Feb 12, 2012)

Tycam said:
			
		

> I'll give that a shot in the morning. I have never done that before. I'm assuming you just drop in a handful and use a match or something along those lines to get it going and then close the door?



Use a propane torch....works the best.  You have to keep the flame on the pellets until they're burning pretty good, then close the door.


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## HD41 (Feb 12, 2012)

Tycam said:
			
		

> I'm not sure how the igniter is supposed to be positioned. It appears to be covering the left side of the hole. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be over the hole or completely away from it. As you can see from the picture it is set back and a little off centered. I'm assuming this is ok since i can't seem  to move it. The other problem may that it may not be feeding enough pellets in. Now that i opened to take the picture it looks like a small amount for 5-5 start setting.



This is an insufficient amount of pellets to start a fire. You may still have a jam if the upper auger is cycling/turning. Also there are also some safeguards to assure negative pressure for start-up and ignitor. I don't know exact sequence for E2 shutdown but I believe negative pressure is required to sustain auger feed. There are switches for this.


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## imacman (Feb 12, 2012)

HD41 said:
			
		

> This is an insufficient amount of pellets to start a fire. You may still have a jam if the upper auger is cycling/turning.....



I agree with HD....if that's all the pellets that dropped into the burnpot, then you still have a feed problem.


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## ej.nordstrom@yahoo.com (Feb 12, 2012)

I guess I have to figure out how to remove the auger. The manual doesn't explain how to do this.


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## imacman (Feb 12, 2012)

The Englander website is your friend.  Here's the procedure to remove the augers, clear a jam, re-install and align them.

www.englanderstoves.com/manuals/ReplacingAndAligningAugers.pdf


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## HD41 (Feb 12, 2012)

Manual verbage (no picture) lacks a bit unless you have done it before. Here is a link that explains auger motor removal. 

http://www.englanderstoves.com/manuals/ReplacingAndAligningAugers.pdf

Then all you do is remove the 4 bolts that hold the auger bearing cap and pull it out.

Edit
Guess Mac upstaged me. I might add that Englander has an excellent video on maintenance and repair of the pdvc..


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## slvrblkk (Feb 12, 2012)

Tycam said:
			
		

> I guess I have to figure out how to remove the auger. The manual doesn't explain how to do this.



I would do this first to possibly save you some time....possibly.....remove all of the pellets from the stove and then vacuum out as much pellets and fines as possible from the auger/flight and then move the auger motor back and forth and see if that frees it up....then manually run the upper auger.......that can be found on the Englander site or here  http://www.englanderstoves.com/help/PelletStove/diagnostic_mode04.html  i really think you might be jammed up with fines in the auger flight. Mine did this with NEWP pellets....they were a bugger to run in my pdvc, I had to mix them with Stove Chows to get them to feed...I even vacuum/sift my pellets......


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## ej.nordstrom@yahoo.com (Feb 12, 2012)

Thank you all very much. Once i removed the auger motor and twisted the auger by hand it started freeing up. Lots of sawdust. I cleaned all of the new stuff out and re-assembled the motor, ran through a dry run, then filled with newer pellets and the stove is running strong...just in time. I returned the brand of pellets that were jamming the stove back to Lowes and was told they have been getting a lot of returns on that brand. 

Thanks again for all your help.


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## Panhandler (Feb 12, 2012)

Tycam said:
			
		

> Thank you all very much. Once i removed the auger motor and twisted the auger by hand it started freeing up. Lots of sawdust. I cleaned all of the new stuff out and re-assembled the motor, ran through a dry run, then filled with newer pellets and the stove is running strong...just in time. I returned the brand of pellets that were jamming the stove back to Lowes and was told they have been getting a lot of returns on that brand.
> 
> Thanks again for all your help.



Which brand?


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## imacman (Feb 12, 2012)

Tycam said:
			
		

> Thank you all very much. Once i removed the auger motor and twisted the auger by hand it started freeing up. Lots of sawdust. I cleaned all of the new stuff out and re-assembled the motor, ran through a dry run, then filled with newer pellets and the stove is running strong...just in time. I returned the brand of pellets that were jamming the stove back to Lowes and was told they have been getting a lot of returns on that brand.
> 
> Thanks again for all your help.



Glad it helped and you got the stove running.  

Ditto what Panhandler asked....what brand pellets caused the jamming?


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## ej.nordstrom@yahoo.com (Feb 15, 2012)

The brand is Green Supreme.


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## Dr.Faustus (Feb 15, 2012)

:bug:  oh great! i just got 4 tons of green supremes delivered and stacked in the garage yesterday. *and* i have the save stove as the OP


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## blackbear219 (Feb 16, 2012)

I have dealt with somewhere around 40-50 upper auger jams this season.  Right now I am going on 4 days without one.  Sometimes I have 4 jams a day.  There is no rhyme or reason to it.  I have only had to pull the augers once to clear a jam.  Every other time I have been able to clear it by wiggling the motor like everyone has been talking about.

If it is jammed, the motor is not going to rotate freely.  Like everyone else said, if you wiggle the motor up and down you can manually turn the auger and force it through the jam.  The key to remember here is that you need to wiggle.  If you pull too hard, the auger is just going to nestle up against the jam and the motor will wind around the auger without actually turning the auger.  The whole point here is to get motion in the auger so make sure you are wiggling back and forth and you should be able to clear it.

Wiggle the motor enough and over time you will loosen the set screw.  Then you may be wiggling the motor but it is not catching/turning the auger, so look out for that.  Tighten the set screw often if you have to do this more than once.

Everyone seems surprised when I tell them I have upper auger jams, yet it seems like somehow everyone with a 25-PDVC knows about the motor wiggling trick.  Something doesn't add up there.  Unfortunately, I am the self proclaimed king of upper auger jams at this point so hopefully this helps if you run into any future jams.  Good luck.


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## blackbear219 (Feb 16, 2012)

double post


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## Dr.Faustus (Feb 16, 2012)

i had upper auger jams 1-2x/day on the pdvc. this was 4 years ago. fed up i took out the auger, pumped some high temp grease into its fitting. used a dremel to smooth out the auger and to sharpen its edges. not razor sharp but more of a wedge type edge. i havent had a single jam or reason to remove the auger in 4 years. I dont sift either. i've thrown in tons of fines.

i cant remember if i dremeled both augers but i did grease them both since that was really easy, what i do know is no jams in 4 years and my stove runs 24/7 in dead winter.

another theory of mine is that the pellets dont feed as easy if you take them from an unheated space and throw em right in the hopper. i take a few bags in and they have a chance to acclimate before i send them to their fiery deaths


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## winolet (Feb 20, 2012)

I had a problem with the top auger not moving and with help from the forum here I managed to open up the back and get it going again.   However, I then thoroughly cleaned the stove and sprayed Silicone Spray Lubricant on both augers - haven't had a problem since (that was last winter).  I now plan to do that every spring.  Thank you all for your help in the past since I was very frustrated.


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