And yet another Englander not putting out heat

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While I'm at it one of the best exits for heated air in your house can be a chimney race. I've seen it suck air out of the floors above the cellar.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
Yup, Craig, which is why I mentioned it here
Heat loss can occur in the strangest way. The best one I'm aware of is straight up the flue ;-) .

No joke, I think you are correct!

Don't they call this Occams Razor?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor
"the simplest explanation or strategy tends to be the best one"
 
Webmaster said:
SmokeyTheBear said:
Yup, Craig, which is why I mentioned it here
Heat loss can occur in the strangest way. The best one I'm aware of is straight up the flue ;-) .

No joke, I think you are correct!

Don't they call this Occams Razor?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor
"the simplest explanation or strategy tends to be the best one"

That's the corollary to Murphy's Law or is Murphy's the counterexample? I must be getting old timers because I forget the technical names now, once past thingy and stuff I'm lost ;-) .

Have a good one Craig, btw it's snowing up here.
 
OK finally able to get pictures up. Hopefully I got it right. The burning pictures are taken after an hour of burning at heat range 5 and fan at 5.
Factory 6-4-1 settings and burning potomac pellets.

Temps are as follows


Room 72 deg
Room blower 98 deg
Top front 120 deg
Top of hopper 85 deg
Left of door 356 deg
Right of door 321 deg
Exhaust pipe 93 deg
Exhaust outlet 370 deg
 

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Gordo, that looks to be a pretty good to me, after an hour. What were the other 2 brands of pellets that you burned?
 
Deffy said:
theres the problem, 370 degree air out of your exhaust. your heat is making it outside and not being picked up by the exchanger. you sure its clean?. try lowering the burn air a bit and see what effect that has on the exhaust output temp.

your flame looks perfectly fine for those settings.

i would set the stove on 2-5, let it burn an hour and take your temps, then tweak the low burn air as low as it can go without causing problems such as unburnt pellets.

did you ever take off the room air blower to clean it? i had issues once with the output air not being as hot as im used to and it turned out the room air blower wasnt tightened up all the way, plus had gotten a bit dirty. i also in addition to cleaning the inside of the burn chamber, i blow out the room air path periodically. i get some decent dust out of there which acts as an insulator. but that doesnt sound like your particular prob, you have too much heat escaping though the vent pipe somehow.

Too much draft will result in the heat going up the flue, also an out of placement impingement plate which transfers heat to the heat exchanger in those stoves will allow a lot of heat to exit the stove instead of heating the exchanger.

I'd start by doing what Dougsey suggested removing the last 90 degree bend and the outside vertical pipe along with making certain that impingement plate is properly seated, centered, and clean (including the surfaces it rests against).
 
gordo9742000 said:
I have a thermometer hanging about 6 inches in front of the stove and I am only reading 105-108 degrees.

Not to say you don't have a heat problem but I don't think your way of measuring temperature of the room blower is too accurate. I would think that by 6 inches your air from the blower has mixed well with the air in the space being heated. I tried it and I get a 40 degree difference directly out of the stove to 6 inches out. The colder your room the lower the temperature this far out even though the stove is putting out the same heat.
 
joefraser said:
gordo9742000 said:
I have a thermometer hanging about 6 inches in front of the stove and I am only reading 105-108 degrees.

Not to say you don't have a heat problem but I don't think your way of measuring temperature of the room blower is too accurate. I would think that by 6 inches your air from the blower has mixed well with the air in the space being heated. I tried it and I get a 40 degree difference directly out of the stove to 6 inches out. The colder your room the lower the temperature this far out even though the stove is putting out the same heat.

down goes Fraser, down goes Fraser, down goes Fraser...sorry. Not much more to add except all the stoves we sell in our showroom could work with that vent set up, no OAK and have 200 (290 on the Europa) degree air blowing out the heat exchanger. But the Englander stoves are cheaper, so it all equals out in the end.
 
Franks said:
joefraser said:
gordo9742000 said:
I have a thermometer hanging about 6 inches in front of the stove and I am only reading 105-108 degrees.


down goes Fraser, down goes Fraser, down goes Fraser...sorry. Not much more to add except all the stoves we sell in our showroom could work with that vent set up, no OAK and have 200 (290 on the Europa) degree air blowing out the heat exchanger. But the Englander stoves are cheaper, so it all equals out in the end.

Actually I don`t think it`s primarily because the Englander is cheaper. I think the OP has a unique problem or he is burning it wrong (settings) .
My neighbors Englander 25 PDV (set at 1-4-1) is by far producing more heat than my Harman P-38 (set at the lower setting of 2) . Obviously he is burning thru considerably more pellets than I am but the heat his stove blows out is tremendous. I`m absolutely amazed at how much heat he gets out of it at all settings.
One big difference I see is I can control my heat output to a much finer degree than he can.
But with regards to heat output I see no major burn issues whatsoever with his Englander. The stove sure can blow a lot of heat out those front holes.
 
Gio said:
Franks said:
joefraser said:
gordo9742000 said:
I have a thermometer hanging about 6 inches in front of the stove and I am only reading 105-108 degrees.


down goes Fraser, down goes Fraser, down goes Fraser...sorry. Not much more to add except all the stoves we sell in our showroom could work with that vent set up, no OAK and have 200 (290 on the Europa) degree air blowing out the heat exchanger. But the Englander stoves are cheaper, so it all equals out in the end.

Actually I don`t think it`s primarily because the Englander is cheaper. I think the OP has a unique problem or he is burning it wrong (settings) .
My neighbors Englander 25 PDV (set at 1-4-1) is by far producing more heat than my Harman P-38 (set at the lower setting of 2) . Obviously he is burning thru considerably more pellets than I am but the heat his stove blows out is tremendous. I`m absolutely amazed at how much heat he gets out of it at all settings.
One big difference I see is I can control my heat output to a much finer degree than he can.
But with regards to heat output I see no major burn issues whatsoever with his Englander. The stove sure can blow a lot of heat out those front holes.

I agree with Gio, that stove model can crank out heat. One of the key parts of the stove however is that impingement plate. It must be clean, seated correctly, and centered.

As for fraser, I can't speak about his readings, however on 1- at 6" in front of my stove I have no trouble reaching 125 (which is as high as my cheapo old fashioned 'mometer goes), that is the lowest burn rate I can go. Every stove is different, if I decouple my convection blower by running it on hi, the temperature doesn't go as high but the volume of air moved increases.
 
The impingement plate is set into the two tabs in the center and is clean. It leans forward a slight bit. From what I have read this model stove does this. If this is wrong that would be a large problem. Anyone got any input on this. Should I wedge back or not?

Thanks Jim
 
gordo9742000 said:
The impingement plate is set into the two tabs in the center and is clean. It leans forward a slight bit. From what I have read this model stove does this. If this is wrong that would be a large problem. Anyone got any input on this. Should I wedge back or not? Thanks Jim

Jim, this is straight out of YOUR OWNERS MANUAL:

"3. Let the bottom of the plate rest on the firebox, and then push the bottom of the plate flush
against the back wall of the firebox. At this point, the plate will lean forward (toward the front
of the stove) slightly, and will come in contact with the front of the stove above the door.

4. Finally, center the plate on the firebox, so that it will be centered above the fire when the
stove is in operation."
 
Jim it should be SNUGGLY against the back of the fire box and also Touch the front of the stove above the door.

Not just leaning towards.

That impingement plate is what will actually transfer the energy from the fire to the exchanger, it is the single most important part of your stove that causes that nice heat to come out of those tubes when the convection blower does its thing.

The part of the firebox both at the bottom and top that the plate sits against also should be clean.
 
Took it to the extreme today. Since i had the day off I figured I would do an extreme clean. Moved the stove outside and with compressed air and some lengths of tubing blew out every crack and crevice of the stove. Also dismantled the exhaust and cleaned every part of it. Since it was outside i lit it off to see what kind of temps I could get out of. Output temps were lower but I think that is mainly because the outside temp was low. I moved the stove back inside and positioned it near a window where I could run the exhaust out with minimal piping. Still no difference.
 
Is it possible the combustion blower is running full tilt and sending most of the heat up the flue?
I know if it was my stove I`d have been talking to their tech by now.
 
Already talked to tech and was told that my numbers were not accurate. I confirmed all numbers with several different thermometers and all are within 1-2 degrees of each other.
 
gordo9742000 said:
Already talked to tech and was told that my numbers were not accurate. I confirmed all numbers with several different thermometers and all are within 1-2 degrees of each other.

PM Mike Holton, see what he has to say, his handle here is stoveguy2esw. Send him a link to this thread.
 
gordo9742000 said:
Already talked to tech and was told that my numbers were not accurate. I confirmed all numbers with several different thermometers and all are within 1-2 degrees of each other.

I`m aware of and read a lot of Englander problems and solutions / fixes by their techs but I never realized a thermometer was used or was a part of any of them.
What do your thermometer numbers ( accurate or not) have to do with the solution to the problem?
Are you saying he offered no attempt to solve the problem , and that he only dissagreed with your thermometer readings?
 
Here`s a new thread with the same complaint , only with a top rated Harman . I`m not saying the same cause but it`s worth thinking about.
BTW, I hope you aren`t saying your stove is installed in an unfinished basement .

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/48385/
 
I am not saying that the thermometers are the solutions but they do let me know there is a problem and when it is fixed. I gather from what you are saying is that I dont have a problem as long as I am burning pellets completely and cleanly. Is that correct?
Also can you enlighten me as far as being in an unfinished is a bad thing. That confuses me.
 
gordo9742000 said:
I am not saying that the thermometers are the solutions but they do let me know there is a problem and when it is fixed. I gather from what you are saying is that I dont have a problem as long as I am burning pellets completely and cleanly. Is that correct?
Also can you enlighten me as far as being in an unfinished is a bad thing. That confuses me.
Well, it`s not a good thing .
The point is if you have a pellet stove in an unfinished basement the concrete walls and floors will suck up just about all the heat that stove is capable of putting out.
 
We tried to use a P-stove to heat an enclosed, but uninsulated foundation to a high enough level to cure concrete. At 22 °F out side we got it to 32 °F . The basement did not go below the frost line, so we never poured until after it thawed in the Spring. That my friend is what you are trying to do, in a nut shell.
 
Man, I wish this post would go away!!! Every time I read the title, I think you're talking about my wife. :cheese: I hope she never reads this..............
 
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