England 25-PDV Issues

[Gixx1380]

Have searched for an answer on the threads nothing seems to quite fit. Purchased this stove at Lowe's on clearance end of season last year. Got it installed and got to burn once, top auger failed. England replaced under warranty, difficult to connect with them , I work the hours they are open and they want you to be near the stove. Moving on, this season burned two bags flawlessly, now won't keep pellets in the pot for continued burn. Have cleaned, checked the vacuum switches, tested power to the auger, bottom runs at 120v and the upper dosen't seem to be recieving power, I understand it would be intermittent because of this being a part time auger. Getting very frustrated and out of ideas

 

[Pellet rick]

do you know what your bottom 3 numbers are set at as well as what mode letter you are in to start with first?

 

[Gixx1380]

Factory settings on the bottom numbers , not sure what you mean by start up letters except it shows S U


Went on line, now understand c or d mode, but I am at work and can't answer that at this moment.
But I don't believe it has changed from factory.

 

[Pellet rick]

Being in either C or D mode would not make it run out of pellets but I am just trying to establish a base line as to ware your stove is set at. Now if your bottom 3 numbers are set to low then it would defitly run out of pellets. But it would also not be putting out any heat either. How soon after it is lit does it run out of pellets or stop feeding?Maybe the pellets you are using are on e the bigger size so it could be as simple as opening up the trap door in the bottom of the hopper some more . Basicly they bridge over the opening of the trap door in the bottom of the hopper and do not let the pellets fall into the top auger. Thus letting the flame burn out.

 

[Gixx1380]

Still can't answer the mode, but stove ran 12 hours great, ran out of pellets overnight.
cleaned out the burn post refilled with pellets, same brand, tried to relight. wouldn't feed through the bottom auger. I Rattled the top auger motor by hand. (have the back off because of all the problems) and some pellets come through, if you do this the bottom auger gets loaded and the stove will run until the auger runs out again, you can lather ,rinse, repeat and it will burn, however the top auger will not turn on it's own. have put a voltmeter on the connections of both augers. top 120v bottom -001 to -002 held for a bit because I knew it was a part time auger.


Oh, the plate in the hopper is about 1/4" from wide open. If wide open the top auger got jammed and had to be removed and cleaned. On one of the times the top auger has been removed, I cleaned and buffed the casting to get of the casting lines and made sure it turned freely in the tube by hand.

 

[Pellet rick]

If it was me I would pull the top motor of and empty the hopper. Then check the top auger by hand to see if it spins freely by hand. If it does not take it apart and clean it out or readjust it in the bearing housung until it spins freely by hand. If it spun freely when checking it first then I would swap the top motor with the bottom motor and retry. They are extcly the same motors. I do know from experiece that it does not take much saw dust to jamb the top auger. I actuly need to vacume my pellets sometimes depending on how dusty they are coming out of the bags or it will jamb up the auger and i need to tear it apart to clear it.

 

[Ssyko]

I just sold a 25PDV that was temperamental to the fines in the bag. Did your pellets have a lot of fines/sawdust? I changed brands very little fines,and its burning well in the new owners shop.

 

[Gixx1380]

Well let's see, where to start. First thank you for all of the ideas and thoughts, if I hadn't gone full "Special" It would have been easier. After the question about what mode it was in I decided to look, (you know when the car won't start, you check for a bad motor, rear end, etc. and never check the gas) well that was me. In checking the setting I was working with it was discovered that the LFF was NOT at 6 like I thought and was instead setting on 1. Which is not enough to support a candle flame let alone a pellet stove. No idea how that happened but it is now on 5, after burning for a while 6 seemed to high and was burying the flame. So, at this time, (fingers crossed and prayers said) all appears to be well. I suppose the thing to take from this is always be sure of the basics first. Again thank you all for the help.

 

[Pellet rick]

Good news glad to hear it. These stoves are very simple unlike some of the more expensive one's. The down side is the burn pot issue's with lava pile up and contiuely needing to break it up and scape it out to keep a good flame going. Do yourself a favor and do a search on Burn pot mods for the PDV 25 . It helps with these issues a lot. In my experience they also love soft wood pellets the best to.

 

[Gixx1380]

Good news glad to hear it. These stoves are very simple unlike some of the more expensive one's. The down side is the burn pot issue's with lava pile up and contiuely needing to break it up and scape it out to keep a good flame going. Do yourself a favor and do a search on Burn pot mods for the PDV 25 . It helps with these issues a lot. In my experience they also love soft wood pellets the best to.

Will do, thanks

 

[Gixx1380]

Okay, Spoke too soon, stove out again, E-2 code, no pellets in lower auger, top auger will turn if you do it by hand, feel like I'm right back where I started. I am really seeing no option other than a control panel with an intermittent issue of some type. In Start up mode bottom auger turning air switches working, Settings at 6-4-1 watched the top auger for 5 minutes, it never moved under it's own power. Calling support tomorrow. Have a great night , If I get a result I will post it.

 

[Pellet rick]

Did you try switching top motor for bottom motor

 

[Gixx1380]

I have not this go round, I understand that a lot of people do, but usually when testing an auger. I have run the auger on a test cord and it works fine. This go round I have been attaching a multimeter to the leads while connected and disconnected, while the stove is running (attempting to) and not reading power from the stove to operate the auger.

This is super frustrating, and the reason I feel it's a bad board is it's so sporadic, it will work exactly as it should and then stop just as suddenly.

And Rick I do appreciate your continuing help with this.

 

[Pellet rick]

Just a thought here but did you talk to Lowes about a return? you stated you just bought it the end oof last season.

 

[Gixx1380]

Just a thought here but did you talk to Lowes about a return? you stated you just bought it the end oof last season.

That may be my next step, I've really been trying to avoid pulling the thing out of the house and loading it......

 

[Pellet rick]

I would . If you need a control board they are not cheap.

 

[Gixx1380]

True enough

 

[Gixx1380]

Okay, little props to England stove works. After explaining a lot and telling them what has been tried, they are shipping a new control board. Still in the warranty period. Hopefully everything goes well.



Board arrived on Friday, Got it installed and lit the stove. Burned well, set on 4-2 about cooked us out of the house, let it run all night on that setting (wanted to see how it would do)
the next morning when I got up the blower was on, the stove was hot (read still warm) and the flame was out. opened the hopper, pellets gone. So in 11 hours it burned thru almost 40 pounds of pellets, and left a pretty good ash pile. so we are functional and now needing to tune I believe. 40 pounds in 11 hours seems a bit much, I will try to turn down some settings but for this burn I wanted to be sure it was actually going to function on its own and left it on factory settings.

 

[Pellet rick]

Nice fingers crossed. Let us know how you make out

 

[Gixx1380]

Nice fingers crossed. Let us know how you make out

Got the parts, posted the results. Not tuned right yet, but looking good. Thanks

 

[blades]

Get a very good surge protector on that power line to the stove- a decent unit is not cheap and should cover all 3 lines . Price wise it will be in the $200 or more class. Most of the stuff at the local box stores are a waste of money, as they do not addres feed back loops from ground to neutral. Not all homes are wired with and independent Earth ground ( which is a standard now).

 

[Pellet rick]

What do you mean by 4-2? fuel at 4 and blower at 2 ? if so blower should always be at least one number higher than the fuel number. As far as fuel consumption you are not to far of for basically a 12 hour burn.

 

[Gixx1380]

Well, that's exactly what I was doing, had that backwards. That was a guess on my part because of the stove coming on with the heat higher than the blower setting. Thought it was supposed to be that way. Lol, this is why we have the meetings.

 

[Pellet rick]

Yea these stove actually use the room blowers to keep the stove from over heating. kinda strange but it is what it is. lol. If your fuel is set at 2 then what are your bottom 3 button's set at. 40 lb seems a little much now

 

[Gixx1380]

Yea these stove actually use the room blowers to keep the stove from over heating. kinda strange but it is what it is. lol. If your fuel is set at 2 then what are your bottom 3 button's set at. 40 lb seems a little much now

Bottom buttons are at 6 LFF 4 LBA 1 AOT was burning at Heat range 4 and blower 2, I really thought that the blower speed needed to be below the heat range, (no real reason noobie error). when the stove came on that's where the setting was, it was burning , and I let it be.
Now that I know it works, I want to get it working for me. I.E. as clean as it should be with the right burn. Trouble with that is I only know what I have read and for the most part with exceptions, a lot of opinion. Also with this particular unit acting the fool since day one, and never burning pellet before. I had no base line of expectations, I can repair anything I understand, but repair and fine tuning are two different things all together, especially when you have no idea of a correct result. Again Noobie.