englander 25pvd troubles

[MadMax31]

I have the PDVC, and I shut it off around 11 last night. My house was 78, and we've had the house at 64 burning propain all winter. I hope I can run it on dead low heat, otherwise it might be relocated to basement....

Give it at least an hour to see how heat output is. Plenty of steel to suck up the heat...

 

[jeremygrimm]

I put min in the basement. 1480 sqft basement with 8 foot to the rafters. We are down to 1 wall needing insulated and the floor still needs carpet and it will be finished. on 5-9 last night I got the basement to 66.9 with all that cold floor and 1-40 foot wall uninsulated yet. It got to -3 last Night so I'm happy my furnace ran much less.

I'm going to hook it up to a tstast. But I'm thinking of the best way yo make the wire look professional. Maybe run some seal tie to a box in the wall and connect it to the back of the unit.

 

[MadMax31]

seal tight not out doors or on a piece of equipment looks like crap. Wire Mold, or the plastic variant look much nicer. Easy to work with and different colors too.

 

[jeremygrimm]

Thanks. I forgot about wire mold.. I'm an industrial electrician and we rarely use stuff like that. We are steel mill people.. that's all we work with.

On this unit. Let's say I'm running 5-9. Will there be fire in the box at all times or will there run a point where the fire will die down because it's hot enough. I thought I had a jammed auger and and I noticed this tapping and the fire went out. After a couple minutes the fire flamed back up and all was good again. I'm still new to all this so I'm not sure how it all works.

 

[jeremygrimm]

Basically does the controller tell the auger to stop when it reaches a certain temp.

 

[Beaudeen]

Basically does the controller tell the auger to stop when it reaches a certain temp.

Augers will always rotate at the set feed speed..will not change at certain temp unless you hook it up to a thermostat.

The flame will go down if a longer pellet jams the auger, but it will chew it down and then feed smoothly again. Make sure you clean the carbon off the auger throat. The auger will make a clicking noise when it comes in contact with the build up.

 

[jeremygrimm]

Ok. That's what the tapping noise was then. And that tapping noise is it working to get unclogged.. these pellets are bad I'm guessing. Pennington from walmarT. Heading to lowes now to get another 10 bags. It's 10 ouside and my furnace hasn't run yet that I have heard. The pellet burner is heating almost 2900 sqft and doing it At 10 degrees weather. I'm pumped with my result. I'll let you know what pellets I'm picking up

 

[jeremygrimm]

What's the best way to clean the carbon? I plan on pulling both augers this spring and doing a very thorough cleaning on everything. Until then how do I clean the throat (I'm assuming the throat is the hole the lower auger fits into.

 

[ohbix]

Hey JG, where do you get your pellets? I live near Malvern, but don't know of any Wal Marts or Lowes which carry pellets.

 

[ericofmaine]

What's the best way to clean the carbon? I plan on pulling both augers this spring and doing a very thorough cleaning on everything. Until then how do I clean the throat (I'm assuming the throat is the hole the lower auger fits into.

I just use a flat blade screw driver and work it around. Make sure you get the auger, the auger tube, the back wall of the fire pot and the burn plate as well.

Eric

 

[jeremygrimm]

Ohbix. Walmart in massillion had those penningtons. And I went today to lowes in alliance and grabbed 10 bags of these.

 

[jeremygrimm]

When I shut down should I try to clean the top auger as well?

 

[Beaudeen]

Just the auger tube at the burn pot. It builds up at the bottom. I've never had an auger out in 6 years of running it.

I've never touched the top auger...just vacuum it out through the hopper once a year.

 

[jeremygrimm]

Thanks. Will do

 

[jeremygrimm]

Man. I'm defiantly cleaning it tomorrow. It's clogging a lot. Of course I'm running it as hard as I can in this -8 degree weather so that might be a cause for the plug up

 

[jeremygrimm]

Ok. I got all the carbon off the auger and the rim around it.. I think I'm going to find a dremel tool that will easily take it off and not grind the steel. It was a pain in the arse. I'm burning these hardwood pellets and the ash is real hard and clumpy. I tried to get some softwood ones but there is a shortage here and everywhere has a list...

 

[jeremygrimm]

Hey. Im back with what I think is a problem. It doesn't appear my pellets are burning entirely. I have to clean at least once a day and a lot of the pellets are not burned all the way. In fact. I waited 8 hours after shut down and still had hot embers in there. What could be wrong? I'm wondering if the front glass is leaking a little. I noticed it seemed loose and the seal isn't tight up against the glass. What else could it be?

 

[redblur00]

I must have the upgrade to urs mine is a 25-pdvc/55-shp10 built in 2007 has 2vac switches and an igniter. That tapping noise u hear is the metal contracting or expanding with temperature. Mine does it to. Unburned pellets are clinkers iI noticed the higher mine is the worse the ash is but never clinkers. I clean it religiously especially behind the burn plate down in the is tons of fine ash I blow out with compressor I can't get vac in thr stupid design. Almost all winter mine runs at 3 and 9 on mode b iI believe. Bout 1 bad a day in basement small 2 story house no insulation. My board is screwed so can't do a reset on it the 3rd number the 1 don't light up and button dont work. Englander said if works let it rip been fine all yr. I got Pennington's now not bad not great. I like the instant heats or barefoot but home depot has green supremes which work nice. In my stove I stay mostly hardwood the few softwood I've tried have to much dust in bag.

 

[jeremygrimm]

Ok. Thanks for the input. Maybe I should switch it back to d mode and see if that helps with the ash. I'll post a pic of it here when I get home.. I originally thought I had it on d mode but when I went to switch it, it was on a mode. I've never ran it on d mode. Maybe I'll try that and see how it runs since that's the standaRd mode. When I ran those pennington I ran it on a mode and got a nice fine white ash. Come to think of it I've had this problem ever since I switched to c mode. I'll bet that's my problem. I'm on midnights and the wife shut it down last night before she went to bed, so I'm going to sweep it out and clean that back plate real good and give her a shot on d mode for a couple bags and see what happens. I just had to buy a new board and this is my 1st winter running It.

 

[redblur00]

I forget which mode I'm on I remember Englander said to put it back to I guess d but it runs better 1 off. U sound like me I was on 3rd shift now 2nd its rough 3rd I loved. My buddy has a similar stove but gets clinkers in his but he doesn't clean it right at all. The thing I noticed with these is all things gota be perfect no vacuum leaks and clean clean clean. The cleaner the better the burn.

 

[jeremygrimm]

I had a vacuum leak. The glass was leaking air. I'll need to get new seals in the spring. This thing ran heavy for 10 years with barely any maintenence. I just got it. Put the chimney in, and fired it up. Once the weather breaks I'm really digging in. I'm ordering new combustion gaskets, cleaning everythibg. I just ordered 50 wire brushes for my dremel. I'm hoping that can take the carbon off in the nooks and crannies. I switched it to d and I'll let you know. I was burning lignetics and after 1 bag I was getting about 3 handfuls of clinkers. I switched to d, and redid the glass gasket and I can see already things are better. I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh and it's worse.. I work swing shift. Finished nights this morning.. go back to days on monday.

 

[jeremygrimm]

It's been running 6 hours on d now and things appear much better. Before I had clinkers piling up against the glass wI thin 2 hours. After 6 now I can still see the burn plate and the front glass is stating much cleaner. I defiantly need new glass seals.

 

[Dr.Faustus]

that tapping sound.... watch the auger motors with the back of the stove off. this happened to me. I thought it was carbon on the mouth of the auger chute. it wasnt. I couldnt figure it out until the problem stopped the stove. Everyone once in a while, the auger lifts itself up when it meets resistance. when it muscles through, it falls back down on its little metal shelf. thats the tapping sound. over 2 years that tapping put a hole in the case of my bottom auger and started an indentation in my top auger.

Solution is to take a piece of flat gasket and hi temp gasket adhesive and glue it to the shelf the auger motor rests on. now it falls on the soft gasket material vs hitting another metal part.

 

[redblur00]

Wow that is bad I never had the ash hit the glass. Mine had corn in it when I bought it lol guy never cleaned it. I was guna buy a Harmon this yr but I think I'll just overhaul it real good grind it repaint it. My vac hoses were stiff and crumbled when I bought it. Englanders prices for shipping is nuts. I got 3ft on eBay of high temp silicone auto hose 2 bucks free shipping works great for 3 ft.

 

[jeremygrimm]

Ok. Yeah. I still have an issue. I need to take stuff apart, clean it and buy new glass gasket.