Englander Burn Pot Build Up

[nick123]

accamer..

Thanks for your info..I have implemented most of what you said. I keep a pretty rigorous cleaning schedule as well as utilize the leaf blower trick at least once a month. One thing that did stand out in your info was the pellet feed plate. Mine is wide open, I never considered closing that down a bit to see what would happen. My only concern with that is it would put out less heat. The bottom three settings only affect the burn/feed/air on levels 1-3. I general burn New Englands during the shoulder and Press to Logs during the cold of deep winter. I may try closing down the feed plate a bit during my next full shutdown and post the results here. My stove really cranks out some heat and i'm so thankful for that.

 

[shawnfire]

O.K follow up glass was soot ash covered again this morning Lid it tight, I tighten the burn pot also about 4 turns, will replace the gasket tomorrow and do a full clean. I also went down stairs and checked to see what xtra blower I had it is a exhaust blower (came with the stove when I bought it from a friend) Might replace that as well. Flame to be better after tightening the burn pot will see when i get home how it looks. It was 7 dg out this morning and the house was 69 dg on lvl 3 so still not complaining..... Just want it to run to the best of it's ability......I hope all my trail and errors help others...

 

[DrewBoogie]

Check your manuals, I have a Summers Heat that's made by Englander and an OAK is mandatory. I have the same build up in my pot but the house is hot. I think this is the design of the stove since the pellets don't drop into the pot like a lot of stoves. There doesn't seem to be a lot of tuning that is going to get rid of this, at least there isn't a thread on here with step by step directions. A few people are modifying their burn pot and one guy build a completely new one and put a damper in his intake.

 

[shawnfire]

saw that (new burn pots), thanks.... might be the the wear plate not allowing ash to drop and the more it fills up the worse the flame is..not sure but trying LOL

 

[DrewBoogie]

This is my build up after a day running soft wood pellets on 9 to bring the house up to temp

 

[DrewBoogie]

I'm on my phone so I'm not sure if that uploaded right

 

[shawnfire]

nope it did not LOL

 

[DrewBoogie]

 

[shawnfire]

Wow on soft woods???? mine is more gray crust but about the same amount after 12 hrs on hardwood pellets

 

[shawnfire]

I do have a Oak also

 

[CTmedic]

I am having the same issue that the OP is having. I have to scoop the burnpot about twice a day. Mine is a basement dweller and running at 4-9 with temps about 25 this morning and the entire house was about 65. My 3 lower setting are 6-4-1 (Factory). I have the restrictor plate in the hopper set at about 50% and using Green Supreme Hardwood Blend Pellets. Yes not the best but I am getting good heat. I have a 2" to 4" metal dryer vent hose connected for my OAK and 3" venting. Everything was cleaned and new gaskets for the door, burn pot and fans replaced when I bought the stove.

From what I am reading it seems the "Scoop x2 a day" seems pretty routine for this Stove I have the 25-PDV also. I have a 2nd modified wear plate however the original plate seems to work the best. However I still get that heavy buildup after about 9-10 hours but my glass stays pretty clean and my fire seems fine except when there is a huge buildup.

 

[apandori]

How do you adjust those lower settings?

 

[bogieb]

Doesn't matter if its a Harman or an Englander. A good burn is a good burn and can be accomplished in any stove. And yeah I like to show off my Harman

Love the nice crisp flame of the Harman. Now if I could just get the St. Croix there (more cleaning to do this weekend on some of the hidden spots - the stove's, not mine - LOL)

 

[shawnfire]

apandori if asking about the magical 3 buttons just push them one at a time and adjust each one I am at 5-5-1 my go 6-4-1 and see what happens... also confirmed I am in d mode the other day

 

[DrewBoogie]

How do you check mode?

Thanks for explaining how to do the lower buttons too shawnfire

 

[DrewBoogie]

I will scoop the pot once a day too. How are you guys doing it? I shut the stove off, as soon as the flame dies, I scoop the pot out and then hit the start button. It only takes like 10 minutes tops and you don't lose all your heat like you do on a full shutdown. I'm too nervous to open the door when the flame is kicking an the stove still running.

 

[Chrisnow86]

Google search it, you will find links to this forum about switching the mode. its easy only takes a couple.. i switched mine do mode C and it was a different animal

 

[Chrisnow86]

I will scoop the pot once a day too. How are you guys doing it? I shut the stove off, as soon as the flame dies, I scoop the pot out and then hit the start button. It only takes like 10 minutes tops and you don't lose all your heat like you do on a full shutdown. I'm too nervous to open the door when the flame is kicking an the stove still running.

i just do it a few times a day, once when i get home from work, once before bed, and once when i get up in the AM.. i never shut the stove off i just do it while its running

 

[PoopieBritches]

I just picked up a used Englander 25-PDV for my shop, and am curious about the Burn Pot build up. After about 8hrs of burning the pot is filled and the fire is burning at the back of the pot near the auger. I have tried 3 different brands of pellets, all with the same results, so I am assuming there is something I need to adjust or clean to fix this. The stove was manufactured in 2003, and the three lower buttons are set to 6-4-1.
I have 2 of the smaller PDVC versions of this stove (same burn pot). One has always burned much cleaner than the other. Not as much buildup as you're getting, but similar.
Assuming you have stayed within the venting recommendations, you surely have an air leak, or the air is bypassing the burn pot.
After cleaning and cleaning, replacing all gaskets, I still had a lazy burn that would inevitably result in excessive ash build up (as well as unburned pellets, which you have)
What I discovered was that the air was flowing around the wear plate. I thought it seemed to sit flat enough (no wobble or rattling), but after switching wear plates between the 2 stoves, that's what made the difference.
Rather than buying a new wear plate(I'm broke and cheap), I put a bead of high temp silicone around the lip of the burn pot where the plate sets.
Has made a big improvement in my stove. Obviously, whenever I need to remove the plate, the silicone has to be cleaned off, and new reapplied.
As far as settings, I don't believe that's what's causing such buildup, not that much anyway.
Your settings of 6_4_1 are close enough to achieve a decent burn, I have not found the settings to make THAT big of a difference.

 

[PoopieBritches]

I just picked up a used Englander 25-PDV for my shop, and am curious about the Burn Pot build up. After about 8hrs of burning the pot is filled and the fire is burning at the back of the pot near the auger. I have tried 3 different brands of pellets, all with the same results, so I am assuming there is something I need to adjust or clean to fix this. The stove was manufactured in 2003, and the three lower buttons are set to 6-4-1.

 

[PoopieBritches]

Sorry folks, I'm an idiot, hopefully this posts correctly.
I have 2 of the smaller PDVC versions of this stove (same burn pot). One has always burned much cleaner than the other. Not as much buildup as you're getting, but similar.
Assuming you have stayed within the venting recommendations, you surely have an air leak, or the air is bypassing the burn pot.
After cleaning and cleaning, replacing all gaskets, I still had a lazy burn that would inevitably result in excessive ash build up (as well as unburned pellets, which you have)
What I discovered was that the air was flowing around the wear plate. I thought it seemed to sit flat enough (no wobble or rattling), but after switching wear plates between the 2 stoves, that's what made the difference.
Rather than buying a new wear plate(I'm broke and cheap), I put a bead of high temp silicone around the lip of the burn pot where the plate sets.
Has made a big improvement in my stove. Obviously, whenever I need to remove the plate, the silicone has to be cleaned off, and new reapplied.
As far as settings, I don't believe that's what's causing such buildup, not that much anyway.
Your settings of 6_4_1 are close enough to achieve a decent burn, I have not found the settings to make THAT big of a difference.

 

[shawnfire]

mode check unplug the unit once cool down. plug back in hit the up and down arrow on the blower motor at the same time and it should read ... in the first box... took me a few times of trying this to make it work

 

[HD41]

Sorry folks, I'm an idiot, hopefully this posts correctly.
I have 2 of the smaller PDVC versions of this stove (same burn pot). One has always burned much cleaner than the other. Not as much buildup as you're getting, but similar.
Assuming you have stayed within the venting recommendations, you surely have an air leak, or the air is bypassing the burn pot.
After cleaning and cleaning, replacing all gaskets, I still had a lazy burn that would inevitably result in excessive ash build up (as well as unburned pellets, which you have)
What I discovered was that the air was flowing around the wear plate. I thought it seemed to sit flat enough (no wobble or rattling), but after switching wear plates between the 2 stoves, that's what made the difference.
Rather than buying a new wear plate(I'm broke and cheap), I put a bead of high temp silicone around the lip of the burn pot where the plate sets.
Has made a big improvement in my stove. Obviously, whenever I need to remove the plate, the silicone has to be cleaned off, and new reapplied.
As far as settings, I don't believe that's what's causing such buildup, not that much anyway.
Your settings of 6_4_1 are close enough to achieve a decent burn, I have not found the settings to make THAT big of a difference.

I had problems with pellets not burning completely and first blamed the different pellets I bought (not my first choice). Stove had been working OK with Somerset pellets so I thought the stove was clean enough. I put a restrictor plate on the burn pot which helped but this turned into a glowing mass that filled the burn pot and spilled over after about 5 hours. Decided to do a thorough cleanout but did notice the burn plate was not seated and had a gap at the front being held up by ash.

To test if this gap was the cause, I placed a nail under the burn plate and buildup of glowing, semi-burned pellets began advancing toward the edge of the burn pot. I didn't have to remove any ash I merely removed the nail to close the gap and the glowing mass receded and turned into light ash within an hour. The cleaning corrected the problem but the gap at the burn plate was apparently the prime cause.


With nail under the burn plate ----------- Buildup of Glowing Unburnt Pellets --- Half hour after nail removed

 

[Harvey Schneider]

Pellets should not be pileing up like that.
The first thing I would check is that the control board is operating in the right mode.
There are lots of threads on this forum that discuss checking the operating mode, doing a control board reset and setting the operating mode. I believe that your stove should be in mode "C".
Once you are sure the board is in the right mode, check to see if there is a choke plate at the bottom of the hopper. You can reduce the pellet feed rate (coarse adjustment) by closing off the passage to the upper auger with that choke plate.

 

[apandori]

Set the air feed to 3. Seems to be more torch like and covering the whole burnpot. Could my OAK be feeding too much air? Didn't like pellet feed setting at 5. I'm going to try to change the mode tomorrow probably just to see if that does anything