I have an Englander 25PDVC that's now 4 years old, and was having issues early on with the stove not burning correctly. Some of the issues i was experiencing was Lazy Flame, extremely fast glass residue, high content of ash compared to past years, burnpot filled up with ash quickly.
First off, Here is the maintenance schedule i follow:
1. Every other day, i do a quick shop vac of all ash in the burn pot, and stove where we dump the ash. I wipe the window clean of residue.
2. Once a week, i scrape the auger tip and auger tube of any buildup. i scrape the burn pot as well. I use a paintbrush and brush down all fly ash from interior of the stove.
3. Once a month, i vacuum behind the impingement plate, and clear out the outside vent can of any ash.
After some searching through the advice of articles posted on this forum, Here are a few things that i have since tried.
First, from the outside, i cleaned the outside vent pipe, and used a shop vac to get most of the ash in the pipe out all the way to the stove. Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad.very little ash in the pipe that extends from the stove through the wall.
Second, i did a thorough cleaning behind the plate, and vacuumed all that out. Used a paint brushto brush as much dust as possible out from the back.
Doing those two things did very little improvement. After more research, i found an article about testing your pellets for moisture, thinking that could be the issue.
There was sweat on the plate when i microwaved them, however not enough to think that moisture was the issue.. Just very little beads of moisture. so i think my pellets are fine.
Finally, i found an article about REALLY getting behind the impingement plate, and attaching a garden hose to the vacuum, and sucking out as much ash as possible, citing a possible heat exchanger blockage.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/72190/
This did wonders. My fire is burning much better, the flame is dancing again. it seemed to really have done the trick for short burns..
So here is my issue now: I still think my pellets might be feeding to fast, and i say that because after about 4-6 hours of a great burn, the fire tends to get lazy, and it shoots forward, essentially bouncing off the glass as if there's too much unburned fuel in the pot that accumulates over time; this causes the glass to build up a white residue at first, then essentially a black one to follow. The stove setting is typically kept on 4-4, or 5-5. i tend not to use the lower settings.
Inside hopper, there is a plate that can be adjusted, and i have it set to be as closed as possible.
My control settings on the stove are currently set to : 4 - 8 - 4.
i believe i was told a while back that those numbers are only for settings 3 and below, so they don't matter at the higher settings.
Is there anything i am missing? do the control panel settings matter on the higher fan speeds, and do they look correct. i haven't intentionally changed them since in owned the stove, but there's no guarantee i didn't. sometime i reach down accidentally push the wrong buttons.
I guess i can set the feed and fan settings to be different, but the manual doesnt' recommend this either.
Thanks for your help. i am taking some video of my flame and hope to post that up as well.
First off, Here is the maintenance schedule i follow:
1. Every other day, i do a quick shop vac of all ash in the burn pot, and stove where we dump the ash. I wipe the window clean of residue.
2. Once a week, i scrape the auger tip and auger tube of any buildup. i scrape the burn pot as well. I use a paintbrush and brush down all fly ash from interior of the stove.
3. Once a month, i vacuum behind the impingement plate, and clear out the outside vent can of any ash.
After some searching through the advice of articles posted on this forum, Here are a few things that i have since tried.
First, from the outside, i cleaned the outside vent pipe, and used a shop vac to get most of the ash in the pipe out all the way to the stove. Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad.very little ash in the pipe that extends from the stove through the wall.
Second, i did a thorough cleaning behind the plate, and vacuumed all that out. Used a paint brushto brush as much dust as possible out from the back.
Doing those two things did very little improvement. After more research, i found an article about testing your pellets for moisture, thinking that could be the issue.
There was sweat on the plate when i microwaved them, however not enough to think that moisture was the issue.. Just very little beads of moisture. so i think my pellets are fine.
Finally, i found an article about REALLY getting behind the impingement plate, and attaching a garden hose to the vacuum, and sucking out as much ash as possible, citing a possible heat exchanger blockage.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/72190/
This did wonders. My fire is burning much better, the flame is dancing again. it seemed to really have done the trick for short burns..
So here is my issue now: I still think my pellets might be feeding to fast, and i say that because after about 4-6 hours of a great burn, the fire tends to get lazy, and it shoots forward, essentially bouncing off the glass as if there's too much unburned fuel in the pot that accumulates over time; this causes the glass to build up a white residue at first, then essentially a black one to follow. The stove setting is typically kept on 4-4, or 5-5. i tend not to use the lower settings.
Inside hopper, there is a plate that can be adjusted, and i have it set to be as closed as possible.
My control settings on the stove are currently set to : 4 - 8 - 4.
i believe i was told a while back that those numbers are only for settings 3 and below, so they don't matter at the higher settings.
Is there anything i am missing? do the control panel settings matter on the higher fan speeds, and do they look correct. i haven't intentionally changed them since in owned the stove, but there's no guarantee i didn't. sometime i reach down accidentally push the wrong buttons.
I guess i can set the feed and fan settings to be different, but the manual doesnt' recommend this either.
Thanks for your help. i am taking some video of my flame and hope to post that up as well.
