FINALLY This afternoon was delightful outside, so I decided to get after the little Whitfield we got as a spare back several months ago. I have done extensive reworking of the little beast and finally got some good enough weather to do a test burn. Rolled it outside and finished bolting things back together and lit a fire in it to test things out. Aside from needing a new fire back (Bought a new one for ours in the house and tried to salvage the old one for this stove, ahhhh did not end well as the old one broke taking it out) Will get a new one before placing the stove in long term storage. We all sat around and enjoyed it as a patio heater this afternoon. I think the pellets in it were a tad stale as they did not burn super good, but well enough to see that all was well with the "WEE STOVE" Even got a piccy with the Weee car in the background too. Really pleased with how well the little unit works. The factory control panel is a tad sketchy as the heat selector knob was gone and the selector does not CLICK into the various notches well. But overall worked great. My new controller will be a fantastic upgrade for the P2 And a good time was had by all. Got the tools picked up and the stove cooled off and put away as the rain is about to start any time now.
Nope, not at all. I wish this one had been a year or two newer, but beggars can't be too choosy. This is only the second one of these I have ever seen in the real world. Seen a few junkers on ebay for parts, but never see them used. Now, once the weather gets nicer longer it will be time to rip the outer sheet metal back off and strip it and repaint it. Once it's done it will go into long term storage sitting under my 50 inch screen in my computer room as a table to sit the printer on. What a job for a little pellet stove to do eh
Next comes the refit of it's big brother. The Advantage 2 T is sitting in the basement too, waiting for me to finish rebuilding it. Plenty of spares
Figured out the issue. The early P2 had a slightly different burn grate and pot assembly then the newer ones and a while back I scared up a upgrade kit for the P2 The original setup had an auxiliary air feed tube that fed off the back wall of the firebox and fed air in over the front of the burn grate to assist in combustion. The stove had been partially modified before we bought it, and the auxiliary tube removed and the holes in the firebox plugged (not neatly either) This afternoon I clean our little P2 upstairs and noticed that the grate had much larger air holes in it than the project stove does. Hmmmmm I dug out the refit kit and oh my, there are several changes that were made. The air feed tube is welded to the back of the pot and has a hole that lets air in under the grate and the updated unit is far larger and the grate has far bigger holes than the old one. This restriction would explain why the fire was acting weird and also why the pellets did not burn up readily when the stove was set above #1 setting. Here are some pix Notice the size of the hole feeding the grate at the bottom wall. Also the size and number of air holes in the grate itself. I am going to drop the new one in and see how it works. Good bet things will be far better. The large air hole is about half again bigger
More testing and some final refitting. Installed the new pot and grate and lit it off. SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET, ran perfectly. Cooled it off and then made up a little spreader bar and bolted it to the back flange of the grate to scatter the shells across the fire. Emptied the hopper of pellets and filled with shells. Lit the fire again and let it rip. Took a bit of tweaking on the feed and other adjustments to get things in the groove. (Somebody had really tweaked things a lot from factory settings) A few pics taken during the process. The beast runs very nice. All is well. It is ready for long term storage after I get it painted. (At least the top sheet metal)
Here are my 2 new to me Englander twins! 25-PDVC The 04 & 08 The 04 was outperferforming the 08 because it did not have a blocking plate in the hopper over the auger chute. So I removed it on the 08 and now they run good.