It was the coldest night of the year and my year-old Austroflamm (Rika) Integra II nightmare continued. It ran fine for 8-12 hours before malfunctioning. The stove shut down both blowers, permitting the fire to die prior to restarting the blowers and filling the burn pot (and pellet feed tube) with pellets... The pellets began to smoke (but not light) and the blowers shut off again. The house filled with smoked before the blowers resumed functioning (erratically). Once this happened, the blowers jump around between high, low and off, sometimes accompanied by with a deep motor straining noise when the blower shuts down. After I shut the unit down and it unit cools off, it runs normally again for another half a day.
Yesterday, after waiting fifteen (15) days for warranty service to fix the issue, I paid $90 for a service call to adjust the hopper lid switch (???). The stove's warranty has been useless, since the shop shop won't replace the suspected main board out of fear that the Distributor will not reimburse for the repair if the board tests OK later. So I have more than a half dozen videos over the past two weeks showing the stove malfunctioning, but can't get parts replaced until "they are sure what it is". The Distributor hasn't seen anything like this before and the stove shop is guessing based on limited experience with these units. Its especially frustrating since the malfunctions are intermittent and I can't seem to get it to malfunction when someone is here. Once the stove begins malfunctioning, I have to turn it off (though I've been told there's no danger of a house fire, the excessive smoke may not be good for the 4 & 5 year old children living in the house).
My patience has worn out and I regret this $4100 investment.
Ed
Yesterday, after waiting fifteen (15) days for warranty service to fix the issue, I paid $90 for a service call to adjust the hopper lid switch (???). The stove's warranty has been useless, since the shop shop won't replace the suspected main board out of fear that the Distributor will not reimburse for the repair if the board tests OK later. So I have more than a half dozen videos over the past two weeks showing the stove malfunctioning, but can't get parts replaced until "they are sure what it is". The Distributor hasn't seen anything like this before and the stove shop is guessing based on limited experience with these units. Its especially frustrating since the malfunctions are intermittent and I can't seem to get it to malfunction when someone is here. Once the stove begins malfunctioning, I have to turn it off (though I've been told there's no danger of a house fire, the excessive smoke may not be good for the 4 & 5 year old children living in the house).
My patience has worn out and I regret this $4100 investment.
Ed