Ravelli RV80 blower problem

[Pelleting In NJ]

The exhaust fan in my Ecoteck / Ravelli Elena looks like this :

 

[Lake Girl]

Set screw between blade and housing cover?

 

[Monica in France]

Pelleting in NJ : That looks like my replacement fan - is that a nut in the middle holding the blade in place ?
Lake Girl : You could well be right : but not with the force I've dared to use up to now !

I'm hoping someone will recognise the 'extra' ring in the middle and tell me what it is.
I suspect its a form of Woodruff key / wedge as I can feel a 'flat' on the actual axle with a very small screwdriver.

 

[Lake Girl]

IIRC, there is a nut holding the blade on the "replacement". What year is your stove? Must be an earlier version...

 

[Monica in France]

No idea.
I've had it for 3 seasons now.
The first owner for 5 or 6.
But I think it was standing around for a long time before that. In a depot , in the showroom ?
A friend who purchased a similar stove 10 years ago has a firmware dating well after the one installed in my stove.

 

[Doug richard]

The room fan is acting up again. It's weird it works perfect after the stove had been off for a few hours cleaned and restarted. Once it's been running a few days it seems that once it goes into modulation the room fan won't kick back up to high speed for work mode. Most of the time I will wake up in the morning to the stove burning but the room fan not running at all. When this happens I get the hot smokes message. If I reach in and bump start the fan it sometimes will get going again and work fine and the hot smokes messages goes away. I'm at the point where I want to call a pellet stove repair guy but I feel like he won't have a clue what it is either and I'll just be wasting time and money.

 

[rich2500]

did you ever pull the fan and oil it, if not I would try that, if that don't fix it sounds like it's time for a new fan

 

[Doug richard]

did you ever pull the fan and oil it, if not I would try that, if that don't fix it sounds like it's time for a new fan

I pulled the fan and motor and cleaned it but never oiled it. It has a bronze bushing on each side and just wasent sure what to oil and what kind of oil to use. If you could tell me that would be awesome. I will try that next.

 

[rich2500]

Lightly oil the bushings and I know the motor bearings are sealed but a drop or two of oil on each bearing will work its way in. I use 5 w / 20 motor oil because it's made to withstand heat.

 

[Doug richard]

Lightly oil the bushings and I know the motor bearings are sealed but a drop or two of oil on each bearing will work its way in. I use 5 w / 20 motor oil because it's made to withstand heat.

Sounds good, thank you!

 

[Lake Girl]

Lightly oil the bushings and I know the motor bearings are sealed but a drop or two of oil on each bearing will work its way in. I use 5 w / 20 motor oil because it's made to withstand heat.

Should be using 3-in-1 oil for electric motors .... Bearings may be shot on the room fan and can be changed out. 608 bearings but get a good brand! Search the forum for 608 bearings...

 

[rich2500]

Motor oil has worked for me a many years on furnace blower motors, a/c blower fans, Pellet stove fans etc etc.

 

[Doug richard]

Should be using 3-in-1 oil for electric motors .... Bearings may be shot on the room fan and can be changed out. 608 bearings but get a good brand! Search the forum for 608 bearings...

Thank you! Just picked up some 3-in-one today. I will let you know how it goes!

 

[Lake Girl]

Beyond bearings on the room fan ... there's only a capacitor or the board

 

[ChrisC-Worc]

I The motor is super easy to take out.

Doug - could you explain how you remove the motor. I can easily access it by removing the side of the stove, but I can't figure out how to take it apart to clean it. Any help is greatly appreciated - I am also having the room blower not going / hot exhaust issue.

 

[lowcostheat]

We have been selling the Ravelli Ecoteck models for five years and all of ours are the earlier models with the ball bearing EBM Pabst motors. If you have a question, the Stove model and year is needed and a picture is helpful so we as technicians don't waste our time trying to figure out what you have setting in your living room when we are a thousand miles away and you are 10 feet. I will help if I can!

 

[ChrisC-Worc]

Thanks for the comments lowcostheat, I realize I didn't provide any input on my issue. I have a Ravelli Francesca, 1.5 years old. It is a similar fan to what Doug has, and a similar issue with it not rotating smoothly (it would stop as soon as I stopped pushing it).

I was able to find the blower online, EBM Papst QLN65AC Series Crossflow Blowers . It was straightforward to remove the motor once I took the side of the stove off and convinced myself that it was OK to pull hard after watching this video - How to flip the motor on a crossflow blower. Once I had the motor and fan out, I lubricated the bronze bushing with some 3 in 1 and a little bit of PTFE paste that I happened to have around. When I reassembled it it spun much better, but nothing like in the 2nd youtube video where he spins it at 3:05 mark and it looks to spin with no friction. I could spin it for maybe 2 revolutions. I didn't clean the shafts well, if I take it apart again I will. Attached are some photos.

I'm debating ordering the replacement fan to have it handy, but will probably try to clean and oil it one more time if it gets stuck again. It doesn't seem like it should happen after 1.5 years.

 

[lowcostheat]

Yay! ask for pictures and we get plenty, thanks. Our stoves are of the earlier more costly motors, (ebm pabst)