RIKA austroflamm ER3 HELP, its cold

[petemal]

AFTER MUCH RESEARCH ON HEARTH.COM I BOUGHT A RIKA INTEGRA II, FIRST YEAR BURNING, THE STOVE WORKED GREAT AND VERY HAPPY, I RECENTLY CHANGED TO CLEAN ENERGY PELLETS FROM LOWES, $185 a ton so bough enough to last the winter, i was using lignetics, clean energy seems like it produces a lot of ash and not as much heat and a bunch of dust, the stove starts up and runs and after a little while i get a flashing er3 message, i asssumed its the pellets are not dropping because the burn pot is empty, and it seems like it works on higher settings,i could be wrong,(rookie), i know there is a way of switching so the auger drops more, for dirty pellets, not sure how to get into that screen, i bought the stove online so dealer is not local, running v 1.39

 

[jtakeman]

Welcome petemal, Sounds like you have air issues. I googled the er3 error message. I found this site and downloaded the 5th page er4 message. In it it says.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
ER3 and ER4 result if the air supply becomes irregular as measured by the air-flow sensor.
During an ER3 condition, the controls are unable to establish or regulate sufficient airflow. ER3 is an
unrecoverable error and once displayed, will result in an eventual, controlled shutdown. ER3 is a hard
error that could indicate a failure of the control board and/or the air flow sensor. ER3 could also be a
result of lack of proper cleaning and maintenance, improper ventillation, or in-home conditions.

POSSIBLE CAUSES
ï‚· Lack of sufficient replacement air into the home, especially true if occurring on a new
installation.
ï‚· Use of poor quality fuel. The more sawdust / fines found in the fuel, the more the likelihood of
this error displaying.
ï‚· If the stove has operated without displaying this an error for a period of time, occurance of an
error code could be an indication of some type of blockage in the ventilation and/or that the stove
is due for routine cleaning.
ï‚· Misaligned door or possible loose gasket fit somewhere on the stove.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
ï‚· Open a door or window in the area where the stove is installed. If the error goes off and stays
off, an outside air source is necessary.
ï‚· Change to a higher quality of fuel with minimal amount of sawdust / fines.
 Thoroughly clean the stove – see cleaning instructions in owner’s manual, or download the most
current copy from austroflamm.net.
ï‚· Check ventilation for proper sizing, adherence to maximum lengths, and reduction of
complexity.
ï‚· If applicable, check pre-existing chimney / chase for adequate lining / installation.
ï‚· Clean the airflow sensor with a blast of computer-grade compressed air or by brushing with a
soft bristle brush.
ï‚· Only after the above possible causes and corresponding solutions have been addressed, an
increase of base combustion fan speeds are in order.
This can be done by changing the “FU†fuel use setting opton 2 on stoves using software V1.33
or higher, or by changing parameters G1 & G2 as outlined in the TB titled, “Airflow Settings†on
stoves using software v1.32 and below.

Please describe your cleaning routine and the venting to further help. Do you have an Outside Air Kit on the stove? But I would start with a good cleaning. I would also clean the airflow sensor.

 

[summit]

just turn the feedrate up, if it seems to work fine on higher settings. All trimming the auger will do is increase feeder speed anyway.

 

[petemal]

i increased s1 from .9 to 1.3 and keep the stove on 40% switch the Fu to 2 lets see if that works, i clean the pan when needed and the glass, and burn pot pull the heat rods, i only had the stove for about 3 weeks so i just took the cast plates off and cleaned and vacuumed them, my vent looks like a 4" T with abot 20 ft of forever flex

 

[petemal]

wow
finally fixed, removed "clean energy"pellets cleaned out hopper a bunch of saw dust or i guess fines at the bottom, looks like this was clogging auger, rebought a few bags of the pres-to-logs by lignetics fines count less than .2% been running 24/7 no problems, returned 85 bags of dust, picked up 3 tons of warmth, hopper is packed, back in business, burn baby burn...... let it snow let it snow, ........................................Is the rika really this sensitive???

thanks for all the help

 

[jtakeman]

Is the rika really this sensitive???

thanks for all the help

Don't really know as there aren't many owners of the Rika's on here. But seeing it was #2 on the POSSIBLE CAUSES list. I would guess so. You could try making the pvc pellet vacuum if the problem comes back. I would also make it a regular routine to vacuum out the hopper once a week or so. I do it when I do my weekly cleaning. Depending on the brand I find quite a bit in the bottom. But I just dump them straight in. Screening or vacuuming the pellets will cure the issues as well.

 

[pelletfan]

The Manual states:
Er3 Error due to sudden or unrecoverable air flow change (door open,
burn pot dirty, blocked air intake or exhaust air outlet...)
Common triggers:
• Lack of regular cleaning
• Poor fuel quality
• Lack of sufficient outside air into the home

in my experience it mostly it happens when the burn pot is quite full with Ash.
I blame in many cases a lower quality patch of Pellets.

Run my stove 24/7 and do my clean out of burn pot and ash container on a
two day interval.
Normally the Rika is not sensitive at all, but this year the quality of pellets seem
to be all over the place.

 

[HeadhunterTom]

The Manual states:
Er3 Error due to sudden or unrecoverable air flow change (door open,
burn pot dirty, blocked air intake or exhaust air outlet...)
Common triggers:
• Lack of regular cleaning
• Poor fuel quality
• Lack of sufficient outside air into the home

in my experience it mostly it happens when the burn pot is quite full with Ash.
I blame in many cases a lower quality patch of Pellets.

Run my stove 24/7 and do my clean out of burn pot and ash container on a
two day interval.
Normally the Rika is not sensitive at all, but this year the quality of pellets seem
to be all over the place.

Hey Pelletfan, a few questions for you.


BACKGROUND: Installed my "new" RIKA Integra II 4/17/2013 firmware version 2.42U on a horizontal install plugged into a 90 degree clean-out T rising 8 " into a 90 degree pipe exiting through a Duravent wall thimble with an OAK and terminating with a 12" Venturi-effect pipe. Connected the outside air aluminum flex piping to the black plastic 1 Inch extension connector on the back of the unit. Opened all the windows and ran 4 bags of Barefoot Super premium hardwoods at 80% for the initial burn-in procedure. After two days of daytime only operation, the "smell" was gone and the unit ran flawlessly at all settings down to 20%. Cleaned burn area only and vacuumed out all pellet dust from hopper area.
Turned unit on this past weekend for the first time since April 19th on 30 percent. After completion of 21 minute startup period, unit control panel screen fluxuated between a solid on 30 and a flashing on 30. After an hour or so, the auger motor made an intermittent grinding sound except for the CL cycle. Shortly after the CL cycle, the screen showed an ER3 on screen and entered shut-down cycle. After several days of restarting, I finally did a complete clean. I was surprised to see about 1.5 inches of ash behind the burn wall plates-there was little to none in the rear heat exchanger clean-out access area after burning only 5.5 bags. While I had the right panels off, I noticed that the air-intake pipe terminated about 1.5 inches from the back of the unit where the black plastic cap was and where I connected the OAK pipe to. I popped the cap and ran the OAK pipe through the back of the unit and directly on to the air-intake pipe. (Installation manual does not mention that and Scott must be peeing his pants reading this part DUH!) Reassembled and hit the start button but still got the same result.
QUESTIONS: My manual is a Revision 3.1 updated 1/19/09 and has no mention of the Er3 code and potential solutions. My unit was mfgd. June 2009 and sat in the NY Lucky D warehouse until the control board was replaced with the 2.42U software. Do you have a pdf of your manual?
On process of elimination in resolving this problem, the only thing left untouched is the air sensor. Where is it and what is the cleaning procedure? ( I do see an L shaped bracket bolted on to the Air-Intake pipe with a real small pc board with a 4-prong connector with BLACK, BROWN RED ORANGE wires going back to main PC board)
NOTE: Selling dealer does not have an on-board Tech certified on this RIKA yet.

 

[luckydist]

I can't tell if this is a newer post or not. If you still have a problem, contact Stacy at Lucky Distributing. He wrote the book on this stove and knows more about them than anyone else. Have you tried changing to the "FU" setting? If not, try it and see of that helps. Also, Lucky has a lot of info on their website. You have to drill down into the particular model stove you have.

Hey Pelletfan, a few questions for you.


BACKGROUND: Installed my "new" RIKA Integra II 4/17/2013 firmware version 2.42U on a horizontal install plugged into a 90 degree clean-out T rising 8 " into a 90 degree pipe exiting through a Duravent wall thimble with an OAK and terminating with a 12" Venturi-effect pipe. Connected the outside air aluminum flex piping to the black plastic 1 Inch extension connector on the back of the unit. Opened all the windows and ran 4 bags of Barefoot Super premium hardwoods at 80% for the initial burn-in procedure. After two days of daytime only operation, the "smell" was gone and the unit ran flawlessly at all settings down to 20%. Cleaned burn area only and vacuumed out all pellet dust from hopper area.
Turned unit on this past weekend for the first time since April 19th on 30 percent. After completion of 21 minute startup period, unit control panel screen fluxuated between a solid on 30 and a flashing on 30. After an hour or so, the auger motor made an intermittent grinding sound except for the CL cycle. Shortly after the CL cycle, the screen showed an ER3 on screen and entered shut-down cycle. After several days of restarting, I finally did a complete clean. I was surprised to see about 1.5 inches of ash behind the burn wall plates-there was little to none in the rear heat exchanger clean-out access area after burning only 5.5 bags. While I had the right panels off, I noticed that the air-intake pipe terminated about 1.5 inches from the back of the unit where the black plastic cap was and where I connected the OAK pipe to. I popped the cap and ran the OAK pipe through the back of the unit and directly on to the air-intake pipe. (Installation manual does not mention that and Scott must be peeing his pants reading this part DUH!) Reassembled and hit the start button but still got the same result.
QUESTIONS: My manual is a Revision 3.1 updated 1/19/09 and has no mention of the Er3 code and potential solutions. My unit was mfgd. June 2009 and sat in the NY Lucky D warehouse until the control board was replaced with the 2.42U software. Do you have a pdf of your manual?
On process of elimination in resolving this problem, the only thing left untouched is the air sensor. Where is it and what is the cleaning procedure? ( I do see an L shaped bracket bolted on to the Air-Intake pipe with a real small pc board with a 4-prong connector with BLACK, BROWN RED ORANGE wires going back to main PC board)
NOTE: Selling dealer does not have an on-board Tech certified on this RIKA yet.

 

[luckydist]

One more thing...a blinking display happens when the stove is having trouble regulating airflow. It used to say ER4 but people freaked out when they saw it. Usually the stove can recover from this condition without a problem and the home owner doesn't usually even there was a problem, but seeing "ER" anything caused people to worry so Lucky had ER4 replaced with a blink instead.

When that ER4/blinking display condition exists, the exhaust fan will start to slowly increase in speed and the auger will stop turning. If the stove can't recover within two minutes OR when the exhaust fan speed increases more than 40% or hits maximum RPM (whichever happens first), then ER3 triggers and the stove commits to a shutdown. The auger should never run if the display is blinking but will turn back on when/if the stove recovers. So if the stove is running at a higher output level when an ER4 happens, it will take less time for it to ER3 than if it were running at a lower output.

All of this really proves the fact that the airflow sensor on the Integra II is incredibly smart and able to adjust very quickly to changing conditions, and it makes it very forgiving for people who don't clean their stove as often as they should. It takes a lot to make it error out, but when it does, it usually means a lack of outside air, bad fuel, or a long term lack of cleaning. It's a good idea to remove the air flow sensor annually and blast it with canned computer air, especially if you have wood floors and/or pets because dust and pet hair can get stuck on the probes and cause misreadings. It's worth checking that.

I can't tell if this is a newer post or not. If you still have a problem, contact Stacy at Lucky Distributing. He wrote the book on this stove and knows more about them than anyone else. Have you tried changing to the "FU" setting? If not, try it and see of that helps. Also, Lucky has a lot of info on their website. You have to drill down into the particular model stove you have.