Anyone have a Rikatronic stove?

[John Ackerly]

I'm really curious how the Rikatronic stoves work. Its an automated stove that regulates the air supply with sensors and microprocessors and when it gets up to tempurature, you can press a button that will get the longest possible burn out of the wood, without producing too much smoke. Presumably, this is a night time setting that will keep air as low as possible, without allowing the stove to really smolder at too low temps.

Obidiah's listed it on their website and a salesmen said that sold out their last ones a few months ago. But these aren't EPA certified, and a Rika person in Austria says that they don't export at all to the US. Anyone have experience with them? http://www.rika.at/en/rikatronic

John

 

[begreen]

Very interesting. You can also run the stove from your cell phone. Great for couch potatoes. I see they also make a combo wood and pellet stove, the Induo with fully automatic fuel recognition. That's the first time I've seen that.

http://www.rika.at/en/combi_stove_benefits/

 

[mellow]

Interesting stove, I don't see any mention of secondary reburn however. Probably don't need the reburn for pellets but for cordwood it would be needed.

They have the most annoying website.

 

[begreen]

Good point. Looking at the Imposa woodstove manual I don't see a secondary air source in the parts breakdown. Unfortunately it looks like someone got the English parts list terribly wrong and out of order so this is somewhat of a guess. But as far as I can tell this is a very basic stove outside of the electronic damper. Nestor Martin has a cleaner burner with this option.

 

[John Ackerly]

Good point. Looking at the Imposa woodstove manual I don't see a secondary air source in the parts breakdown. Unfortunately it looks like someone got the English parts list terribly wrong and out of order so this is somewhat of a guess. But as far as I can tell this is a very basic stove outside of the electronic damper. Nestor Martin has a cleaner burner with this option.

Can't believe they don't have secondary air. Thanks for checking that out. I'm going to try to get someone on the phone from the company and confirm that. I just checked out the Nestor Martin, who owns Efel, or vice versa, and one of the Efel S33 has that automated combustion feature, and is EPA certified. It doesn't look that sophisticated but may help. Anyone have the Efel S33?

 

[Nayy]

Hello,

I live in Europe and I have a cult Ricatronic 1 stove since more than 3 years. (they don't make this model anymore)

The system works great, but you have to get used to it... you only can regulate the heat of the stove by adding more or less wood...

There is primary and secondary air input, which is regulated automactically.

They claim less than 50% wood consumption compared to a conventional stove... well I don't know if it' s 50% but it does not consume a lot of wood. When my brother saw my pile of wood last winter, he asked why I did not use my stove because there was still so much wood... well I lit it almost every evening...
The chimney does not become hot. (<200°C) which is a sign of good efficiency, it means your heat remains in the house and is not lost through the chimney.

If I had to buy a new stove, I would definitely buy this system again... it' s so easy. You only have to lit your stove and put fresh wood when the light blinks.

Hope this helps,

Nayy

 

[Heftiger]

Very interesting. Do you have photos?

 

[begreen]

It sounds like an automated version of the PE Super series stove.

 

[Nayy]

Here are some pic's...

The green light starts blinking red when you have to add wood...

(sorry for the turned pictures, the hosting software turned my pictures)

 

[begreen]

Pics now rotated correctly.

Does the white and brown panel on the right side cover the electronics and air control servo?

 

[Nayy]

Pics now rotated correctly.

Does the white and brown panel on the right side cover the electronics and air control servo?

No, the white (it's alumina color) an brown (wood) is the handle to open and close the door...

All electronics are under the stove... you can see the temperature sensor on the right picture, it's on the upper left side of the burning chamber.

The regulating system is very easy:

starting: primary an secondary air on for 20 minutes, once ideal burning temp is reached primary air closes.

burning mode: secondary air is closed slightly when burning temperatur is too high, it is opened when temperature is too low.

when the wood is burned, the temp decreases and the led turns red...

adding wood: primary and secundary opened untill ideal burning temp is reached, then primary closes en secondary regulates.

There is also a grid you can open when lighting the stove when there is almost no draft...

this is how the rikatronic 1 works, now they are on the 4th generation (rikatronic 4) and the functioning might be slightly different.