Ecoteck Elaina won't run

[ultravorx]

So had an issue yesterday with my ecoteck Elaina where it was running fine all day, then at some point the room blower shut off, no errors Soni shut it down over night.
This morning I did some more troubleshooting. The stove starts up fine, but then it stops ffedijg pellets and the flame dies out. Room blower doesn't come on since it's in the start phase.
If I go into the menus I can activate everything so I know the fans are working.

Any ideas what could it be? I'm going to do a deep clean and see if it helps, but feels like the logic board may have crapped out.

 

[ultravorx]

I believe it's working now.

It was a combination of issues.
First one was the temp probe was sooted up with black carbon from the bad burn the night before.
2nd issue was the 1500 ups pure sine wave.
For some reason my stove just doesn't like it, or it crapped out in 2 week.
Right now it's in a standard outlet and is working.

 

[ultravorx]

So the ups wasn't the issue. Just had the same event happen.
Stove starts/lights fine.
It's in the work cycle and at some point the room blower turns off and exhaust fan slows down.
This causes a sooty burn and starts overheating the stove.

This happened last night and woke up in the am to a hot metal/burimg smell.

chit the stove down and unplugged it. Not sure what's wrong but hesitent to spend 175 for a new motherboard which may not be the issue.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

Maybe bad bearings on the room blower, or a bad cap for the room blower? Does the room blower spin freely by hand?
The room blower might slow down or seize when the bearings heat up.
Are there any alarm messages on the display?

 

[ultravorx]

If I go into settings, the room blower works fine. It does spin freely with no issues n There are no errors or alarms when this happens.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Time to clean it. 3 things any stove need to operate correctly. 1. It needs to be clean inside and the venting needs to be clean and free from fly ash, 2. It needs combustion air and 3. It requires fuel.

Big thing that most users don't do is CLEAN it inside and the venting and 2 weeks..... It's filthy

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

How do you turn on the room blower? Which menu offers this?

 

[ultravorx]

It's under view settings. Scroll to the fan speed 1-5, I choose 5 and the blower activates.

I actually tried a deep clean with no luck, even cleaned the exhaust probe.

Pretty sure it's a control board, but worried something else is fried due to the high temps when fan wasn't working.

 

[Monica in France]

What is the exhaust probe temperature when it stops working ?
What 'mode' does the display indicate ?
In normal 'working' mode both fans are kept at their designated speeds.

Because you can operate the fan from the menus does not mean that Pelleting's suggestion that the fan overheats is wrong .
But it does suggest that the thyristor controlling it is not fried.
Why don't you hot wire the fan ( with the obvious precautions ) to test it ?

As I remember the algorithm : If the room fan fails , nothing would happen until/unless the hopper temperature is excessive which would cut off the auger motor. Or perhaps the exhaust probe registers its 'maximum' allowed and shuts down the stove.

 

[ultravorx]

What is the exhaust probe temperature when it stops working ?
What 'mode' does the display indicate ?
In normal 'working' mode both fans are kept at their designated speeds.

Because you can operate the fan from the menus does not mean that Pelleting's suggestion that the fan overheats is wrong .
But it does suggest that the thyristor controlling it is not fried.
Why don't you hot wire the fan ( with the obvious precautions ) to test it ?

As I remember the algorithm : If the room fan fails , nothing would happen until/unless the hopper temperature is excessive which would cut off the auger motor. Or perhaps the exhaust probe registers its 'maximum' allowed and shuts down the stove.

I didn't get to see the exhaust probe temp as I needed to shut it down asap due to heat.
But it was displayed as work, no blower fan, and exhaust fan speed barely running evident by a lazy, sooty flame. This was 12 hours after cleaning.
It's pretty scary as I feel like the stove should have shut down but it didn't. The paint also started bubbling and peeling near the hopper after this event.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

I think, if the room blower fails (or runs too slow), that the "Hot Smoke" warning would be tripped (from the exhaust temperature sensor):

From the Ravelli Technical Manual:
4.2 Hot Smoke and Smoke over-temperature alarm
Hot smoke: This is triggered not as a real alarm but as a warning that the maximum threshold PR14 has been reached. When it is
in this condition, although leaving the heat exchanger at P5, the motherboard reduces the pellet load and draught to P1 in order
to cool the body and the SMOKE TEMP.

Smoke over-temperature alarm: This occurs when the Hot smoke has not managed to cool the smoke probe and the smoke
probe records a temperature over 269°C/516 °F.

I am not sure the above description is 100% correct….you would think that during the Hot Smoke condition, the exhaust "draught" fan would be set to run at max speed (P5), not at minimum speed (P1), to cool off the stove as fast as possible.

Concerning the exhaust fan, if it is turning too slow (maybe because of bad bearings, or a bad capacitor), then you would get the "EXTRACTOR REVS FAULT" alarm. The exhaust fan has an RPM sensor that tells the control board the actual RPM of the fan, and if it is more than 15% slower than what it should be (for the P level), than this alarm is triggered.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I'm pretty sure the draft fan is a shaded pole motor so no capacitor involved. Might have tight bearings but a drop of oil on the outer and inner bearings will cure that issue, if it is an issue............

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

No, the exhaust fan motor on the Ecoteck/Ravelli is a cap motor. Its an EBM Pabst ball-bearing motor, made in Germany.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Without sounding dumb.. Where is the capacitor? I don't see one and start or run capacitors are always mounted on the outside of the housing. Sure looks like an enclosed induction - repulshion motor to me. You might want to take that fancy die cast cover off and have a look see.

But then I don't have that appliance nor do I know about the mechanicals other than what I can see from your pictures.

 

[SidecarFlip]

.... and ball bearing motors succumb to the fine dust present in a stove. The waste products of combustion manifest themselves as a fine abrasive dust that eats bearings, ball, roller or bushing.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

The silver can is the "run" capacitor, hanging on the wire harness.

 

[Monica in France]

Pelleting is right, I fitted one of those a few years back and the capacitor is just hanging on to the harness, mine just lies loose on the bottom of the stove. But if the exhaust fan is faulty the stove would not be in 'work' mode : the feedback would raise an error.
Getting back to the problem.
From the desciption it would appear that the stove is very very hot ( paint peeling), it is in 'work' mode , and the exhaust fan is on low revs.
That corresponds with the manual desciption for < 4.2 Hot Smoke and Smoke over-temperature alarm >
And the room fan is not working - as in toast.
I go for Pelletings initial suggestion - the room fan overheats and stops.
The gentleman needs to check this fan , lower PR14 and check that the hopper temperature cut out is working.

 

[ultravorx]

Thanks for the info. I will give that a shot to see if it can be diagnosed.
However I've lost trust in the unit since there were no alarms it had me worried.

I actually just picked up a Harman allure50 to have something reliable. If I can fix this,not will be a spare. I will try the changes this weekend.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

That Harman is an expensive stove....it is sorta an American version of your Ecoteck/Ravelli. How much was it?

 

[ultravorx]

I picked it up in cape cod from a dealer for 3400otd. It was a floor demo that was never hooked up. White panels with glass front.
So far it's running great!!

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

Nice! Enjoy the new stove.

 

[SidecarFlip]

They have really went up in cost (like everything else..lol). That cost twice what my appliance did 12 years ago.

 

[rich2500]

Nice Allure, I actually went from a Ravelli to an Allure, Never had a problem with the Ravelli but the Allure is definitely an upgrade in many ways.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

What is the upgrade features of the Allure versus your Ravelli?

 

[ultravorx]

What is the upgrade features of the Allure versus your Ravelli?

The biggest one for me is the ability to hold temperatures. The ecoteck would burn me out, while the allure can maintain 70f with no issues.
Been running 4 days and no signs of needing any cleaning. The ecoteck would need a full vacuum by day 3. The allure looks to be able to go at least 1 month or longer.
The glass stays cleaner, it's quieter and has a 92lbs hopper which works better for my family.