Ecoteck Ravelli questions about air supply and cleaning

[guardian89rx]

I am burning through my first winter with my Ecoteck (Ravelli) Sofia model. Thanks to the help of Lake Girl and Cleanfire I was able to successfully program the stove and put it safely into service.
Now that I have had a chance to burn different types of pellets I have found that a softwood variety (from Hearst, Ontario) burns very cleanly and leaves very little residue in the fire pot. Conversely, the Canawick hardwood pellets I am currently feeding Sofia seem to be significantly dirtier and require shutdown, cool down and cleaning every 24 hours of continuous burn at higher levels.
I have gone into the recipes program and selected the highest draught (air) setting and also set the the pellets at -5 and air at +5 in an effort to get the cleanest burn possible. My cleanings are thorough including vacuuming and scraping the fire pot. I ensure all gasket seals are tight.
I would be interested in hearing from others about their experiences with this brand of stove and any suggestions for increasing combustion air. Has anyone experimented with plugging the upper side holes in the fire pot (in order to increase the blow through the bottom holes)? Also is there any way to polish the fire pot to make it smoother so ash is less likely to stick to it? Is there any other way to increase the combustion air fan speed? I am using room air but don't feel this is having any adverse effect on combustion.

 

[rich2500]

I would start with running a RDS program again and bump the air up during the 20 min cycle. hardwood pellets notoriously need more air then softwoods.I ran 3 RDS program cycles on my stove until getting it dialed in to the hardwoods I burn.

 

[guardian89rx]

Thanks for the suggestion. What exactly is the "RDS" program and how do I go about running it?

 

[rich2500]

Is this a new stove

 

[guardian89rx]

I purchased it new but I believe the model is three years old or so

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

Only the newer Ecoteck / Ravelli stoves have the RDS feature, since about 2011 or 2012. RDS uses an airflow sensor to measure the combustion airflow, and then varies the combustion fan speed to maintain a predetermined optimal airflow for a given feed-rate. When a new stove is installed, the RDS setup (calibration) routine is run, and the stove measures and sets the combustion blower speed to get the correct airflow for each of the P1 thru P5 burn-rate settings of the stove, based on the actual measured restriction of the flue pipe configuration that the stove was installed with. And, as you burn pellets, as the burn-pot and flue become more restrictive due to ash build-up, the combustion blower automatically speeds up to maintain the same draft flow. Eventually the RDS system can't compensate for a large restriction, and then it sets the Alarm to tell you to clean the stove.

A clever system...I wish my Ecoteck Ravelli had this.....

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

My cleaning routine (Similar Ecoteck Elena model) :
Every 3 to 5 bags of pellets, I clean my Ecoteck Elena as follows : takes about 10 minutes :
1) Remove Flame trap at top of firebox (triangular metal plate). Be carefull when you remove it so you don't damage the firex. Then vacuum around the heat exchanger tubes and the perimeter of the square opening just below the tubes. A "crevice" tool/nozzle on my ShopVac (with "Cleanstream" HEPA filter) works great. Move the tube scraper to the full out position to vaccum the rear edge of the square opening.
2) Use a soft 2 inch paint brush, gently brush off the Firex, use the vacuum nozzle to gather the dust. DO NOT scrape the Firex with the nozzle : it is fragile ! You won't be able to get all the black soot off the firex...that's OK.
3) Replace the Flame-Trap
4) Vacuum the grate around the burnpot, then remove it.
5) Use a plastic spackle/putty knife and scrape the sides and bottom of the burn pot, then vacuum it, then remove it.
6) Vacuum the inside of burn-pot holder/receptacle.
7) Replace the burn pot
8) Replace the grate.
9) Pull out ashpan and vacuum it
10 Vacuum the bottom of the firebox, where the ashpan sits.
11) Replace the ashpan
12) Clean the glass with a wet (water) paper towel, dry it off with another (dry) paper towel. (NO WINDEX, and clean glass ONLY when it is cool to the touch)
Close it up !

I have never vacuumed my hopper : the Ecoteck auger does not seem to care about fines/dust.

About every ton of pellets, I vacuum out my flue.

At the end of the season (2 to 3 Tons) I take the side panels off, take the exhaust blower off, and open the two clean-out ports and vacuum everything out using a smaller diameter hose/tube, duct-taped into the hose nozzle of my ShopVac, to get into the clean-out ports and into the exhaust blower housing.

You can also use a leaf-blower to clean out the stove, but first disconnect the vacuum line at the exhaust blower outlet duct.

 

[guardian89rx]

Most likely my stove does not have the RDS functionality. I'm only aware of the "recipes" program and the buttons that can be used
to vary the pellet/air ratio and I have adjusted both of these to maximize combustion air and minimize pellet feed. I suppose these Canawick hardwood pellets are just not a good fit for the stove. They have less than 1% ash as indicated on the bag whereas the softwood pellets I tried had 0.25% ash. In other words, the Canawick product could contain as much as 3-4 times more ash. I can see how the ash builds up in the pot. At first it blows out but then begins to pile up in a mound around the rim of the pot. Eventually the ash can't make it over this mound and starts to fall
back into the pot. At the same time, ash begins to adhere to the sides of the pot, around the upper air holes. Before long the pot begins to fill with
ash which in turn restricts air flow. Consequently, the pellet feed exceeds the combustion burn capacity and pellets begin to fill up the pot. When I observe this, I lift the lid on the hopper (which stops the auger) and give the pot some time to catch up with the burn. I can continue to work the hopper lid or reduce the power setting but eventually the stove needs to be shut down for cleaning. I'm going to see if I can polish the fire pot (inside) to make for a smoother surface to prevent ash from sticking to it (how about a teflon- or ceramic-coated pot?). I also will experiment with
plugging the upper side holes in order to force more air through the bottom holes which might keep the pot cleaner for a longer time.
Once I've burned through this ton of hardwood I'm going to stick with the softwood fuel.

 

[grobinson2]

Do you have any pictures of your stove? Also how did the plugging of the holes in the burn pot work?

Thanks again,
Glenn

Most likely my stove does not have the RDS functionality. I'm only aware of the "recipes" program and the buttons that can be used
to vary the pellet/air ratio and I have adjusted both of these to maximize combustion air and minimize pellet feed. I suppose these Canawick hardwood pellets are just not a good fit for the stove. They have less than 1% ash as indicated on the bag whereas the softwood pellets I tried had 0.25% ash. In other words, the Canawick product could contain as much as 3-4 times more ash. I can see how the ash builds up in the pot. At first it blows out but then begins to pile up in a mound around the rim of the pot. Eventually the ash can't make it over this mound and starts to fall
back into the pot. At the same time, ash begins to adhere to the sides of the pot, around the upper air holes. Before long the pot begins to fill with
ash which in turn restricts air flow. Consequently, the pellet feed exceeds the combustion burn capacity and pellets begin to fill up the pot. When I observe this, I lift the lid on the hopper (which stops the auger) and give the pot some time to catch up with the burn. I can continue to work the hopper lid or reduce the power setting but eventually the stove needs to be shut down for cleaning. I'm going to see if I can polish the fire pot (inside) to make for a smoother surface to prevent ash from sticking to it (how about a teflon- or ceramic-coated pot?). I also will experiment with
plugging the upper side holes in order to force more air through the bottom holes which might keep the pot cleaner for a longer time.
Once I've burned through this ton of hardwood I'm going to stick with the softwood fuel.

 

[Lake Girl]

To get the burn pot clean of carbon, try a bit of a soak in cold water while the pot is still fairly hot. Enough of a change in temp that it releases the carbon from the metal easier.

 

[Monica in France]

You are in good hands .
I thought at first that this forum was obsessed with cleaning : but since following their advice I've had no combustion problems.
Once you've got it working correctly you will get used to what the flame should look like.
If it stops looking like that , stop the stove and clean it.
My Ecoteck ( secondhand) started out with problems 1 or 2 days after 'cleaning' .
Now , after the 'pellet forum' treatment it can do over a week.
Once I got the stove working correctly , I discovered that all the modifications I had made to the pellet/air flow were nonsense.

I've slightly bevelled the holes in the plate around the firebox so the ash falls through more easily into the pan.
This gained me a day before needing to cleaning.
But once the build up starts to fall back into the firebox you have no choice !

The ability of RDS to detect a bad air flow is a real plus.
So much so that I am thinking seriously of 'after fitting' it.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

I don't think it would be easy to add RDS to your stove, but I am sure it could be done. You need to add the mass-airflow-sensor into the air intake tube, and change/rewire for the RDS control board and newer LCD display. Won't be low cost........unless you find a donor stove that has these parts.

 

[Monica in France]

The problem with the board change method is , as you say , that you would need to change the Display as well.
Which renders the method too expensive for the risk : have they cured the other problems that annoy me ?
I was dreaming more on the "Arduino" method .
Changing the firmware on the actual mirco-processor would be ideal : I looked carefully at the motherboard last summer ( I've even got some useful pictures to use) , but could not discover which chip was being used .
It is on the other hand ideally laid out for a bit of reverse engineering .

 

[guardian89rx]

I usually do clean the fire pot with hot water and a sharp scraper to clean off carbon deposits until the interior surface is completely smooth.
I decided not to try blocking the upper side holes for now. Instead, accesed the factory settings and bumped up the combustion air for all
power settings. At the same time, I increased the frequency and duration of the "cleaning fire pot" function. This has made a noticeable
improvement and I can now run continuously for several days on the Canawick pellets.