New ecoteck elena setup/questions

[ultravorx]

So picked up a 2008 ecotech Elena from a dealer benedicts home and garden in CT that had this left over brand new .
Paid $1200 for it! They said I should be able to file the warranty paperwork as well since there were/are an authorized dealer.

Hooked up the stove last night and boy does it crank out heat. Had thermostats set to 75f and after 12 hours running, room was near 88f!

The question I have is it seems to throw a ton of heat at it's lowest setting. I loaded 1 40# bag at 5pm, and at 5am it was nearly empty.
It's running with a temp setting of 75f, and power 1. Flame is consistantly high and hear the fire guard.
Stove said it's modulating, but since I was running it at p1, it never went down and I didn't turn on eco stop.

I do have oak set up, and my exhaust is a tee on the back then 1 foot up, then 90 outside to another tee, then 8 ft up to a 90 with a Hood vent.

So it's not free flowing like a straight pipe, but never had a flow issue with oldstove.

I know there is a password protected menu for fine tuning, but I don't have the password.

Any help/insight would be great.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

Send me your email address through the "Conversation" feature (the envelope at the upper right of the page, next to your name), and I will send you a PDF of the Factory Service Manual which has the password, and the descriptions of all the Service Menus.

The passwords are :
Recipe = B9
Zero Set Hours = 35
Default Settings = A9

It doesn't sound like there is anything wrong with your stove. When the room temperature exceeds the thermostat's setpoint, the stove goes to its lowest level ("modulation"), which is "Power" level #1. Since you were running the stove in Power Level #1, you did not see any difference when the stove entered modulation phase. If it is not too cold outside, and/or your house is well insulated, the indoor air temp will continue to climb, as happened to you. Under these conditions it is best to use the EcoStop mode, where the flame goes completely out when the room temp exceeds the thermostat setpoint. When the room cools off, below the setpoint, the stove will re-light. The only downside of the EcoStop mode is that the ignitor gets used more often....which consumes its life. My ignitor on my Elena has lasted since 2012, thru many ignition cycles, so the ignitor life seems to be pretty long on these stoves. A new ignitor is about $60, and it is still a good idea to have a spare on-hand, before you need it. A replacement burn-pot, and the flame-trap baffle are good replacement parts to also have on-hand if you intend to use the stove a long time. Make sure your stove came with the triangular metal plate flame-trap, and that it is installed at the top of the combustion chamber.

You can buy Ecoteck/Ravelli replacement parts from:
North Forge Heating, Anneville PA
Kingdom Biofuels, PA
Woodmans (woodmanspartsplus.com)

You got a killer deal on that stove, I paid $3700 for mine, and that was the clearance price (about $1000 off) when the original Ecoteck USA distributor (Northland Distributing) went belly-up in 2011.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

FYI : My cleaning routine for my Ecoteck Elena:

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. I use a Gore Clean-Stream HEPA filter in my Shop-Vac (no ash dust gets blown into the house). The filter can be easily cleaned with water, and after drying is 100% good as new.

Disconnect the vacuum line at the exhaust blower outlet duct, then do the "leaf blower trick" do get the final ash out of the system.