Ravelli 2008 Monica ALO6

[Homeschool Mom]

We bought a home with a Ravelli Monica. It worked fine until bag 6 of the pellets and then we have been having trouble. We keep getting ALO6 and the combustion chamber fills with pellets. I have been told that the pellets are too long, so I went through them and broke up the long ones. I was also told to increase the pellet feed, which I've done, but the problem persists and has gotten to the point where I can't use the stove.

Any ideas on how to stop this from happening would be useful. The stove was cleaned by a Ravelli dealer and it was clean two weeks ago and they are at a loss, as they haven't seen these older models.

 

[Monica in France]

Welcome to the club.
I remember well when I was plagued by this problem : to be truthful it still comes back from time to time.
When joining this forum I was stuck by the way they were all obsessed with cleaning and recleaning their stoves.
I now share this obsession.
With this problem you need more air not more fuel. Go to the extreme +5 for air and -5 for fuel and work back until it starts clogging up.

But put it back to 0 + 0 and give it a thorough clean first.

 

[Lake Girl]

The only reference I can find to "AL" in the manual I have, is to terminal connections of AL1 and AL2. Wiring diagram AL1 Blue wire connects to the Auger with a line running off to the vacuum switch then to the door microswitch that connects to the wire that connects the safety thermostat on the hopper. The hopper safety thermostat wire originates from AL2 and is Black.

Alarm code 06 means "extinction during work phase" and should show pellets finished alarm on the display.

Not sure what gets lost in the translation from Italian to English in the manual, but it might be worth your time to check wiring connections on the door latch microswitch, the copper hopper temp probe, and vacuum switch as those all interconnect with the auger. Wondering if the vac switch is failing...

Have you replaced the tubing running from the vac switch to the port on the combustion motor body? Cleaned the port?

I might be totally off on this ... Pelleting in NJ also has an Ecoteck version of stove and may have a better idea so hopefully he chimes in.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

Did you buy this stove new? or was it used or refurbished?

This alarm trips when the exhaust temperature falls below a minimum level, which normally only happens when the flame goes out because the pellets ran out.

Watch the stove when it trips the alarm, if the flame goes out while the firepot still has pellets in it, you either have a really restricted airflow, or the pellet feed is too high, or your pellets are really crappy.

When burning normally, a few minutes after it has started, the burn-pot should only have maybe an inch of burning pellets/embers at the bottom.

Do you have the outside air inlet connected ? Is this a basement install? Is your flue pipe too long, too many bends? (which restricts flow).

Have you done a thorough cleaning of the internal exhaust passages inside the stove? (Remove the side panels of the stove, pull out the exhaust fan, clean inside that fan housing, remove the 2 rectangular clean-out hatches on the back of the firebox backside passage, and clean the area above the triangular flame trap plate at the inside top of the firebox). Thru the Private Messages feature of the forum, send me a message with your email address and I can send you the manual that shows where the cleanout ports are.

 

[Lake Girl]

NJ, stove came with the house and was "professionally" cleaned by Ravelli dealer two weeks ago. So the AL just stands for alarm? I know on mine, I get the "pellets finished" display. Different version of firmware?

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

Maybe the Ravelli "Dealer" does not know how to properly clean the stove.......Concerning the display of alarm conditions, I don't recall if it actually displays "AL06", but mine displays "Pellets Finished".

 

[Homeschool Mom]

Thank you. It was just cleaned by the service people, so I believe I should be all set there. I have been obsessive about keeping it clean from friends who have had pellet stoves in the past. It's something that I learned from them before having them. Thank you for this information. I am going to try it tonight.

 

[Homeschool Mom]

From what I can tell it was purchased new given the records the previous owner left of cleaning and other issues he had with the stove. The stove was professionally cleaned about 2 weeks ago when this problem first started happening. The sides were removed and the other areas you mentioned were also cleaned. There wasn't much of any build up. There is an outside air intake. The stove is located in our first floor living room.It vents out the side wall. I vacuum the stove combustion chamber after each bag of pellets used. I haven't needed to do other cleanings because we haven't used it very much. To date I've only used 6 bags this winter. We had the stove cleaned in August as well.

At this point I believe the settings are all screwed up, because of me messing with the pellet feed after adding more pellets to the feed.

The pellets I have are Barefoot Super Premium, the Agway dealer said that they are very good pellets and the best he sells. I researched them before I bought them and they do have low ash.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

Have you removed the triangular flame-trap metal plate, inside the firebox, at the top, and vacuumed around the square perimeter opening around the heat exchanger tubes?

Also, which setting did you try to adjust? The feed-rate and airflow user trims/adjustments? Or did you get into the setting menu, and change some of the 'Parameter" values?

Do the service receipts indicate that the previous owner have anything repaired or replaced (like the auger motor) on the stove?

Also, per my prior post, does your stove act like this:
When burning normally, a few minutes after it has started, the burn-pot should only have maybe an inch of burning pellets/embers dancing around at the bottom.

 

[Lake Girl]

Per NJ, if your ash vac isn't very powerful, you may need to remove encrusted ash in the heat exchanger area on the smoke shelf above the flame trap (front and back of the rake, outside corners is where it usually cakes). I use a 1" putty knife that reaches to the corners to break it up and then it can be pulled down into the firebox. The old ash vac died and the new one ordered is more powerful so hopefully cures that issue.

 

[Homeschool Mom]

I am not sure about the heat exchanger, but will get it cleaned out. I have messed with the feed rate of pellets. I have also pushed other buttons in the settings menu trying to reset things, but I wasn't very successful at that.

Service records just show a few deep cleanings over the years. I know that the local stove shop that doesn't sell Ravelli's hadn't seen the stove ever when they came out in August, but the man, too the cleaning instructions that I had and went through them step by step. He did have to shorten the stack outside by 2 ft 7 years ago and also had issues with the pellets not feeding fast enough at this time as well.

When I start the stove, there will be a visible amount of pellets in the pot. They will have flame and be red hot. This may go on for 15-30 minutes, the flame goes low, and the chamber fills with pellets, There are always pellets in the hopper, even though the alarm says otherwise. Sometimes it will go through a heating cycle okay and then later on the chamber is full of pellets.

As far as ash vac goes. I have a Power Smith PAVC101 10 Amp Ash Vacuum. When I lean things out, I vacuum the walls and crevices of the chamber, take out the metal insert around the pot, vacuum the pot, vacuum all around the ash bucket area and inside the ash bucket. I try and keep this area as clean as possible and vacuum after each 40lb of pellet bag is used. Lately, I've done more vacuuming because of the pellets in the stove chamber area that I can't get to. I'm not sure if it's a powerful vacuum, but so far it's done the job that I need it do.

 

[Lake Girl]

If you look at page 25 of the manual, it shows a rectangular plate on each side. Did they remove those plates when they cleaned? I have a dryer lint brush and a hose attached to the shop vac (with drywall bag) that I use when I deep clean.
http://www.pelletinfo.net/images/stories/Handleidingen/Kachels/Handleiding Ecoteck.pdf

 

[Homeschool Mom]

They were removed when each cleaning was done.

 

[Lake Girl]

How is the exhaust venting set up? Checked to make sure that the outside air is not blocked?

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

During the last deep cleaning, maybe the exhaust temperature sensor was not properly re-inserted into the red gasket on the exhaust blower housing. This would make the sensor read a lower than actual exhaust temperature, which could trip the Pellets Finished AL06, and shut down the stove. The metal tip of the temp sensor is about an inch long, and should be slid into the red gasket far enough so you can just see the end of the solid metal end, right before the braided flexible wire section starts. You need to remove the left side cabinet panel to get to this temp sensor.

Also, my cleaning routine:
Every 3 to 5 bags of pellets, I clean my Ecoteck Elena as follows : takes about 10 minutes :
1) Remove Flame trap triangular plate at top of firebox and vacumm around the heat exchanger tubes and the perimeter of the square opening just below the tubes. A "crevice" tool/nozzle on my ShopVac (with HEPA filter) works great. Move the scraper to the full out position to vaccum the rear edge of the square opening.
2) Use a soft 4 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 !
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 do the "Leaf Blower" trick, to do a deep-clean. You must remember to temporarily remove the rubber hose that connects the vacuum switch to the exhaust port nipple, so the high level of vacuum from the leaf blower does not damage the vacuum switch.

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.

 

[Lake Girl]

All my photos are on the other hard-drive in the office ... found one of the temp probe that NJ refers to. Bioburner's post included a pic on this thread
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/pellet-stove-issues-ecoteck.106555/page-2

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

See the picture in post #47, in the above link.

 

[Homeschool Mom]

With the pellet feed increased to 5 the stove appears to be working correctly again. Fingers crossed it stays that way. I will check the sensor Pelleting in NJ mentioned next if this doesn't do the trick.

Pelleting in NJ and Lake Girl Thank you for the advice. You both honestly helped me to trouble shoot this. I've never had a pellet stove before and only had friends that had them in the past. The wives would complain when the husband didn't clean them enough and that is what I remember. I'm learning and knew cleaning the stove was important and will continue to be vigilant about doing so. I appreciate your help and information more than you know.

 

[Lake Girl]

With the pellet feed increased to 5 the stove appears to be working correctly again.

What heat/power level are you running at?

 

[Homeschool Mom]

I believe it's a 3 and 5 for the pellet feed. Fingers crossed it works for more than a few runs.

 

[Lake Girl]

As luck would have it, I woke up to the same alarm on my Elena Air. Turns out the auger motor died I'm calling jinx on Pelleting in NJ with his squeaky auger in February! We have a spare lightly used Elena that we had bought thinking to install a second stove in our home. Insurance company was going to charge me an additional premium value equal to half of the original insurance so it got stored in the garage. It's minus an auger now and I will have to contact North Forge for a replacement. Did my 1000 hour cleaning since it was due. Glad the Elena is back to throwing the heat.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

Lake Girl : Sorry….my bad for the jinx !……

I would try to lube the old motor, bet the bearings are just dry. I used a few drops of synthetic motor oil (Mobil-1 0W-40). Was it making noise before it stopped?

Some info, based on my observations.

The original motor in my stove was made by Merkle Korff, part number = B4415UP. I actually measured its RPM, when the stove was new, because it did not have that info on the label. I measured it at 2.4RPM, clockwise when observing the output shaft of the motor.

Last year, I ordered a back-up motor from Woodmans Parts Plus, price $142, they called it “pn=55211” The part is made by Mellor Electrics Ltd (England), and has a Ravelli label “115V 60 hz 2RPM, Job# 15599, Mellor Electrics FB1256”. It indeed runs at 2RPM, also clockwise.

So, I don’t think I got the 100% correct motor, 2RPM is 20% slower than 2.4RPM, so it could still be used if the auger parameter settings (PR6 thru PR10 "Screw Duration") of the stove are each increased by 20%. No big deal, so I kept the new motor.

However, on Ebay, there are 2.4RPM clockwise motors for sale, with the same output shaft. They are used in Englander Stoves, motor part number = CU-047042, and are sold for $128 ($118+$10 S&H). Search Ebay for “2 .4 RPM ENGLANDER STOVE AUGER MOTOR - CU-047042 NEW - VERY QUIET”

I think this is the more correct motor for my stove, and probably yours too (Ecoteck/Ravelli may have made a motor change in production, with a corresponding 20% tweek to the auger parameters)

What OEM and part number is on the motor you removed?

 

[Lake Girl]

No noise from the auger ... The motor is the same one as the one on yours - the Merkle Korff B4415UP. Haven't taken a good look at it to see if it can be revived. Noticed the auger shaft where it inserts into the upper bearing has some noticeable scoring. Any idea how tough it is to replace the upper bearing? Noticed it is not mentioned on the Woodsman's website. The lower bearing comes integral to the bearing/stop plate? Also not listed on the website. I did notice the ebay motor but didn't realize it was interchangeable with the Elena so thanks for the heads up!

Any particular servicing for the combustion motor that you would recommend? I know these are all sealed bearings so not sure what else would prove helpful other than the routine shot of air to try to keep clear of dust...

PS What size is the door gasket? I bought a replacement (can't remember size now) but want to make sure it is the right size before I pull the old one apart. Of course, not cited in the book...