Ravelli Roma opinions?

[revolutionrock]

Hi all. Our Enviro Empress, which is about 10 years old and came with the house, is noisy as all hell. Given that fact, and that it doesn't operate using any sort of thermostat or scheduling — fancy stuff — we're looking to replace it.

A dealer here in Northern MA carries the Ravelli Roma, which appears to be Ravelli's entrance into the insert market here in North America. My parents own a Ravelli stand-alone unit and love it, and the Roma is intriguing because: a) it has the bells and whistles, b) it appears to be very efficient on pellets, and c) it's just a nice-looking stove. I looked around and didn't see a lot of posts on it, presumably because it's a fairly new stove, but I'm curious if anyone out there has opinions.

Anyone here own one and willing to comment on it? At this point we're either going to go with the Roma or an Accentra insert, with the Accentra being the more expensive option. At this point we just want a stove that heats the house (~2000 square feet), is quiet enough to avoid cranking the TV volume at night (we have a toddler that we would like to not wake up), and is reliable and fairly easy to have serviced.

Thanks!

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

People are generally happy with their Ravelli/Ecotech stoves :

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/views-on-ravelli-pellet-stoves.159164/

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

Check with WMCCORMCIK https://www.hearth.com/talk/members/wmccormick.62277/
he has a Roma stove.

 

[jerrieric]

I own a Ravalli RV 100c. Love the stove but allot of the settings are locked down. My flow meter was not working and Ravelli's answer via dealer was to shut it off and I got the password to do that from dealer. That happened in 11/18 and still no solution. If you buy a ravelli be sure you have dependable service close by

 

[PelletPractitioner]

I also bought a Ravelli 100c. I was told it has the same internals as the insert. It’s a quality stove but I’m not sure I’d buy it again. It’s the only stove I’ve owned so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

It is locked down. I also have the password so I can play around with the fan speeds and pellet feed rate. You can’t do that normally.

The blower is loud. I’m somewhat sensitive. It suppose it is what it is. I turned down the default blower setting by 40%. I’m only hearing 400-700 sqft of the upstairs bilevel in CT so it works.

I run it on the lowest setting most of the time. Even so it eats about 3/4 to 1 bag in 18 hours. (5am-11pm). It probably runs on medium setting the first two hours every morning to heat up the room. I am disappointed. I selected this model because the literature said its burntime is 10-41hr. Yeah right. On the lowest setting it is 20 hours. I cut the pellet feed rate in half today (they tell you in the manual not to do that as I’m sure it invalidates rhe EPA emission tests) as an experiment and went 16 hours on a half bag. 65F in the upper level of a bilevel 1970s 1600sqft house. 37 outside. Need to fix a draft. At any rate, I feel like I was lied to about max burn time. I expected 40 hour burn time at 8,500 BTUh.

Reliability: burned two tons this season since I put it in. Runs perfect. No issues. Scheduled to turn on every morning at 5am at level 3/5 power. It turns down to 1 when temp is met.

The redeeming factor is, with the dealer password that you can find on the internet, I could customize my pellet feed, air intake, and fan speeds for each of the 5 power settings so I can choose my own thresholds of what I find to be quiet or efficient.

I really wish I had something else to compare it to. I feel like it is a bit hyped and overstated for efficiency, but it’s still a well-built, well-performing stove.

I’m actually considering selling it and buying a wood stove at this point for the silence factor, combined with a ductless mini split. But it’s hard to beat having the stove turn on every morning before you get up to hear your house...