Ravelli Roma poor burn & leaving clunkers

[wolfmajor]

My Roma insert is 1.5 years old. No problems until the later half of this season when the burn started getting very sooty and leaving a pot full of clinkers. I am religious about cleaning the stove and historically, it would need a good cleaning every 5 days or so. Now, I can't even get 24 hours of a good burn before I'm shutting it down. Yesterday, about 15 hours after the most recent clean, the burn pot was full of a clunker and pellets were on fire all around the pot in the overflow bin (picture 2)! I was afraid I'd end up with a hopper fire.

This past Friday, I had an authorized Ravelli service tech come to perform a complete clean and adjust the settings to get a better burn. He pulled the stove out, cleaned the T, cleaned inside the burn chamber, then restarted it. Of course, it runs beautifully initially after cleaning, but he made some adjustments to the settings and left. The next day, it had repeated the poor burn and full burn pot (image 3).

Just a few weeks ago, we thought maybe the poor condition of the burn pot was responsible for the issues, so the shop replaced it under warranty. It was cracked and distorted (picture 1) and they couldn't answer my question as to why it would have gotten so bad after such a short time. So, the burn pot is new right now, so that doesn't seem to be the biggest factor.

I have recorded all of the TF settings in the controller. My only reference to whether these settings are reasonable is to compare them to someone else's settings that posted on another thread here. 90% of the settings are identical, but others aren't. Does anyone have experience with the settings? I hate the Italian English translation of words, since some of them make no sense at all ("preheating candle"???)? I'm going to bug the retailer that sold it to me to continue to explore what the issue is. I have until September with this warranty and of course, it won't be running through late spring and summer...so by the time I fire it up again, it'll be out of warranty. But, something isn't right and as far as I'm concerned, having paid what I did for this stove, I expect more than a year of good performance!

Anyone else experiencing the same issues? Also, has anyone else gotten a hold of the tech codes? I understand why they would lock out most customers, but there are some of us that are more than capable (with the right resources/information) of making our own adjustments.

Thanks!!

 

[tbear853]

Any change in pellet lots or brands?

I had a cracked burn pot floor, it leaked air where it shouldn't and caused some minor issues, I replaced it and the stove run like new until I tried some different pellets, then it started running hot, leaving clinkers, filling the ash pan with scorched, not burnt clinkers too. Door glass would develop a thick coat of black soot overnight. It was bad. I thought it maybe had a leaking door gasket letting the fan pull room air in instead of pulling outside air through the new burn pot. It was a mess, I used up those pellets soon, dumping many half burnt or just roasted, then I got back to the good ones I've been burning since the '90s, stove has been running them last couple weeks, like new. No clinkers, no half burnt waste, just converts wood pellets to a fine ash again. No waste, and nearly no soot either.

 

[wolfmajor]

I'm using the same brand of pellets since the stove was new. Since it's basically tuned to a specific wood, I didn't dare change that.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Just because you use the same brand means nothing really. It all depends on where the extruder sources their feedstock at. The Only extruder that I know of the has consistent feedstock is Somerset Pellets. They use feedstock scrap from their flooring mill in Kentucky and they harvest their own timber too.

Everyone else (that I know of) sources their feedstock from where ever they can get it. Could be scrap pallets or timber slash, a crapshoot.

Burnpot looks nasty.

 

[tbear853]

Just because you use the same brand means nothing really. It all depends on where the extruder sources their feedstock at. The Only extruder that I know of the has consistent feedstock is Somerset Pellets. They use feedstock scrap from their flooring mill in Kentucky and they harvest their own timber too.

I've heard of Somerset, but I was steered to Hamer's back in the '90s before Souther States had them rebranded, tried others but always was met with disappointment. I don't know about source wood but guessing West Virginia hardwoods, they have been consistent good burners in my old stove. Only exception was once some got wet or damp somehow? I had a couple ton stored in a dry shed for several years, finally used them up to clear some shed space, they were great to.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I've used Hammers in the past as well as Somerset and a few others but then I'm not particular with corn (adding pellets at a 4-1 ratio for the clinker issue), but I will say the Hammers did well but so did Somerset. Lignetics, not so good. I'm approaching the time when I'll switch to 100% pellets to mitigate the nitric issue anyway. I use the pellets to drive off the corrosive nitric vapor.

 

[Monica in France]

My burn pot looks just like that .
It was like that when I aquired the stove some seven years ago now. Doesn't stop the stove working really well sometimes.
Othertimes it clogs up just like yours. Times like now , near the end of the season when it needs to be taken out and cleaned with compressed air , the chimney swept , etc , etc : in other words when the whole installation needs a really good clean.
If you add '+5' on the exhaust fan revs , you will buy yourself a bit of time : but a good clean is the answer.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Like I said in another thread, I pull my burnpot and soak it it warm water (which will loosen all the carbon and clear the holes) while I clean my unit and then I scotchbrite the pot inside and replace it. It's squeaky clean. In fact, this year I bought an extra pot so I have one soaking while the other is in service. I guess doing that will depend entirely on how easy (or hard) it is to remove it. In my case, pot removal takes about 15 seconds max, it lifts right out. Clean pot makes for a happy stove.

 

[pn27416]

Wolfmajor, wow. Same issues I have had! Just starting into my third season and I have had this happen 3 times. I feel this is a concerning issue, way to much heat! One time it warped my ash pan. My dealer could not give me a good answer, but did say there new to Ravelli insert stoves and do not have any past experience. They also agree the manual sucks, way to hard to understand for english. There service tech was as green as me with the inserts. One of my thoughts was that the auger is staying on and overflowing the burn pot until pellets fill and burn in the ash pot. Not good, not safe! I clean my stove once a day with a major open it all up cleaning when the stove warns me its due. Then you need a reset code but luckily when my dealers service guy came for the cleaning, he was so busy that he just came by to say he wasn't going to get to me. He gave me the code to get in and do it. I am way more thorough then he'll ever be on cleaning, no dig on him . Its just mine. Another though was a dirty burn pot. I got a new one and measured all the holes, they do close over time so I open then back to the correct size every week or so. I increased the fan speed and slowed the pellet drop to hopefully get a more thorough burn, seems better. I tried going directly to Ravelli to ask for help but found no USA customer service. Send 2 emails with photos to there home base in Italy nicely asking for thoughts, got no response. Did get a little help off there facebook page but it was basiclly contact your dealer. I explaining to them my dealer is new to these and could they help or guide me in the right direction, anything. They stopped answering and think they blocked me. Poor way to back you're product in my opinion. Did your tech do a complete clean? The basic cleaning info in the manual falls way short of how to do a complete clean. I even put a small cloths dryer lint trap vacum hose on my shop vac to get up in places. I also use a long flexible brush to get in places to loosen the soot.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

Did they clean the exhaust passages behind the firebox, thru the clean-out / inspection hatches? There are two rectangular sheet metal plates (hatches), held on with two screws, on the sides of the firebox. These are only accessable if the stove insert is pulled-out. See the 10th page of the attached Roma Maintenance Manual, for diagrams of the inspection hatches. The large flat exhaust cavity behind these plates needs to be cleaned every season. The exhaust fan should also be removed (usually about 6 philips head screws) every season to clean its blades and housing.

Your warped/cracked burnpot is not the cause of your problem, you are not getting enough combustion air thru the firebox. Most burn pots will eventually warp and crack....I am on my 2nd burnpot in 10 years of use of my Ecoteck/Ravelli stove, and am soon due for a new one.

Also check if your combustion air intake is clogged/restricted.

It sounds like your stove shop has no clue what they are doing........

 

[wolfmajor]

Did they clean the exhaust passages behind the firebox, thru the clean-out / inspection hatches? There are two rectangular sheet metal plates (hatches), held on with two screws, on the sides of the firebox. These are only accessable if the stove insert is pulled-out. See the 10th page of the attached Roma Maintenance Manual, for diagrams of the inspection hatches. The large flat exhaust cavity behind these plates needs to be cleaned every season. The exhaust fan should also be removed (usually about 6 philips head screws) every season to clean its blades and housing.

Your warped/cracked burnpot is not the cause of your problem, you are not getting enough combustion air thru the firebox. Most burn pots will eventually warp and crack....I am on my 2nd burnpot in 10 years of use of my Ecoteck/Ravelli stove, and am soon due for a new one.

Also check if your combustion air intake is clogged/restricted.

It sounds like your stove shop has no clue what they are doing........

After another round of clunkers, I finally pulled the stove out to vacuum out the clean outs. They were pretty full. I also vacuumed out the exhaust T and feel it's about as clean as it will get. I pushed it back in and plugged it into the outlet, but there was no power. I discovered the plug to the back of the stove had come unplugged.

It took a few minutes, but now I see that the cord is attached to a lever that's spring loaded. Looks like you have to pull it down in order to get the plug end anywhere near where it gets plugged into the stove. BUT, how on earth are you supposed to be able to grab it, pull the lever down, and plug it into the stove while it's open?

I'm so frustrated with this stove. I spent so much time cleaning out the traps and exhaust, but now can't get power to it. Please tell me there's a quick little trick to this. You can see the rod I'm talking about on page 3 of then maintenance manual. Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

Looks like you just need to attach the cord to the spring loaded arm, with enough slack that the cord can be plugged-in at both ends, when the stove is slid out.

 

[pn27416]

I had no issues with my power cord. If I recall as pelleting in NJ mentioned, that's the way to do it. There's plenty of cord