Ravelli RV80 blower problem

[Doug richard]

Hello, I'm new here and am having a problem with my Ravelli RV80. Ive had it 3 seasons now and never had a problem. I first notice the when the stove displayed " hot smokes " and my first reaction was to clean all the exhaust piping and throughly clean the stove. I did so and still had the problem. I then notice that the stove was on work mode and yet the blower motor was not blowing at full power. I always have the stove set to power level 5 ( MAX ) and the temp to around 70. So the problem is the blower is not functioning properly with the what mode its in. Sometimes the blower motor will completely stop, and the stove gets extreamly hot. If I reach in and spin the fan it will restart most times. Funny thing is if the blower is stopped and I power the stove down it goes into " final cleaning " mode and the blower motor will turn on. So the motor seems fine.

Ive done multiple searches and called my local dealer and no one know's anything about this stove. Its frustrating, I knew 3 years ago when I bought it that it was new to the USA but I thought by now it would be more known.

Thanks,

Doug

 

[rich2500]

I would start by checking the blower motor and make sure it's not caked up with dust or pet hair (if you have pets )

 

[Doug richard]

I would start by checking the blower motor and make sure it's not caked up with dust or pet hair (if you have pets )

Hi Rich,

I will try taking the blower fan and motor out tonight and cleaning it and get back with how it looks.
Thanks for the tip!

 

[Bkins]

If you have the motor out it can't hurt to oil it. A lot of motors have sealed bearing which make it hard, if not impossible, to get oil into the bearings but I've found it can be done with some patience and some creativity. 3in 1 oil works but get the can designed for motors, I believe it is the blue can.
Also I will mention that most stoves are not designed to run on their highest setting all the time. You may be experiencing some of the problems encountered by doing so. It's usually thought that if the stove needs to be on its highest setting to maintain the heat your looking for that you need a bigger stove. I'm sure there are members who feel it's ok to run their stoves at full bore all the time but I'm not one of them. I've seen in owners manuals that they say no to do it.

Back on subject let us know what you find out by pulling the motor and fan assembly. What is this "hot smokes" you mentioned?

 

[Doug richard]

Ok, Thanks I will try that while its out. I would like to get a bigger stove and will be looking into it. In the meantime I will be running this one on high. The stove is from Italy and the manual is translated like crap to be blunt. Same goes for the display. " hot smokes " is a message I receive on the screen when the convection fan turns off and the stove continues to run. I'm assuming this is because the stove is overheating since all the heat its producing is not being blown out.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

Are you talking about the combustion blower or the room blower?

The "Hot Smokes" message means that the exhaust temperature sensor has sensed that the exhaust temp is too high. When this happens, the room blower should run at max speed, and the pellet feed rate is reduced, to cool the stove down. If your room blower blades are too dirty (dust/lint), or something else is restricting the air flow through the heat exchanger, that will trigger the Hot Smokes alarm. Or perhaps your room blower is intermittent, or the bearings are going, slowing it down, or seizing. Could also be a failing capacitor for the motor (the can thing with two wires that go to the fan motor, about the size of a C battery). The last thing it could be is a bad triac on the control board (it controls the 110VAC that is applied to the motor, to control it's speed).

I doubt it is a problem with the combustion blower, as the control board senses the actual RPM of the combustion blower, and if it is not spinning at the correct RPM, that will trip a different alarm warning message.

I have been running my Ecoteck/Ravelli Elena stove at full blast power level P5 since I have owned it, for 5 years, going thru about 15 total tons of pellets, and other than a small crack that just appeared in my burn pot, the stove has been fine. Eventually all stoves will get a cracked burn pot. As an Engineer, if a stove can't be run at full power, then it is a poor design....purposely over-rated in its BTU capacity for marketing purposes.....Your home furnace is designed to run at 100% of its BTU rating for it's entire life...a pellet stove should be no different.

 

[Doug richard]

Are you talking about the combustion blower or the room blower?

The "Hot Smokes" message means that the exhaust temperature sensor has sensed that the exhaust temp is too high. When this happens, the room blower should run at max speed, and the pellet feed rate is reduced, to cool the stove down. If your room blower blades are too dirty (dust/lint), or something else is restricting the air flow through the heat exchanger, that will trigger the Hot Smokes alarm. Or perhaps your room blower is intermittent, or the bearings are going, slowing it down, or seizing. Could also be a failing capacitor for the motor (the can thing with two wires that go to the fan motor, about the size of a C battery). The last thing it could be is a bad triac on the control board (it controls the 110VAC that is applied to the motor, to control it's speed).

I doubt it is a problem with the combustion blower, as the control board senses the actual RPM of the combustion blower, and if it is not spinning at the correct RPM, that will trip a different alarm warning message.

I have been running my Ecoteck/Ravelli Elena stove at full blast power level P5 since I have owned it, for 5 years, going thru about 15 total tons of pellets, and other than a small crack that just appeared in my burn pot, the stove has been fine. Eventually all stoves will get a cracked burn pot. As an Engineer, if a stove can't be run at full power, then it is a poor design....purposely over-rated in its BTU capacity for marketing purposes.....Your home furnace is designed to run at 100% of its BTU rating for it's entire life...a pellet stove should be no different.

Lots of good info, Thanks! I'm talking about the room fan. It just stops when ever it feels like it. I took the blower fan and motor out tonight and each blade had 1/16" of dust on it. It took me a while it get it all off each blade with Q tips. Put everything back together and it's running good right now and seems like the fan is spinning faster. It has a rubber end cap that the fan sits in with a plastic insert to center it. I'm wondering if I should put some type of grease in there? It does this sometimes after I shut it down- runs perfect for a day or 2 then starts acting up again. I have my fingers crossed though!
I didn't attempt to oil the motor, it's sealed like you thought and I figured I'd put it back together first and see where I'm at.

 

[Doug richard]

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

So, from your picture, it looks like Ravelli now uses a cheaper motor for the room blower. That kind of motor does not use a capacitor, like the EBM Pabst motor does on the older stove models. The EBM motors have ball bearings, the newer motor probably has an oil impregnated bronze sleeve bearing.

Yes, looks like you had a dirty fan, but you should also blow-out the motor, and sparingly lubricate its bearings with a light machine oil (not grease). Also sparingly lubricate the end bearing on the blade wheel. Too much oil will attract its own "family" of dust bunnies.......

 

[rich2500]

that fan setup is the exact same as in my serenity,I think that's why the fans are so quiet being mounted in the rubber, fan assy is probably from china

 

[Doug richard]

So, from your picture, it looks like Ravelli now uses a cheaper motor for the room blower. That kind of motor does not use a capacitor, like the EBM Pabst motor does on the older stove models. The EBM motors have ball bearings, the newer motor probably has an oil impregnated bronze sleeve bearing.

Yes, looks like you had a dirty fan, but you should also blow-out the motor, and sparingly lubricate its bearings with a light machine oil (not grease). Also sparingly lubricate the end bearing on the blade wheel. Too much oil will attract its own "family" of dust bunnies.......

What's the best way to go about lubricating the motor bearings?
I woke up this morning and the stove was on work mode ( room fan should be running full blast ) and the fan was barley spinning. It was spinning slower than it would on modulation mode. Do you think this could be from the motor needing oil? Or maybe the motor needs replacing? Or could it be an electrical issue? I was really hoping it was fixed, but of course it's not.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

With the stove off, does the fan spin easily with your fingers...or does it seem to drag? If it spins easily it sounds like a bad motor, or problem with the control board. Are there any labels/markings/part numbers on the motor?

 

[Doug richard]

It has a drag to it. Here are a few pics of motor markings. My dealer says they only sell the motor with the fan assembly and it's 170$. Worst part is the soonest they could have it is 2 weeks maybe longer. I don't want to order it since I don't know for sure if it's even that.

 

[Doug richard]

So, from your picture, it looks like Ravelli now uses a cheaper motor for the room blower. That kind of motor does not use a capacitor, like the EBM Pabst motor does on the older stove models. The EBM motors have ball bearings, the newer motor probably has an oil impregnated bronze sleeve bearing.

Yes, looks like you had a dirty fan, but you should also blow-out the motor, and sparingly lubricate its bearings with a light machine oil (not grease). Also sparingly lubricate the end bearing on the blade wheel. Too much oil will attract its own "family" of dust bunnies.......

I took the motor apart tonight and it seemed like you're right, it has a bronze sleeve on each side of the motor. there seemed to be no oil or grease of any kind on the shaft, but there was some debris. I wiped each shaft down and re-assembled. I was hesitant to add any oil because I don't have anything I felt comfortable using. Any suggestions? The motor is super easy to take out. So I could always add some. Stove is running now and fan is working perfectly. We'll see how it's doing tomorrow.

 

[Lake Girl]

Just found this on the emb pabst fans & how to "revive" them

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[Lake Girl]

The other style blower on the older Ecotecks found here: (broken link removed)

$634 ... absolutely nuts!

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

$634....But you probably will never have to replace it...

 

[Lake Girl]

Not everyone realizes that the bearings can be replaced... Not sure if the stove shops would offer the option of replacing bearings either

PS If I wasn't looking here, I wouldn't have known either!

 

[Doug richard]

So just an update.. Stove has been running for over 48 hours perfectly since I took the motor out, took it apart, cleaned and reassembled. All I basically did when it was apart was wiped down the shafts where it slides into the bearing on either side with a rag and removed a small amount of debris.

 

[Monica in France]

That is serious crud on your room fan.
I had mine out the other week thinking that it might be responsible for an ominous noise emanating from the stove.
Hoping there was a pellet caught up in it : but it was as clean as a whistle.
If you have all that on the fan itsself have you thought of checking that the heating channels are totally free ?
I clean mine out with compressed air at the end of each season.

The noise actually came from the smoke fan which was suffering from a bad bearing.
A little oil , dripped hopefully in the right area ,solved the problem for a week.
But I found no way to dismantle the blades so I could get at the motor and do the job properly.
I was obliged to change the whole unit . Not $600 but I still felt ripped off.
The old unit had heavy metal , exponentially curved blades. The unit was balanced.
The replacement has cheap impeller blades and causes the whole stove to vibrate at cleaning speeds.
Does any one know how to dismantle the original fan unit ?
For a starter , you need to remove the fan blades , this could even be a "heat" fit , but that seems unlikely on an exhaust fan.
No obvious woodruff key : no obvious anything.

 

[Lake Girl]

Does any one know how to dismantle the original fan unit ?

Do you have any photos of where you are at with dismantling?

 

[Monica in France]

Hi Lake Girl,
Sorry so long to reply , but I needed to find someone with a camera that worked.
So I have two pics - but how do I add them to this post ?
I know it can be done : but how ?

 

[Lake Girl]

You can upload your photos using upload a file option below the text box bottom right...

 

[Monica in France]

Oh dear , I am getting old and stupid.

 

[Lake Girl]

I'm out my way out the door but .... that impeller looks nothing like what is on my stove I have to see if I have photos of mine (may have been lost on the old computer)