Ravelli Sophia Stove burn pot fills fast

[dleighs]

Hi Everyone,

We bought a Sophia Ravelli pellet stove last year and it's worked great so far. The problem that has developed in the last week or so is the burn pot fills very fast, within a couple hours and then the pellets fall out over the grill and do not burn. Has anyone encountered this and do you have recommendations on what we should be looking at to fix this? It's at the #1 setting so it shouldn't be needing to be cleaned within 3 hours of initial start up.

Thank you,
Deb.

 

[Bioburner]

When was the last time the stove has gone thru a strip down cleaning? If the stove does not breath well it can't properly blow clean the pot if its like my Italian stove
Welcome

 

[dleighs]

When was the last time the stove has gone thru a strip down cleaning? If the stove does not breath well it can't properly blow clean the pot if its like my Italian stove
Welcome

Any suggestions on where I can find a guide to do that?

 

[Bioburner]

You owners manual should detail the annual cleaning procedure as well as a cleaning after a ton. I know many stove makes have online cleaning details on youtube. Good luck. There are a handful of owners of that stove line on this site.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

My cleaning routine (Similar Ravelli /Ecoteck Elena model) :
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.

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.

 

[Bioburner]

Need to make a video as many have no idea what those items are that you describe.

 

[Lake Girl]

The only difference I have in my cleaning routine (compared to Pelleting in NJ) is that I use a inexpensive dryer lint brush in the side clean-out ports. At the end of the year at least, I pull the exhaust blower, paint brush to clean ash off blades and vacuum the area. I also disconnect vac switch to make sure ash has not clogged the port on the exhaust housing. My venting cleaning is easy as it is a 3' horizontal only. Attached are a couple of photos ...

 

[Bioburner]

I found that using the leaf blower trick has made the Elena's cleaning far more manageable and less often.