Stove settings advice - Ravelli Dual 7

[donaldjboyer]

Hey everyone!

I have a Ravelli Dual 7 which is approx 5 months old. We are having a lot of problems with the auger becoming blocked at the top (at the area where the pellets will fall down the chute into the firebox).
The pellets seems to get ground into coarse powder (photos attached) which then causes the auger to become blocked and unable to rotate.
Other things I've noticed which may be helpful:

• The glass is black almost constantly. The black stuff wipes off easily.
• The flames go to the top of the firebox, and I'd describe them as 'lazy' in appearance.
• The stove doesn't seem to output as much heat as I'd expect.
• I have tried 5 different brands of pellets. There is no noticeable difference between brands.
• The remote for this stove has a menu option of 'Set Air-Pellet' which then allows pellet and flow settings (but I do not know what these mean)

Can I please have some help from this community around how to sort this stove? The supplier is not being helpful and before I go down the legal route, I'd like to explore sorting it myself.

Thanks in advance

Donald,

New Zealand

 

[johneh]

That material does not look like wood pellets more like wood chips
Lazy flame is lack of air to the fire or a dirty stove (ash) blockage)

 

[donaldjboyer]

Thanks John,

I should have included a photo of the pellets - they look the same as in your photo when loading the hopper.

So it sounds like I need to give my stove a thorough cleaning. Any advice or do's & don'ts around this?
Any chance where I could buy / download a detailed 'workshop manual' type document for this stove?

That material does not look like wood pellets more like wood chips
Lazy flame is lack of air to the fire or a dirty stove (ash) blockage)

View attachment 313785

 

[johneh]

Try this manual has a pretty good cleaning section

https://us.piazzetta.com/sites/default/files/2019-09/MONIA%202.0_Product%20Information_Installation_Maintenance.pdf

 

[donaldjboyer]

Thank you!

First thing will be to clean it.

Following that, do you have any advice for how to appropriately adjust the pellet and/or air flow based on soot deposits or observed flame behavior etc?

Try this manual has a pretty good cleaning section

https://us.piazzetta.com/sites/default/files/2019-09/MONIA%202.0_Product%20Information_Installation_Maintenance.pdf

 

[johneh]

I am not really well versed in your stove
In general: Do you have an OAK installed (outside air kit)
Is your home a newer air-tight unit?
Try opening a window slightly while the stove is running
to see if the flame charities change.

 

[donaldjboyer]

Do you have an OAK installed (outside air kit) No
Is your home a newer air-tight unit? Relatively new, yes
Try opening a window slightly while the stove is running
to see if the flame charities change

I am not really well versed in your stove
In general: Do you have an OAK installed (outside air kit)
Is your home a newer air-tight unit?
Try opening a window slightly while the stove is running
to see if the flame charities change.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

The stove has either a restricted exhaust pipe, or a restricted intake air pipe. The intake air pipe (back of stove) should be open, if you do not have an outside air pipe connected to it. You need to fix this first, the stove does not have enough combustion air. When the pellets don't burn fast enough (because there is not enough air), the pellets fill-up the burnpot, and then the drop tube gets backed-up with even more pellets, causing the auger to grind up the pellets into flakes. This needs to be fixed quick, as continuing to use the stove as-is can cause a hopper-fire, if the flame burns up through the drop-tube, and down the auger tube (because they are filled with fuel), into the pellet bin (hopper).

Can you post a picture of the back of the stove, showing how the pipe (s) are connected? What is the total length of the exhaust pipe, how many 45 or 90 bends, and what is the diameter of the pipe?

The "Set Air-Pellet" is for fine-tuning the fuel-to-air ratio....your stove is burning way off the proper ratio.

Who installed this stove?

 

[Daniel-Hannah]

OP how did you get on? We also frequently have this problem with no real idea how to stop it. We use consistent pellets, and don't really have many options for purchasing pellets anyway. And there is no real instructions for clearing the auger either! For us it involves using a butter knife and shop vac to get is cleared enough for the auger to actually turn

 

[Whitenuckler]

OP how did you get on? We also frequently have this problem with no real idea how to stop it. We use consistent pellets, and don't really have many options for purchasing pellets anyway. And there is no real instructions for clearing the auger either! For us it involves using a butter knife and shop vac to get is cleared enough for the auger to actually turn

That is a bad situation. Have you been able to verify the combustion air? Is the flame good? You should never have to clear the auger tube normally as the pellet should be like new when dropped into the burn pot. You should have a 4 to 6 inch flame that is strong.
Make sure to try a DM too.

 

[Daniel-Hannah]

For the most part the pellets do drop in and look the same as they do in the hopper. It's almost like all the dust from the bottom of the bags eventually accumulates in the auger and compresses so much that it ends up stopping the auger turning. The stove then shuts down with an alarm 05 code.

The flame generally seems OK. Sometimes it gets carried away and burns like an extreme furnace, with flames to the top of the fire! I have just had a look at the settings and tried decreasing the pellet feed amount to see if that will help. Not sure how to verify the combustion air....I think the ventilation is set to automatic.

 

[Whitenuckler]

For the most part the pellets do drop in and look the same as they do in the hopper. It's almost like all the dust from the bottom of the bags eventually accumulates in the auger and compresses so much that it ends up stopping the auger turning. The stove then shuts down with an alarm 05 code.

The flame generally seems OK. Sometimes it gets carried away and burns like an extreme furnace, with flames to the top of the fire! I have just had a look at the settings and tried decreasing the pellet feed amount to see if that will help. Not sure how to verify the combustion air....I think the ventilation is set to automatic.

The proper way to check the combustion air is to measure the vacuum. I have not checked your manual. On mine there is a page that describes it. I understand you don't have many options for pellets there. If the pellets are too dusty and broken up, you might have to screen them before putting them in. Are you in heating season there?

 

[Daniel-Hannah]

The proper way to check the combustion air is to measure the vacuum. I have not checked your manual. On mine there is a page that describes it. I understand you don't have many options for pellets there. If the pellets are too dusty and broken up, you might have to screen them before putting them in. Are you in heating season there?

Oh goodness I have no idea how to do that, but hubby might, and we have the manual so that might help too. Yes it's winter here, where I live it's pretty mild, we usually only have the fire on for an hour or 2 in the evenings , and very occasionally during the day if it's cold and wet.

 

[Whitenuckler]

Oh goodness I have no idea how to do that, but hubby might, and we have the manual so that might help too. Yes it's winter here, where I live it's pretty mild, we usually only have the fire on for an hour or 2 in the evenings , and very occasionally during the day if it's cold and wet.

We are in late spring. My pellet stove is in the basement, and I am still running it like you are to take the chill off. I find it hard now to run it low enough so that it won't shut off too fast and then restart(thermostat mode). On and off running is not the best. It is best to keep it on all the time even if it is on low. I will do some reading tomorrow while you are sleeping I guess.

 

[Daniel-Hannah]

Yea we are up for the day now, so will do a bit of investigation ourselves as well. Ours in in the lounge room, and does heat well. The area we are in is not allowed wood burners (clean airspace area) so we had to get a pellet fire instead

 

[Whitenuckler]

Yea we are up for the day now, so will do a bit of investigation ourselves as well. Ours in in the lounge room, and does heat well. The area we are in is not allowed wood burners (clean airspace area) so we had to get a pellet fire instead

Hi I am just going through the manual and will make some notes:

The stove must be set up by a technician and program changes made.
The quality of the wood pellet must match the specification.
The pellets must not contain dust ect.
The air in the room where the stove is must be able to circulate with the rest of the house
A location central to the room is better
Pellets that produce high ash. Must clean every day.
Clinkers (hard pieces that stick) must be cleared of the burn pot liner air holes daily if required.
Page 10 - See pictures of the flame and the power setting 5
Page 11 - Self-cleaning firepot ??? Does this work? Do you have self Cleaning?
Combustion Chamber must be cleaned at least every 30 days - Check this more often
Page 27 - Automatic air flow measurements and warnings RDS ? Do you have RDS? If you do it may fail.
Do you get alarms when running?
Do you use fresh air run or room air?
Who installed it and programmed it? Was the installation data sheet filled out showing the vacuum reading?

This is the most advanced stove I have looked at. I hope you find some other users that run one.

 

[Daniel-Hannah]

The stove was set up and installed by a tech.

The wood pellet quality is a hard one. Coz we really only have one option of supplier

Doesn't seem to matter how often we clean the fire - burn pot/empty ash drawer or hopper the issue still happens. We do have a self emptying one, it empties the burn pot every time before it turns on.

I don't think we got any notes from the initial installer.

I will go back to the manual and look at the flame/power setting.

The stove alarms 05 - which is a general alarm according to the trouble shooting in manual

 

[Whitenuckler]

The stove was set up and installed by a tech.

The wood pellet quality is a hard one. Coz we really only have one option of supplier

Doesn't seem to matter how often we clean the fire - burn pot/empty ash drawer or hopper the issue still happens. We do have a self emptying one, it empties the burn pot every time before it turns on.

I don't think we got any notes from the initial installer.

I will go back to the manual and look at the flame/power setting.

The stove alarms 05 - which is a general alarm according to the trouble shooting in manual

Are you able to get the service tech back? I think he needs to measure the vacuum. Maybe if you get the
same company/tech he will have a record of his installation.
Alarm 5 No Switch On: could indicate "Pellet calibration and suction during switch on phase is incorrect." Page 28

I am hoping some other members can help but that stove is not very common on this site. Make sure to search on goggle.

I found what seems like a more detailed description of the menu's:

https://boutiquedufoyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/manuel-ravelli.pdf