E7 error code on a pellet heater is caused by a power failure. If the power goes out while the pellet heater is running, it will switch off without shutting down properly. If this happens, the fire in the burn pot will continue to burn. However, with no exhaust fan running to vent the smoke from the fire outside of the house, you may find that smoke starts to come out of the heater into the room it is in. If you have an outside air kit installed, then most of the smoke will go out of the air kit but you may find that some still enters the room the heater is in.
What to Do if You Experience E7 Error Code
If your pellet heater is displaying an E7 error code message and the fire is still burning, you’ll need to clear the code and switch it on and off to properly extinguish the fire. First clear the E7 error. Press and hold down the thumbs up button for a few seconds until your heater beeps. With the error message cleared, press the power button as you normally would to start heating. As soon as your pellet heater starts powering up and goes through the start-up cycle, press and hold the power button to switch it off. The exhaust fan will switch on and blow the smoke out of your heater and extinguish the fire in the burn pot.
How to Prevent E7 Error Code
The only way you can stop your pellet heater from going out during a blackout is to provide backup power. Backup power, as touched on my best backup power solutions for a pellet heater, fall into two categories: UPS or generator. A UPS is the cheapest and easiest way to keep your heater running during a blackout. The UPS plugs into the wall and the pellet heater plugs into the UPS. Inside of the UPS are batteries which detect when the power goes out and these batteries keep your pellet heater running. The downside to a UPS is the limited battery capacity and at most can run your pellet heater without power for about 2 hours at most.
A UPS is only good for when the power goes out for short periods of time. However, if the power goes out for hours or for days then you may want to look at getting a generator. The best setup here is to use a UPS with a generator. Plug the UPS into the wall as normal and pellet heater into the UPS. If the power goes out, the UPS will keep the pellet heater running but only for a few hours. To keep the UPS charged, unplug it from the wall and plug it into the generator. The generator will keep the UPS battery charged while it is powering your pellet heater until the power comes back on.
E7 Error Code Summary
E7 error code is caused by a loss of power on a pellet heater. The best way to prevent this from happening is to use a UPS or generator if the power goes out for long periods of time. Pellet heaters don’t use much power and a UPS will provide you with enough time to shut down your pellet heater if the power doesn’t come back and is much more affordable than a generator. If the power goes out briefly and comes back on, then clear the error code. Once cleared, start and stop the pellet heater so any smoke will be blown out the exhaust and the fire is extinguished.
The PFTas pellet heater manual will provide some brief and basic information about Error codes.
