# New Horizon Warranty



## Blue Tornado (Apr 1, 2013)

After reading some previous threads it appears that New Horizon (Zenon Pawlowski) has been cooperative with customers.

Maybe things have changed. This Eko25 boiler is not even two months old and purchased from New Horizon. It has had what appears to be a "component failure". Zenon is marginally cooperative at this point and says it is a result of operator error. I am bewildered.

At least he has responded to each email. Pics of failed capacitor are in this thread.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/eko25-capacitor-melt.108373/

What would you do in my shoes? Buy a new blower assembly from New Horizon or seek another source?


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## henfruit (Apr 1, 2013)

Can you just replace the capacitor?


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## Blue Tornado (Apr 1, 2013)

henfruit said:


> Can you just replace the capacitor?


An excerpt from one of our communications:


"So, trying to get more information to you, I disassembled the wiring block inside the plastic junction box on the blower. Took the hot from the controller and check to one wire going to blower – just a hummimg noise. Took the hot from the controller and check to second wire to blower – just a humming noise. Took the hot from controller and check to third wire – snap and it tripped the breaker in the wall panel."

Does the third wire tripping the breaker sound like there is more to it than just a bad capacitor? Like maybe it is in the windings of the blower motor causing the meltdown?


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## mikefrommaine (Apr 1, 2013)

The fan could have caused the capacitor failure or you could have had a bad capacitor.

I wouldn't be randomly connecting wires from your controller. If you want to troubleshoot it I'd take the fan out and connect it to line voltage. Without the capacitor you might have to spin the blades manually in order to get the fan started.


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## mikefrommaine (Apr 1, 2013)

Also looking at the pics in the other thread it looks like one of the wires might have been kinked or caught in the cover of the box when it was tightened down.


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## __dan (Apr 1, 2013)

Blue Tornado said:


> An excerpt from one of our communications:
> 
> 
> "So, trying to get more information to you, I disassembled the wiring block inside the plastic junction box on the blower. Took the hot from the controller and check to one wire going to blower – just a hummimg noise. Took the hot from the controller and check to second wire to blower – just a humming noise. Took the hot from controller and check to third wire – snap and it tripped the breaker in the wall panel."
> ...


 
The above gives me no clue as to what wire you moved where and saw what result. And I would second Mike's comments about not touching the wiring unless you were sure and knowledgeable about your actions, familiar with the circuit type (single speed, multi speed), what you were doing and what you expected to see as a result. You should not have been moving any wires and applying power if you saw the burned cap first.

If the unit is under warranty, you do not want to void the warranty by trying to fix it yourself and doing something the factory disagrees with. The blower and the capacitor is probably one factory unit, they probably buy the blower with the cap already on it as one part, so for warranty, the blower would be exchanged.

Electrolytic caps by themselves are cheap and a wear item. They fail routinely after five years or so by drying out. The rest of the electrical and electronics are very durable and long lived except for electrolytic caps. If in the future, you change the cap yourself, get the same, specified Farad rating, but go up as high as you can on the voltage rating, that's a better cap.

Communicate and follow the factory or dealer's instructions on how to repair under the factory warranty.


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## Blue Tornado (Apr 1, 2013)

mikefrommaine said:


> Also looking at the pics in the other thread it looks like one of the wires might have been kinked or caught in the cover of the box when it was tightened down.


Yes Mike, you are correct in your observation. Two wires show a break in the insulation from being pinched.




__dan said:


> If the unit is under warranty, you do not want to void the warranty by trying to fix it yourself and doing something the factory disagrees with.


Dan did you read the first post of this thread? Zenon's first action was to blame operator error and then later offered to send a free capacitor or sell another blower assembly at a discount. The boiler is less than two months old.

The funniest thing of all is that two friends were coming by to view the operation of the Eko25 as they are both serious in the market for a gasification unit. I bragged on it like it was the cat's*** and a great bargain at $4,000.


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## mikefrommaine (Apr 1, 2013)

I'd have him send you the capacitor. If that doesn't fix it I'd expect the whole assembly to be covered. Unless you were the one that pinched the wires. I'm not sure how operator error could have caused the melt down.


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## maple1 (Apr 1, 2013)

If he said operator error, he should also have said exactly what it was that was done in error. I can't see how operator error would cause that, unless you were tampering with it before it went kablooey.

How much would a new one be? I would lean to getting a new cap, and a new blower assembly (or controller or whatever it is), so I could fix the old one to have for a spare after putting the new one on.

BTW, haven't I read that someone else is selling different controllers that work on these boilers?


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## taxidermist (Apr 1, 2013)

LOL Are you sure that is what Zennon said? I cant understand anything he says. Have him send the cap and try that first.

Rob


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## Blue Tornado (Apr 1, 2013)

Sounds like a good plan to get another capacitor and hope that all will be well. Even if there is more to it, so be it.

I am not aware of what is going on with the Eko line but by the way this man is behaving, it could be that he is done with it. A first response to blame the consumer for such a thing is outrageous. The price of the unit is what leaned my choice to New Horizon and I knew there could be warranty problems in the future. Who woulda thunk within 2 months, lol.

The blower motor used in the Eko25 is made in Germany by an outfit called EBM-PAPST. There are a few online sites who offer them for sale.


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## Blue Tornado (Apr 1, 2013)

Rob says:

"LOL Are you sure that is what Zennon said? I cant understand anything he says. Have him send the cap and try that first."

I know what ya mean Rob. We spoke over the telephone once to clarify the total price of the boiler delivered. All communications concerning the melted capacitor has been by email. His statement is that I must have opened the secondary chamber door and a heat blast was the cause.


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## __dan (Apr 1, 2013)

Blue Tornado said:


> Dan did you read the first post of this thread? Zenon's first action was to blame operator error and then later offered to send a free capacitor or sell another blower assembly at a discount. The boiler is less than two months old.


 
I was only able to read the part that made sense.

Mike and Maple have you covered with good advice. Warranty handling is very standardized, just adhere to the standard routine. The part you want to swap is the blower assembly. Lean on Zenon for this. I'm sure he gets that piece with the cap included and does not add the cap himself. No reason you should have to add the cap yourself. The blower assembly is a bolt up plug in part and you are saving him warranty labor by offering to swap the blower yourself.

EBM Pabst is huge, a brand name. My only further concern would be if it is a quality ball bearing motor or something cheap with bushings (and predictably short lifetime). EBM Pabst is probably a good ball bearing unit, so you may be OK there, but that's what I would look at next.

Tell Zenon your electrician does not want to make repeated return service calls if the cap swap does not work. The blower smoked, it's under warranty, and your electrician wants a new blower. That would be the standard routine.

It's the process of elimination. If you swap the cap and that does not work you will want to swap the blower. If the new blower does not work you will want a new control board. Save yourself one round of hassle and swap the blower under warranty. Then, if that does not work, the control board may be suspect.


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## Hydronics (Apr 1, 2013)

I had a bad capacitor in one of the fans on my EKO 60 (they have 2) when I bought it. He sent me another one also.


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## mikefrommaine (Apr 1, 2013)

It kind of sounds like since EKO's are no longer being made he can't get reimbursed for warranty claims. Not good.


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## maple1 (Apr 1, 2013)

Blue Tornado said:


> Rob says:
> 
> "LOL Are you sure that is what Zennon said? I cant understand anything he says. Have him send the cap and try that first."
> 
> I know what ya mean Rob. We spoke over the telephone once to clarify the total price of the boiler delivered. All communications concerning the melted capacitor has been by email. His statement is that I must have opened the secondary chamber door and a heat blast was the cause.


 
Does your secondary chamber door have a warning in big letters 'do not open while burning or you might burn out your fan'? Or something similar? I highly doubt it - sounds lame to me.


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## henfruit (Apr 3, 2013)

Blue, How are you doing getting the boiler up and running?


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## kopeck (Apr 3, 2013)

mikefrommaine said:


> It kind of sounds like since EKO's are no longer being made he can't get reimbursed for warranty claims. Not good.


 
Is this true?  I hadn't heard that..

K


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## Blue Tornado (Apr 3, 2013)

henfruit said:


> Blue, How are you doing getting the boiler up and running?


Thanks for asking. Zenon has agreed to replace the assembly, it should arrive in a day or two. Will be glad to get off of these space heaters, it was 7 degrees at my place this morning.



kopeck said:


> Is this true? I hadn't heard that..


I am not sure if that is true but have heard rumors as such. It was a bit peculiar that his first notion was to deny warranty. Maybe that's his regular routine or was having a bad week or something else.


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## WmFritz (Apr 5, 2013)

I installed an EKO25 in my Sons home in January. We've been very pleased with it to the point I want to put a 40 in mine. But, not sure I want to gamble on the warranty of a company folding up. I'll be looking at other options.


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## Fred61 (Apr 5, 2013)

If Eko has gone under it's not because they made a bad product. It would be more likely from bad business practices. There were alot of news releases a couple years ago that were signaling a rift in the family business. I suspect that's why we saw the Paxo and some sort of new distribution in the US by one of the brothers. These situations are not unusual in a family business. In the family that owns U-Haul if I remember correctly, one member of the family shot one of the other relatives.

If business in Poland is done like anything in the US, someone will byy what's left and you will see the Eko (perhaps by another name) back on the market.


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## WmFritz (Apr 5, 2013)

After re-reading my post, it sounds like I'm giving up on buying another EKO. I want to stress that I REALLY like the unit I put in. Lack of a long term warranty wouldn't scare me away but, access to con summable parts may.


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## Blue Tornado (Apr 5, 2013)

Fred61 said:


> If Eko has gone under it's not because they made a bad product. It would be more likely from bad business practices.


I agree with this statement, other than the issue with the fried capacitor I am pleased with the Eko boiler.

Although I am not aware of an actual closing of business by the Orlanski outfit, I did order from Zenon extra parts today. Even if there were not exact replacements available tomorrow, a person could rig the failed item with similar products. Also, the refractories and nozzles can be duplicated if you don't mind playing with mud.


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## mikefrommaine (Apr 5, 2013)

From the AHONA website:


*AHONA™ - Alternative Heating of North America™* specializes in quality heating systems to keep you warm and comfortable while you gain energy independence and save money.

We import some of the most popular brands of European Gasification Boilers. Most notably these include the *Vigas VIMAR®* and *Viadrus®* brands. Our boilers are offered through a Network of Authorized Dealers. In addition, we carry a wide array of parts and accessories for the *Bixby® *Pellet/Corn Combo units, as well as parts and accessories for some of the discontinued *Orlan®* brand Wood Gasification Boilers like the *EKO**®* and *Paxo®* lines of wood gasification boilers. 



mikefrommaine said:


> It kind of sounds like since EKO's are no longer being made


 
I was basing my coments on this -- maybe it just means that they (ahona) are no longer are carrying those boilers not that they are no longer being imported. I read it as a clever dig at the competition -- i.e. "don't buy those boiler because they are already discontinued!" kind of thing.

But regardless I think we should all have the critical spare parts on hand. I have a couple nozzles and misc. other parts just in case. If enron can disappear overnight *ANY* dealer/importer/maker of gassers could even easier.


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## Blue Tornado (Apr 9, 2013)

mikefrommaine said:


> But regardless I think we should all have the critical spare parts on hand. I have a couple nozzles and misc. other parts just in case. If enron can disappear overnight *ANY* dealer/importer/maker of gassers could even easier.


Good advice Mike and I have ordered extras from Zenon.

In the matter of the blower; The new blower assembly which Zenon sent has a vertically mounted capacitor enclosure as opposed to the blower assembly that came on the boiler which was horizontally mounted. With the horizontal mount and the way it was wired placed the capacitor within 1/4" of the green skin which the blower assembly is attached. Maybe heat transfer could have been a contributing factor. With the capacitor enclosure mounted vertically it stands away from the heat source by 1-1/4".

In any event, Zenon did in fact cover the failed component.


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## WmFritz (Apr 9, 2013)

Glad it worked out for you.


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## nrcrash (Apr 10, 2013)

mikefrommaine said:


> From the AHONA website:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 

There goes mike trying to take a dig at ahona....

ahona is one of the best companies I have ever had the pleasure of purchasing from and *know* that if Blue Tornado had purchased a boiler from them he wouldn't even be posting this thread because ahona would have taken care of him. Instead of having post this thread and having to badger New Horizon for a part that should have been covered.

I realize that mike has a ongoing thing with trying to get into heated discussions with henfruit, but he's really just got to let it go.

Its really sad that he has never dealt directly with ahona because his statements are unwarranted.


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## NE WOOD BURNER (Apr 10, 2013)

nrcrash: I was curious to the reason for Ahona putting that line in there Re: EKO boilers. It sounds to me like AHONA is trying to help EKO customers by having a solution. Seems like AHONA was proactive with out letting the cat out of the bag. Very wise business.


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## PassionForFire&Water (Apr 10, 2013)

During my visit at the ISH in Frankfurt a couple weeks ago I stopped by at *ORLANSKY*, before Orlan-EKO.
Same owner, same players, same products, *different color tough* ... .
Talked to the export manager, and I vaguely remember that he mentioned the name Ahona.
Since then I'm wondering why would someone change a company name that's out there for 10-20 years.
All the marketing efforts down the drain.


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## mikefrommaine (Apr 10, 2013)

nrcrash said:


> There goes mike trying to take a dig at ahona....
> 
> ahona is one of the best companies I have ever had the pleasure of purchasing from and *know* that if Blue Tornado had purchased a boiler from them he wouldn't even be posting this thread because ahona would have taken care of him. Instead of having post this thread and having to badger New Horizon for a part that should have been covered.
> 
> ...


 

You Vigas guys seem awful sensitve. I quoted and provided a link to the AHONA website. And then commented on their statement.

When a company states that a competitors product is discontinued and or obsolete _while_ that product is still being marketed and sold how would you characterize it?

When the OP's warranty claim was not being covered in a timely manner I made comments about that not being good. Was that OK with you? Or do you think that I was unfairly attacking New Horizons with unwarranted claims? Seriously, if you can't take hearing anything but good things about your dealer I suggest you learn to use the ignore button.

If I wanted to provide a dig about the AHONA and their statement I would have said something about their claim that the Viadrus line of boilers is one of the most popular imported boilers. Apparently it's so popular not only has no one on Hearth.com installed one, the only time it had been mentioned on Hearth.com as of this morning was when I quoted the Ahona statement.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/search/11501611/?q=viadrus&o=date&c[node]=13

Maybe Mark at Ahona is the Mother Theresa of boiler sales and can do no wrong. Or maybe he is the owner of a business trying to make money. Either way I was using his statement to explain my comments as to why the OP may be having a hard time to get his fan warrantied.


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## NE WOOD BURNER (Apr 10, 2013)

http://www.orlanski.us/


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## NE WOOD BURNER (Apr 10, 2013)

Clarify for me if I am not correct please.

Orlan is the brand/Manufacturer
EKO is the model
New Horizons is the importer/distributor

The EKO model is the only model of the Orlan brand that is currently imported to the USA?


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## NE WOOD BURNER (Apr 10, 2013)

http://eco-orlan.net/index.htm

This should help me clarify. LOL


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## rkusek (Apr 10, 2013)

NE WOOD BURNER said:


> Clarify for me if I am not correct please.
> 
> Orlan is the brand/Manufacturer
> EKO is the model
> ...


 
 EKO-VIMAR ORLANSKI is the name on the manual I have from 2009 and I believe that is what is on my nameplate has as well.  Looking at the new website the Orlan series is virtually identical including paint.  I don't have that "EKO-VIMAR ORLANSKI" sticker on my upper door and this on has an EKOSTER2 controller.  Some of the orignal EKO owners here had the original Ekoster celsius controller but most of us have the US version (RK2001US) shown in the manuals that reads in Fahrenheit and goes up to 195F as opposed to about 180F on the original Celsius versions.
http://newhorizoncorp.com/PDF/ekomanualNA07.pdf

New Horizon may or may not still be a distributor and since his website shows the 60 & 80 models out of stock that may very well be the case.  AHONA may have stocked up on wear parts to serve some of their original customers and that is great.  I have been thinking about getting a few items myself to have on hand.  I don't think the boiler is going away and given the large user base it would be hard to believe getting parts in the future would not be possible.  Buying a boiler from a new company with a very small user base would actually scare me more.


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## stee6043 (Apr 10, 2013)

PassionForFire&Water said:


> During my visit at the ISH in Frankfurt a couple weeks ago I stopped by at *ORLANSKY*, before Orlan-EKO.
> Same owner, same players, same products, *different color tough* ... .
> Talked to the export manager, and I vaguely remember that he mentioned the name Ahona.
> Since then I'm wondering why would someone change a company name that's out there for 10-20 years.
> All the marketing efforts down the drain.


 
I'm 87.8% sure my 2007/2008 version EKO has "EKO Orlanski" as the manufacturer listed on all of the documentation and even the labeling on the boiler.  They've been playing around with branding for a while as evidenced by the changes in color and skin of the EKO line a year or two back.  I could be wrong but I don't think using "Orlanski" would be a changing of names for them...


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## stee6043 (Apr 10, 2013)

rkusek said:


> EKO-VIMAR ORLANSKI is the name on the manual I have from 2009 and I believe that is what is on my nameplate has as well. Looking at the new website the Orlan series is virtually identical including paint. I don't have that "EKO-VIMAR ORLANSKI" sticker on my upper door and this on has an EKOSTER2 controller. Some of the orignal EKO owners here had the original Ekoster celsius controller but most of us have the US version (RK2001US) shown in the manuals that reads in Fahrenheit and goes up to 195F as opposed to about 180F on the original Celsius versions.
> http://newhorizoncorp.com/PDF/ekomanualNA07.pdf


 
Ahh you beat me to it.  +1


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## NE WOOD BURNER (Apr 10, 2013)

"Thank you for purchasing an Orlan EKO Wood Gasification boiler"

This is what it says in your Manual you posted under the introduction.


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## NE WOOD BURNER (Apr 10, 2013)

*Vigas VIMAR = Vimar company Vigas Model? *


*pinto Ford*
*sportster Harley*

*Is Vimar Company owned by Vimar Orlanski?  Or just coincidences with the names? *


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## maple1 (Apr 10, 2013)

nrcrash said:


> There goes mike trying to take a dig at ahona....
> 
> ahona is one of the best companies I have ever had the pleasure of purchasing from and *know* that if Blue Tornado had purchased a boiler from them he wouldn't even be posting this thread because ahona would have taken care of him. Instead of having post this thread and having to badger New Horizon for a part that should have been covered.
> 
> ...


 
That wasn't my take.

When I read the part about 'discontinued Ekos', I read that to say they aren't being made anymore.

There seems to be conflicting stories on whether or not the Ekos are discontinued or not - so are they or aren't they? Undergoing a color change isn't exactly what I'd call 'discontinued'. If they are still being made, I'd say the Ahona wording is not quite right and misleading in saying they're 'discontinued'.

I always kind of pictured boiler operators as a tougher sort - turns out they can be sensitive at times too. Who knew?


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## nrcrash (Apr 10, 2013)

mikefrommaine said:


> Maybe Mark at Ahona is the Mother Theresa of boiler sales and can do no wrong. Or maybe he is the owner of a business trying to make money. Either way I was using his statement to explain my comments as to why the OP may be having a hard time to get his fan warrantied.


 

Don't be foolish. I never claimed that Mark was like Mother Theresa!

Now Saint Mark of AHONA sounds about right!


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## rkusek (Apr 11, 2013)

NE WOOD BURNER said:


> http://eco-orlan.net/index.htm
> 
> This should help me clarify. LOL


 So the Vigas and EKO must be cousins or half brothers or something like that.


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