ECO-65 1st impressions

[Love the Heat]

I would say approx 80 bags, of granulaco's. I'm about ready to do the full stove cleaning next...Yes this goes through the wall, its only 2 feet long.

I usually do the chimney at the 50-60 bags mark..

 

[hyfire]

Finnally did the cleaning of the stove(3.5 hours) , but based on what I saw, I would have delayed the cleaning of the chambers, except for the exh blower. So I would say the exh blower and flue should be cleaned every 1 ton, and the stove chambersI could have waited until 3 tons. Anyone else think the same or no? You decide from the pics...

 

[Love the Heat]

Nice Job, my fan was not as dirty as this.
From what I see, you can service mine anytime you want

 

[hyfire]

Nice Job, my fan was not as dirty as this.
From what I see, you can service mine anytime you want

No, its OK, it was a 4 hour job from start to finish, scraping the gasket material off the surfaces was a PITA. I won;t be doing a full cleaning that often, once a season only from now on... the flue and exh blower maybe 3 times a season..

 

[DV]

Looks great and similar. Where did you get new gaskets? My horizontal run exhaust pipe will fill up just the same. The exhaust pipe is cleaned every ton on my stove.

 

[Love the Heat]

DV....got mine from Drolet site which when you choose Web dealer it sends
you to Myfireplace.com .

Looks expensive but the kit contains 2 SETS

 

[DV]

DV....got mine from Drolet site which when you choose Web dealer it sends
you to Myfireplace.com .

Looks expensive but the kit contains 2 SETS

Great. Thanks!

 

[hyfire]

The gaskets are very fragile be ultra careful with them. What I noticed so far is that I had no creosote inside the stove, I do run it on high for a few hours at a time, maybe this helps prevent creosote?

 

[VIBErator]

The gaskets are very fragile be ultra careful with them. What I noticed so far is that I had no creosote inside the stove, I do run it on high for a few hours at a time, maybe this helps prevent creosote?

You cleaned yours sparkly clean. I didn't make mine shine.

 

[hyfire]

A clean stove is a "happy" stove. I need to stock up on exhaust housing gaskets, every 50 bags i am going to clean it, going forward...

 

[hyfire]

It is interesting on this board, we don't hear of many issues on the eco-65 except a few people with ignitor failures. Every other post we see are other famous brand names that are full of problems????????????Or am i reading things wrong?

 

[Love the Heat]

Feed Pellets....Burn Pellets....Warm house...
The way it should be.

 

[VIBErator]

Being able to cook on it would be handy.

 

[hyfire]

Being able to cook on it would be handy.

That is true, not enough heat on the top surface for that...can;t have it all..

 

[mudjunkie1972]

hey...brand new to this forum....first time I joined a heating forum but my eco65 drove me to it. Have had it installed since Feb2013 and a lot of issues which I hope are just "growing pains" of a relatively new product from Drolet. on my 3rd igniter and just recently replaced the lower auger gearmotor....which apparently had an issue with the gearbox since the stove was new. Just feeling out what the long term looks like for this unit as I am beginning to doubt my choice when purchasing this unit. Is it only going to get worse?...or is there light at the end of the tunnel?

 

[Love the Heat]

Had mine for 3 1/2 years and nothing to report and hope that it will continue..
What year was it manufactured?????

 

[hyfire]

hey...brand new to this forum....first time I joined a heating forum but my eco65 drove me to it. Have had it installed since Feb2013 and a lot of issues which I hope are just "growing pains" of a relatively new product from Drolet. on my 3rd igniter and just recently replaced the lower auger gearmotor....which apparently had an issue with the gearbox since the stove was new. Just feeling out what the long term looks like for this unit as I am beginning to doubt my choice when purchasing this unit. Is it only going to get worse?...or is there light at the end of the tunnel?

I think you will be fine, the warranty program is good, just like cars you get good ones and lemon's. Keep it clean..avoid long ignition times.

 

[VIBErator]

We're on our 5th ignitor. We'd only get 1 ignition out of them. 3 ignitions out if the last one. Drolet keeps sending new ones. Only issue we have had, the stove was installed in November of 2013.

 

[hyfire]

We're on our 5th ignitor. We'd only get 1 ignition out of them. 3 ignitions out if the last one. Drolet keeps sending new ones. Only issue we have had, the stove was installed in November of 2013.

My ignitor has no issues, sometimes it ignites 10 times a day ...Maybe its a bad pressure pump, it so ODD to have so many fail...

 

[mudjunkie1972]

ok...I dunno whaen the stove was built...but I bought it new in January 2013...installed it in February. I usually run it steady for 2 weeks and shut it down for a day to clean it...takes forever to cool down the burn area so that I can vacuum it out. (I dont have a stove vacuum yet) Stove is working better than ever right now (knocks on wood) since replacing the lower auger motor assembly....and cleaning the barrel where the auger runs. If it wasn't for the customer service this stove woulda been long gone by now and a new Harman would be in its place....but I will ride out the bumps and hope for the best. What sold me on the stove were two things specifically.....1. large hopper and 2. ability to run ductwork. I have the stove installed in my unfinished and un insulated basement right now so I am not getting the maximum heat I could be out of it, but my long term plans are to finish the basement walls and install the ductwork to bring the heat upstairs more efficiently. I am sure once I get to that point my attitude will be a lot better....provided the bumps have been worked out with the reliability of this unit.

 

[Love the Heat]

Reason for me to ask the manufactured date is that they made significant changes to it
in the last couple of years and they seems to be the one having most of the problem...

 

[hyfire]

You should not operate it that long at a time without cleaning, what will happen is the burnpot holes will fill with ash and you will lose combustion efficiency. I see this on my magnehelic gauge starts to increase in draft you know your losing combustion air.. At least every 48 hours is a good schedule. You also want to burn it on high once a day for a bit to keep it cleaner...

 

[Love the Heat]

You should not operate it that long at a time without cleaning, what will happen is the burnpot holes will fill with ash and you will lose combustion efficiency. I see this on my magnehelic gauge starts to increase in draft you know your losing combustion air.. At least every 48 hours is a good schedule. You also want to burn it on high once a day for a bit to keep it cleaner...

Good point Hyfire, I usually scrape the pot at least every 2 days and the ash box usually need to be empty every 3 days when on 24/7..

 

[DV]

My ignitore doesnt work. Had a bad splice on the convection blower the day I bought it. Had to scratch my head to get that fixed. Actually prefer to light with torch. Gets an instant ignition. Im happy with my stove. Burns anything I put in it and heats my entire house. I bought the stove in jan of 2012.

 

[mudjunkie1972]

I have had no issues with the burn pot plugging up....I usually leave the stove on setting #2...and it takes about two weeks of steady running to fill the ashpan. Flames are good....not my first pellet stove. I did run a Jamestown JB1000 set up as a fireplace insert (although it doesn't really insert into the fireplace)...but when it decided to give out I opted for something a little bigger that would heat the whole house...hence the ECO65.

So how does one tell what the manufacture date was exactly? My lower auger assembly had the bolts with locknuts...which from what I read is one thing they did to fix a loose auger screw problem? Any idea when that fix came along? Might be an indication of age. Also...did I read above somewhere that someone's ECO65 displays the flue temp?....mine doesn't...unless there is a secret code to make it do this.