I have found That if i have a good knowledgeable dealer of the products that they sell that i do not have to call the manufacturer to answer questions that the dealer should be able to do. VIgas Boilers Dist by AHONA (made in slovakia)
Just ordered an Effecta, boy the wife is gonna be mad
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pwschiller
Member
Pete Schiller said:
henfruit said:
My comment wasn't implying a need to communicate directly with Effecta, but the fact that I could if I had to. Brian Crawford has been able to answer all of my questions. Also, the fact that Effecta has an English language website: (broken link removed) and has invested the time to produce English language user manuals also means something to me. As far as I can tell, all of the English language websites for Vigas have been created by U.S. or U.K. importers of the Vigas boilers. If AHONA ceased to exist, or stopped importing Vigas boilers, as they have done with many other brands, who would an owner contact for parts?
What is your professional background Patrick? It's certainly not hydronic heating systems. That's quite obvious from many of your postings.
Come on Effecta owners, give us some feedback on these wonderful boilers. I am sure many of the people on this site would like to hear about them. It may enlighten all of us to this piece of equipment. You owners out there have first hand experience with this piece of equipment. Many of the people on here may not be as apprehensive of this boiler if we can get some feedback. Who knows, this could the "best ot all" boilers. (Subject to opinion, of course...)
pwschiller
Member
I've spoken to two Effecta owners who have their systems running, one with a 35kW in Michigan and the other a 60kW in New Hampshire. Both of them had nothing but great things to say about their systems. I don't know whether they spend time on Hearth.rpmm70 said:
Hopefully someone will chime in, but if not, I'm sure that Brian could provide you with some references whom you can contact.
My main reason for the above post is to let others learn about these boilers, and first had experience from others is one of the ways. I hope that people considering purchasing a boiler or replacing an existing boiler would greatly consider the Effecta. For what the average price a boiler costs, it doesn't cost that much more to go first class. All I am saying is, purchasing a boiler is not a spur of the moment idea and usually involves an extensive amount of research. Let's give the Effecta a fair shot by putting out what is known of them, for others, to help them make an informed decision. To not have it ruled out because it is not well known.
You are asking for feedback from owners that probably don't know that Hearth exists. Other than Brian, there might be 1 other member running one. Many here will be looking forward to your install, pictures, pictures, pictures, Randy
nrford
Minister of Fire
Very pleased with mine! Running since early Oct. approaching 800hrs of run time. Selected Effecta for cost and the fact that Brian was only about an hour and 15 min. away. I figured if I had trouble I knew where he lived! Fabricated my own tanks with a consult from Brian. Did my own plumbing, including doing the underground pipe like the stick,ie spray foamed in the ground. Brian built the control panel. We did have to rework this as we did not get switching controls correct on the first try. I usually fire once per day. On the coldest days I make a small fire before before leaving in the morning. 1000 gallons of storage, 2150sqft home plus DHW for family of 4. I feel my biggest draw is DHW as this is produced by a boilermate. 4+showers/day laundry and dishwasher uses a lot of water! I have burned 8-9 "FACE"cords of wood so far. I figured from Nov.&Dec; gas bill to have save $300 in natural gas. VeryVery happy.
nrford said:
What are your typical tank temps start and charged?
How many hours to charge?
How many loads to charge?
Is it in house? Storage location?
gg
nrford
Minister of Fire
145 at startgoosegunner said:
180 at end
4.5-5.0 hr burns 1 load
in room attached to unattached garage about 38' underground run to house.
if I reload after about 1 1/2 hr burn I can get tanks to 193.
nrford
Minister of Fire
top of tanks. bottom is within about 3 degrees. All of this has little to do with the performance of the boiler and more to do with how well storage and house are insulated FWIW!
How are you extracting heat from your storage? Meaning, are you using a furnace coil, in slab radiant, radiators, etc.....
nrford said:
I asked because I have seen some post one load a day but they figure the rise in temp off start temp not even top and bottom and average start temp.
Like this
Top start 145 finish 185
Bottom start 125 finish 160
There is a big difference vs top 185, bottom 183.
I would be surprised if some of the smaller boilers could even hold the 100 lbs of wood that it would take to get the rise in one load while also heating with a modest load while charging the tank at the same time.
gg
I have the second effecta 35KW boiler installed in the US last year. Current date I have 2400 hrs. on it. I am heating close to 5000 square feet, on a windy hill in northern Michigan. My house has several large windows throughout. Original house was built in 1976, back when the walls were 3 1/2 inches thick with 6" of insulation in ceiling. (older construction). I have had several different wood heating systems over the past 35 yrs, nothing comes close to heating like this effecta 35 does. I have two 500 gal. stacked propane tanks for water storage in the basement, with a 14x28 boiler room added off from the basement for the boiler and divided wood storage. I burn two fires a day, every twelve hours. I use one face cord of wood per week, this is also heating our domestic hot water.
Brian was extremely helpful with suggestions as I installed it. Tonight I am meeting with Brian to make some decisions as to the installation of an effecta 35 in my daughter and son in-laws newly purchased home, that is comparable in size to ours. We are going to use a single one thousand gallon propane tank for this one.
If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer them as I check the forum. I may post some pics of my system at a later date.
Bill
Brian was extremely helpful with suggestions as I installed it. Tonight I am meeting with Brian to make some decisions as to the installation of an effecta 35 in my daughter and son in-laws newly purchased home, that is comparable in size to ours. We are going to use a single one thousand gallon propane tank for this one.
If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer them as I check the forum. I may post some pics of my system at a later date.
Bill
Bill, sounds impressive. At your convenience, would you be able to post some pictures of this beautiful boiler and possibly your setup? For others to see what a magnificent piece of art work these units are. Thanks in advance.
hiker88
Burning Hunk
If anyone has information or a video about lighting the effecta I would appreciate seeing that. I saw something in the documentation about an electric lighter, and the unit does not appear to have a dedicated lighting door so I'm curious.
nrford
Minister of Fire
Mine is plumbed into the existing Burnham natural gas boiler. 3 zones, 1 is for a heat exchanger in a forced air handler. 2 is baseboard radiant heat and 3 is the boilermate for DHW.rpmm70 said:
Very nice, you have a little bit of everything going on there. Have you noticed that anyone load inpaticular, draws the storage down quicker/faster than the others?
nrford
Minister of Fire
hiker88 said:
Turn induction fan on,Rake residual ashes out so they fall into ash pan in secondary chamber. This will leave charcoal in primary chamber, light charcoal with torch, throw a handful of small(kindling) splits on top of burning charcoal. After about three min. load 6-8 larger splits,2-3" into chamber. Allow temps to rise 35-45 degrees open and fill chamber. Shut it and walkaway, saying "see you tomorrow buddy!"
nrford
Minister of Fire
I too have a family of four and my guess is that I will be in the same boat as you. (DHW being the largest draw) but that will come later. I see you have multiple types of H20 heat. Are they installed in seperate areas or both everywhere?
Is there anyone out there that has an installed Effecta, that would be willing to post some pics of the boiler/setup?
Anyone?
Anyone?
nrford said:
Ok that is basically how I run my Econoburn. I thought the Lambda boilers were fill it, Light, walk away.
I have seen the video of the Froling and it seems that is what they do. It would be interesting to see if it smokes at all with full load from cold start.
gg
nrford
Minister of Fire
rpmm70 said:
Seperate area. original part of house was a cabin on a slab, no good way to do forced air so ran that in baseboard when we did major remodel.
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