Lake Girl
Moderator
Trained eye what have you found as build issues on the Ecoteck? Examples please... I agree the screws they use are garbage so I have replaced most of them but what else have you found?
Piazzetta Monia opinions
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Trained eye what have you found as build issues on the Ecoteck? Examples please... I agree the screws they use are garbage so I have replaced most of them but what else have you found?
smwilliamson
The Stove Guy
Bad welds, sloppy welds, knife edge for door gasket seal out of alignment, door switches and hopper lid switches that fall apart, over temp and break, electrical disconnects that become brittle cause they are not isolated away from heat or insulated, computer display that starts to pixel fade when the stove heats up... Again not isolated or insulated, clear spacers that separate the ceramic sides melt with the stove heat, baffles and heat exchangers are not an alloy and corrode as well as burn pots, the nylon auger bushings don't fit the plates tightly and free float around and prematurely wear. These are just the few thinks that come to mind offhand.
Lake Girl
Moderator
thanks for the heads up on some of the problems - agree with some sloppy welds and burn pot issues. Just used the spacers under the hopper lid so no melting
Alloys would be nice but can't have everything!
Alloys would be nice but can't have everything!
Bioburner
Moderator
I feel lucky our -$600 Elena had no issues other than needing a good cleaning. Who needs the hopper switch?
I find the welds and overall construction quality of my Ecoteck to be top notch, compared to all the other brands of stoves that I looked inside. I have had no problems with melted wires, or terminals, or sloppy / misaligned gasket sealing lips. I have not had any issues with the screws, other than one which was too tight.
Lake Girl
Moderator
boomhour
Burning Hunk
Bad welds, sloppy welds, knife edge for door gasket seal out of alignment, door switches and hopper lid switches that fall apart, over temp and break, electrical disconnects that become brittle cause they are not isolated away from heat or insulated, computer display that starts to pixel fade when the stove heats up... Again not isolated or insulated, clear spacers that separate the ceramic sides melt with the stove heat, baffles and heat exchangers are not an alloy and corrode as well as burn pots, the nylon auger bushings don't fit the plates tightly and free float around and prematurely wear. These are just the few thinks that come to mind offhand.[/quot
Wow glad i didn't ask about my stove.
smwilliamson
The Stove Guy
All of these things don't exist in any one stove or on all stoves but has been my overall experience with Ecoteck
Ben Lomond
New Member
Installed the Piazetta Monia 6 weeks ago. Great stove! Practically heats our whole 2000 sq ft home (with a couple well placed circulator fans). Our northern CA climate gets into the 20's (F) often and we have never had to burn more than 3/4 of a bag of pellets in a day, and never ran above power setting 3 (of 4). The "energy saving" feature is really clever and works well, if a little challenging to program the first time. Can also be attached to a thermostat - we have a wireless remote t-stat, but have not used it because it disables the energy saving mode, so just set the temp by the built-in t-stat. We keep a shop vac in a closet nearby and clean the stove daily - takes about 5 minutes to do a really thorough job including Windex on the glass. We get about 1/4 cup of ash in a whole day, practically nothing! The fan has a couple levels, but even on the highest it is not too loud. The retailer said it was the quietest of the pellet stoves they offer. We had a power outage, and the stove simply stopped, and then when the power came back on several hours later it went through its normal start up and came back on line automatically, no problem. So far we are loving this stove! Not cheap, but looks like a great investment, especially compared to constantly stoking the old Jotul we replaced with it.
Congrats! Was your brick hearth always designed for a freestanding stove? The opening seems custom designed for the Monia! What pellets are you using giving you so little ash? Given how tiny the ash pan is in the Monia, it's probably a very good thing. All your other comments match up with my experience owning a Piazzetta as well.
Ben Lomond
New Member
Alcove was designed for an old Jotul replica stove that worked great for almost 30 years - heated up all that brick and would stay warm overnight even in the coldest weather. But when I wanted to replace some parts I found they were out of stock and no longer available. Not only that, the old stove had no secondary combustion so no longer legal in my area - could not even have replaced the whole thing, and finding another wood stove with new technology but the same configuration would be a challenge to say the least. But silver lining, we got the Monia and life has gotten a lot easier! We use Golden Fire pellets (from Oregon) - soft wood, 40 lb bags for $6. I think our overall fuel bill is going to go down a lot, considering we were buying up to three cords of hardwood at $325 per. We still have a backup stove in another room, but I think we will be down to 1/2 cord per season now, plus about 75 bags of pellets ($450) at most, I'm guessing.
We have one in our showroom also. It has a great look to it. Ours is Red. It is very quiet. My one criticism of it is the complexity of its control board. The average person is going to have a hard time understanding how to use it. Which doesn't make it any easier to sell.
Ben Lomond
New Member
Yes, controls are a little intimidating at first and not completely intuitive, but all you really need to know is how to turn it on/off and set is the temperature, and those functions are simple. It's really worth walking through the "energy saving" mode, though, because that feature is great! We have it set to turn off 2F above set temp and turn on at 2F below, at power level 3 (of 4). So when it comes on it heats up fast to the set temp, and then drops to level 1 but keeps heating up slowly to the off temp (if it gets there). Really evens out the room temp swings. Have not tried the timer programming yet. Any experience with that?
Yeah, I use the Energy Saving mode, but when it's really cold, I just leave it in manual, where i set the temp and Power level. The only real difference between Energy Saving and manual, is that manual never turns off, it will alternate from your Power level set, and Power level 1, while Energy Saving will do the same, but also turn off. When I asked my dealer about what modes other Piazzetta owners used, he told me "simplest is best", which meant manual! Actually, I don't think my dealer knows all that much about the stove.
I have not used the Timer, aka Program mode.
As for complexity, I think many of the european made stoves are similar in that since many use the same control boards.
Lake Girl
Moderator
Welcome Ben, love the pics I keep my Italian lady in manual - so much simpler. You'll find that using the softwood pellets make for easier clean-up and less ash... Happy burning!
Justin - welcome to the forum!
I keep my Italian lady in manual - so much simpler. You'll find that using the softwood pellets make for easier clean-up and less ash... Happy burning!Justin - welcome to the forum!
Greetings all,
I finishing up my second season of heating in NH with a Monia and we love this stove! We have used about two tons of pellets this year and are closing in on 6,000 degree days for this season, so we are seeing substantial savings over gas/oil heat. It heats our first floor at level one and keeps us toasty warm.
You have to take the time to learn how to use the program mode, it is really easy to use after getting the hang of it. I have the stove on two heating cycles a day, running for 4 to 6 hours and starting at 3:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.. If a cold snap is going to hit, then I just press a button and scroll to the time settings on the stove and add an hour of heating. For a warm spell, I cut down on the heating cycle. And, you can always stop the stove in a heating cycle. Using the feature allows you to keep your house cooler at night and during the day when you are at work.
I finishing up my second season of heating in NH with a Monia and we love this stove! We have used about two tons of pellets this year and are closing in on 6,000 degree days for this season, so we are seeing substantial savings over gas/oil heat. It heats our first floor at level one and keeps us toasty warm.
You have to take the time to learn how to use the program mode, it is really easy to use after getting the hang of it. I have the stove on two heating cycles a day, running for 4 to 6 hours and starting at 3:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.. If a cold snap is going to hit, then I just press a button and scroll to the time settings on the stove and add an hour of heating. For a warm spell, I cut down on the heating cycle. And, you can always stop the stove in a heating cycle. Using the feature allows you to keep your house cooler at night and during the day when you are at work.
Pascal_Maertens
Feeling the Heat
ill might be kind off late on this but this stove is very good me and 2 of my friend have the Sabrina model and we are not in Florida here it's Québec -40 the kind of weather we get here. this stove run good I have a house 35 years old of 24 x 36 2 floor isolation is poor 175 pouch of 40 pound for 1 year heating only why pellets. this stove is fully adjustable but the dealer has to go to the customer place to adjust the stove. people that says that its not a great stove most of the time they have no service from there dealer, or they are dealer that do not sale the product and prefer to groan the product I have sold only this year 20 unit of this product and a few more last year we where just starting the line in Quebec and I can assure you that this is a meen machine when it come to heating a house the Sabrina model is way to big for my house the Monia model would be better.sorry if my English is poor I'm usualy French ty have a nice day.anyone have one of these stoves yet? my local dealer just started selling them and trained up last week.
really like the look of them , and it was real quite in the store.
i Was also looking at the Enviro mini , enviro m55 , and enviro Omega.
http://www.piazzetta.com/products/sc/monia/
Pascal_Maertens
Feeling the Heat
Ben Lomond
New Member
Your English is good enough to get the point! Now with over two months living with the Monia we still love this stove! No problems. It is used every day. We do not have the coldest weather, and now that spring is here the stove is not running during the afternoons until sometime in the evening when it comes back on automatically. But everything works perfectly, and we are really impressed with how quiet it is compared to some other pellet stoves we have heard! We keep a small shopvac in a closet nearby, and we clean the stove at least once every other day. Takes exactly 6 minutes start to finish (I timed it) including windexing the glass, from the time I pull the vac out until I put it back. EZ PZ! I still can't believe how little ash this stove produces.
Lake Girl
Moderator
Welcome to the forum Pascal. Glad to hear you're enjoying the Monia. When I bought my Ecoteck Ravelli, I don't think the Piazzetta's were imported yet. Still happy with my stove after the third winter. We picked up another Elena without the air option for half the price of the first one. Original distributor went bankrupt so many were sold at auction. We get the same cold weather in NW Ontario (not far from Manitoba) and the second stove will help with the heat distribution (approximately 2000 sq ft).
Keep warm...
Keep warm...
Glad to hear feedback from another satisfied Piazzetta owner! We have had a great season selling these stoves, primarily the SC series like the Monia and Sabrina, but also a couple from SY series. My crew is putting in a Monia Bordeaux tomorrow, beautiful unit. Now if we could only find some darn pellets to put in these things....
Pascal_Maertens
Feeling the Heat
Actually I do sale the Piazzetta pellets stove in Mont-Laurier, Quebec and I have few tricks to clean them on a longer period of time. I own a Sabrina for 2 years now and even if the cleaning is exactly like you said 6 minute including everything, I used to clean my stove every second day but if you can get a tech to configure your stove to be auto clean more often and also for a longer period of time, I explain; in the configuration program you can adjust the pot or grate cleaning interval from; 30 min to 180 min by default it is set to 60, I settled mine for 30 minute. Also the grate cleaning time can be change; from 10 sec. to 30 sec. I set these one to 30 seconds even if it seems to be very little changes it makes a big difference. I should talk about cleaning per pouches in staid of days; before I used to clean every 2 or 3 pouches and now well around 4 to 6 pouches and I like it. And you have to know that this cleaning process only occurs in the power level 3-4 and 5 at level 1 and 2 it will never auto clean so a good trick is to run at power level 3 and if it’s too hot just lower the thermostat it really work for me and also most important allllll of my customers. Now since 2 weeks I now have new stove yes it’s still a Piazzetta but a P-962 so… nice it’s still on test need little adjustments I might be the only stupid guy in Quebec that is asking for one more week of cold weather just so I can settle it properly for next winter, for now it is ok but I know whit a little more fine tuning this can be a mean machine and always be economical to run. Well I guess that it, hope you are all enjoying your Piazzetta if not please let me know it will be my pleasure to help you out. My name is Pascal Maertens you can reache me by mail at [email protected]
Pascal_Maertens
Feeling the Heat
Actually I do sale the Piazzetta pellets stove in Mont-Laurier, Quebec and I have few tricks to clean them on a longer period of time. I own a Sabrina for 2 years now and even if the cleaning is exactly like you said 6 minute including everything, I used to clean my stove every second day but if you can get a tech to configure your stove to be auto clean more often and also for a longer period of time, I explain; in the configuration program you can adjust the pot or grate cleaning interval from; 30 min to 180 min by default it is set to 60, I settled mine for 30 minute. Also the grate cleaning time can be change; from 10 sec. to 30 sec. I set these one to 30 seconds even if it seems to be very little changes it makes a big difference. I should talk about cleaning per pouches in staid of days; before I used to clean every 2 or 3 pouches and now well around 4 to 6 pouches and I like it. And you have to know that this cleaning process only occurs in the power level 3-4 and 5 at level 1 and 2 it will never auto clean so a good trick is to run at power level 3 and if it’s too hot just lower the thermostat it really work for me and also most important allllll of my customers. Now since 2 weeks I now have new stove yes it’s still a Piazzetta but a P-962 so… nice it’s still on test need little adjustments I might be the only stupid guy in Quebec that is asking for one more week of cold weather just so I can settle it properly for next winter, for now it is ok but I know whit a little more fine tuning this can be a mean machine and always be economical to run. Well I guess that it, hope you are all enjoying your Piazzetta if not please let me know it will be my pleasure to help you out. My name is Pascal Maertens you can reache me by mail at [email protected]
gdphishman817
Member
Hi everyone,
We've had our Monia since October, it's been great all winter and is saving us a ton on oil. This site has been an invaluable resource for a new stove owner. A couple of questions for fellow Piazzetta owners:
We've had our Monia since October, it's been great all winter and is saving us a ton on oil. This site has been an invaluable resource for a new stove owner. A couple of questions for fellow Piazzetta owners:
- Is there a trick to removing the rear baffle plate for weekly cleanings? Every week when I remove, it seems like getting it out and back in again is a struggle. It feels like the width of the plate is the exact width of the inside of the stove.
- Occasionally, after the stove is shut down completely, 10 minutes later, we can smell smoke that seems to be left over embers still burning. This doesn't happen often, but it happens. Have anyone else experienced this?
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