The Nightmare Continues (ECO-65)

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MacGyver

MacGyver

Member
Oct 15, 2014
53
Blind River, ON
I have the newest model Eco-65 which I purchased in September and it's been nothing but an absolute nightmare. Sorry to rant, but I have just about had it. For the first couple of months I had SBI on speed dial to address the numerous issues it was having. It was having issues starting which we rectified. We then had issues with it not staying lit on pilot mode, so they had to consult engineering to increase pellet feed rate on the lowest level. Last week when I took it apart to clean it and then tried to get it going again it would not ignite. So I had to shut it down, take out all the pellets in the burn pot - lift it to find the igniter simply fell out. I had to put it back in the tube that holds it but if you touch it at all it will fall out again. Took apart the igniter box cover to vacuum it out and the wingnut that holds it shut simply broke mid-thread (almost as it it was heat soldered in there). Damned thing goes through about 2 bags of pellets a day without even running it on high. Everything about this thing is so chintzy. I've heard nothing but good things about the Eco-45. I have a fairly small place (1800 sq. ft.) so I thought I'd get the bigger stove just to be safe but I'm really wishing I had bought the 45. At this point I'd be happy if Drolet just replaced the stove with a different stove. Any stove. Just get this nightmare out of my basement.

I'm sorry to rant - I just don't know what to do with this thing anymore.
 
Why would you consider buying a stove from the same people that made your lemon? I've had my Harman for 6.5 heating seasons and replaced one igniter for 78 bucks. I just spent ten minutes emptying the ash pan (This includes the walk to the pit to empty it.), brushing off the heat exchanger plates, finger-swiping ash out of the ignigter cavity and brushing ash out of the ash pan cavity. Other than that, all I've done in three weeks is load pellets. Turned it to "ON" and when the room temp went down it went on. Not telling you to buy a Harman but if you decide to consider another stove remember that there are others out there.
 
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Drolet rhymes with toilet........:)
 
Didn't know Drolet made a pellet stove until this thread. Only thing sold around here is their woodstoves ant Menards.
 
Not sure why your having so many problems, mine is going on the 2nd year with no issues. I have used stove cement to hold the igniter in place, and it really wasn;t needed, I just didn;t want any chance of it moving around or any smoke smell coming from it. They must have changed the igniter design post up some pics if you can. Some of the base settings I have changed , and no issues at all. I would not hesitate to buy another one...
 
hyfire said:
Not sure why your having so many problems, mine is going on the 2nd year with no issues. I have used stove cement to hold the igniter in place, and it really wasn;t needed, I just didn;t want any chance of it moving around or any smoke smell coming from it. They must have changed the igniter design post up some pics if you can. Some of the base settings I have changed , and no issues at all. I would not hesitate to buy another one...
Click to expand...

I have the new model which was re-designed and supposed to be more efficient. I'm not sure why I'm having so many problems either - it's very frustrating. Thanks for the tip for the igniter with the stove cement - I'm going to give that a shot. When I get a chance I'll take some pictures.
 
MacGyver said:
I've heard nothing but good things about the Eco-45.
Click to expand...
Don't kid yourself, they have problems to. The first year was great, second year the auger motor went, third year the
exhaust blower fan went, this year the glass cracked and I had to put a new seal around the door.

I can tell you one good thing, when it works, it does work great, with all the trouble I've
had I would by another one.

MacGyver said:
I have a fairly small place (1800 sq. ft.) so I thought I'd get the bigger stove just to be safe
Click to expand...
My place is around 2400 sq. ft. and that little Eco 45 heats it all winter (I don't use any other heat), I burn
about a bag a day, maybe a little more on those really cold nights.
 
MacGyver said:
I have the newest model Eco-65 which I purchased in September and it's been nothing but an absolute nightmare. Sorry to rant, but I have just about had it. For the first couple of months I had SBI on speed dial to address the numerous issues it was having. It was having issues starting which we rectified. We then had issues with it not staying lit on pilot mode, so they had to consult engineering to increase pellet feed rate on the lowest level. Last week when I took it apart to clean it and then tried to get it going again it would not ignite. So I had to shut it down, take out all the pellets in the burn pot - lift it to find the igniter simply fell out. I had to put it back in the tube that holds it but if you touch it at all it will fall out again. Took apart the igniter box cover to vacuum it out and the wingnut that holds it shut simply broke mid-thread (almost as it it was heat soldered in there). Damned thing goes through about 2 bags of pellets a day without even running it on high. Everything about this thing is so chintzy. I've heard nothing but good things about the Eco-45. I have a fairly small place (1800 sq. ft.) so I thought I'd get the bigger stove just to be safe but I'm really wishing I had bought the 45. At this point I'd be happy if Drolet just replaced the stove with a different stove. Any stove. Just get this nightmare out of my basement.

I'm sorry to rant - I just don't know what to do with this thing anymore.
Click to expand...
To heat my 1800 sq ft house comfortably I use the better part of 2 bags per day in average winter weather and three on really cold days. That's with a P61 Harman. In my case I sum that up as being more house related than stove related. A modern super insulated house would use less, just as warmer days use less. Not saying that is your issue but something to consider.

It's too bad about the issues with the stove. It sounds irritating but also doesn't sound devastating. I'd expect some dealer response though and maybe it's time to turn up a little heat in that direction. Most of us with these stoves if not already handy learn to be. Is there a way to slightly crimp that igniter holder so it holds tighter for instance ? Just saying.

The wing nut breaking sucks. It's a new stove, call the dealer and have a heart to heart discussion with him. Let him know that you are dissatisfied thus far and now you actually have a broken part in the stove. Things don't seem to be getting better but worse with the stove. What can he do ? Be adamant in your statements to him, very direct. If this thing has really lost it's charm with you I'd even bring up the discussion of an exchange for a better unit. If it's not an option it still lets him know your frustration level. Obviously it would be expected that if you upgrade stoves to a more expensive unit you would have to pay the difference.
 
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hyfire said:
Not sure why your having so many problems, mine is going on the 2nd year with no issues. I have used stove cement to hold the igniter in place, and it really wasn;t needed, I just didn;t want any chance of it moving around or any smoke smell coming from it. They must have changed the igniter design post up some pics if you can. Some of the base settings I have changed , and no issues at all. I would not hesitate to buy another one...
Click to expand...
I'll echo the same of this post, in my case I have the first model.
 
SidecarFlip said:
Drolet rhymes with toilet........:)
Click to expand...

Actually, up here we pronounce it "droh-lay". :)
Charlie0664 said:
Don't kid yourself, they have problems to. The first year was great, second year the auger motor went, third year the
exhaust blower fan went, this year the glass cracked and I had to put a new seal around the door.

I can tell you one good thing, when it works, it does work great, with all the trouble I've
had I would by another one.


My place is around 2400 sq. ft. and that little Eco 45 heats it all winter (I don't use any other heat), I burn
about a bag a day, maybe a little more on those really cold nights.
Click to expand...

That's why I'm thinking the 45 would be a better choice. I find the 65 eats the pellets heavily even on low when it's not producing any real amount of heat. I had it on level 1 over night since it's very mild here right now (above 0c) and it still ate through almost a bag. And if you put your hands over where the air blows out, it's barely even warm. The thing is if I want to get my place real warm I have to run the stove on Level 4 or higher to get substantial heat - the only problem is it'll cost a fortune in pellets to do that over the course of the winter.
 
alternativeheat said:
Too heat my 1800 sq ft house comfortably I use the better part of 2 bags per day in average winter weather and three on really cold days. That's with a P61 Harman. In my case I sum that up as being more house related than stove related. A modern super insulated house would use less, just as warmer days use less. Not saying that is your issue but something to consider.

It's too bad about the issues with the stove. It sounds irritating but also doesn't sound devastating. I'd expect some dealer response though and maybe it's time to turn up a little heat in that direction. Most of us with these stoves if not already handy learn to be. Is there a way to slightly crimp that igniter holder so it holds tighter for instance ? Just saying.

The wing nut breaking sucks. It's a new stove, call the dealer and have a heart to heart discussion with him. Let him know that you are dissatisfied thus far and now you actually have a broken part in the stove. Things don't seem to be getting better but worse with the stove. What can he do ? Be adamant in your statements to him, very direct. If this thing has really lost it's charm with you I'd even bring up the discussion of an exchange for a better unit. If it's not an option it still lets him know your frustration level. Obviously it would be expected that if you upgrade stoves to a more expensive unit you would have to pay the difference.
Click to expand...

I'm not really sure who to turn to on this. Calling Drolet won't really help since they are not the retailer who sold it and the Home Hardware in this area does not have a technician for these things. You go to them with a problem and they don't have a clue what to tell you. Maybe I'll have to go down there and talk to them and see what they say.

And you're right, it's not devastating. When the stove is running well, it's runs fine. It's just been a series of things in a row that have just simply made me lose my patience. Seems everytime I take it apart to clean it something else is going to go wrong.

As far as crimping the igniter holder goes - it's not that I'm not able to do anything about it to modify it and fix it, but after spending thousands of dollars on a stove 3 months ago I just don't feel like I should have to.
 
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MacGyver said:
As far as crimping the igniter holder goes - it's not that I'm not able to do anything about it to modify it and fix it, but after spending thousands of dollars on a stove 3 months ago I just don't feel like I should have to.
Click to expand...

Ya I get it. But ya know sometimes it's just the simplest solution ? If it's a major rework then no I wouldn't do it either.
 
Feel sorry for ya. I've had basically no problems, had an igniter go but they all do it seems like. Worst part is that I don't even take very good care of it right now, and I work her pretty hard. Mine is about 1 year old.
 
I was a field service engineer for a company in the wood products industry for about 20 years.
The field service engineers job was to get everything set up and running smoothly out in the mill.

Well the "engineer" part was the key word.

If a piece of equipment that was sent out was not ready for prime time, it was the field service engineers job to make it work.
In more than a few cases we rebuilt, redesigned and in a couple cases the resultant machine bore little resemblance to what was originally shipped out to the job. !!!

Sadly there are far too many pieces of equipment that are not only "NOT READY FOR THE RODEO" THEY SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN RELEASED FOR PRODUCTION.

Testing used to be such that a piece of equipment was run until it melted, then the failure resolved and then run again until it died, and on it went until it was a stable piece and ready to rock and roll.

Now days they test everything (nearly so) in the computer simulation and call it good.

The moto "GET IT OUT THE DOOR" and let the field crew sweat the small stuff just sucks.

I feel for your plight.

Hope you can get some resolve to the issues. ;)

Guess this is why I redesign my stoves as little things pop up.

Good luck
Snowy
 
hyfire said:
I am going on the 3rd year with the original air pump powered ignitor, but I keep it in pilot on mode mostly.
Click to expand...
My original air pump ignitor didn't make it 1 month. SBI replaced it with the newer non air pump version and had me disconnect the air pump. This "fix" hasn't worked either. Now I am not only burning up the igniters, but the circuit boards too.
 
The recurring problem is the igniters burn out. The circuit boards are not shutting off power to the igniter once the stove is lit. SBI has confirmed this is an ongoing problem with some 65's. They don't know why. Their fix is to redesign the igniter style again. Instead of finding root cause, they just alter the igniter design. The current redesign wont be done for several weeks yet. Meanwhile they sent me new boatd and 2ND gen igniter style. This is flawed in my opinion. They are treating symptom instead if finding root cause.

As stated previous, I have a whole house surge protector and an individual one on the stove. We have tons of other electronic devices in home, including alarm and video security sytems, tv's, dvr's, 4 desktop and 2 laptop computers, etc. None of which have experienced any problems.
 
Normally the circuit on the ignite'r is shut off by a timer circuit, a heat sensor or an optical sensor.

Would be easy fix to wire in a snap switch on the exhaust housing to control the power to the ignite'r
Use a 140 F snap on the exhaust to shut down the ignite'r.

DO NOT RUN FULL AMPERAGE TO THE IGNITE'R THROUGH THE SNAP

The ignite'r needs a fair amperage supply to run it, so you would want to run the feed through a hefty little relay.

Use the supply line to the ignite'r to feed the snap switch then to the relay.
Feed main (Fused power) off the main supply to the secondary side of the relay and on to the ignite'r.

The builder should fix the issue, B U TT T T T T, they seem to have missed the real issue of taking care of things.

They are trying to get by with a cheap fix to get the thing out of warranty is all.

The root cause is likely the control system is flawed and needs to be redesigned.
 
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