ECONOBURN ANY USERS?

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ERIC, I would agree I'M mad at my self on my purchase I thought that I really resurched every thing from a to z but I never checked to see how long these boilers were around . As far as econoburn taking back the boiler my salesman kinda stumbled when I asked the question and said he could not make that decision that he would kick it around with who ever at the company and he would call me back never herd from him gave him a couple of days and then called back and then I got my answer that they don't buy back boilers but I'M confused because IF you read their web site IT says that you can purchase used reconditioned equipment ware do they get them from if they don't buy back boilers . I thought I had a good chance because when I had asked was at the begining of this year hardley any burn time on my boiler at that time now it has 8+ cords threw it
Buy the way I feel the same way you guys feel dont like to complain always try to give a fair shot and would not bad mouth any one or thing but I feel that I was had buy my salesman STILL LOOKING FOR THAT SPECIAL SOMEONE THAT IS IN LOVE WITH THEIR ECONOBURN
 
Well, looks like I am the first to love my Econoburn. I have been using mine since May 2007. Used it all summer to heat my domestic hot water. I liked it so well I contacted the factory to see if I could secure a dealership. I took on the first dealership in New York State. Since then I have approximately 40 units up and running. Yes I have had a few minor issues. The turbulator handle, shear bolt design is being changed. Most of that issue is the customer thinking the handle needs to be moved 360 degrees, when in reality it needs to be rotated 10-12 degrees. The issue with the leaking pressure releif valve, the new boilers will have the valve on the outside, not under the cover. The other issues have been user related. I tell my customers to forget all they ever knew about using the old style boilers. These gasification units are truly different to oprate. You can not burn bundles of newspapers or magazines in them. The papers and magazines fall to the bottom closing off the gasification nozzle. You need to take a few seconds to make sure the firewood is properly placed so it doesn't bridge. Your firewood can not be longer than the firebox either. I tell all my customers tthey need three weeks to learn to operate the Econoburn, some need more most need less.
I used to have a indoor model outdoor wood boiler prior to installing my EBW-200. It would burn 35+ cord of hardwood a heating season (5200 sq ft house with 18 ft vaulted ceilings). The Econoburn now burns 10 a year. I have also discovered that I have ground water penetrating my underground lines (100' of line). I don't know how many BTU's i'm loosing an hour, but the snow melts over the line. The line will be replaced this spring. That should eliminate a couple of cord. If you do the calculations my usage of 1500 gallons of fueloil a year calculates out to approximately 9 cord of firewood usage at 70% efficiency. I would say that I am right on track with my usage. Especially if you consider the heat loss in my lines.

The coversion program can be found here: http://www.puc.state.nh.us/Gas-Steam/naturalgasvsalternativefuels.htm


One particular install is getting by with 5.5 cord for his 2200 sq ft well ventilated hoouse with domestic hot water. He has told so many people about his boiler that it has generated 6-7 other sales for me. As a mater of fact a EBW-200 gets delivered today as a result of his recomendations.

I think most boilers will have issues, some are the fault of the manufacturer (look at the Greenwood and Adobe issues in this forum) others are user related.

My experiance with the Econoburn line has been nothing but exceptional.
I know that the factory has just passed the new EPA emissions standards for outdoor wood boilers with flying colors. They have been certified for heating season use as well as year round use. This is so important now that states like New york are going to pass legislation that will require all outdoor boilers be certified to the new standards. Very few OWB's will be able to obtain this certification. see this link: http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/36816.html
or this on that is the actual draft of the new law. http://www.lungnh.org/site/c.cnKFITNsEkG/b.3794751/
 
I'm glad to hear that at least one person is happy with their econoburn. I still am very unhappy. This morning I woke up to a 63 degree house because my wood bridged. This was my fault because I filled it extra full to try and get a full nights burn out of it. So I got up at 5:30 and fired it up. First with some kindling and a few 2x4 scraps. Then I added my oak on top of that. Well, it has been an hour and a half since firing and my water is only up to 138. I also shut off my storage so that it would heat up faster to my infloor and rads. I messed around with the fan a little bit, but doesn't seem to make much of a difference. Seems like it should heat 28 gallons of water faster than that. Or maybe I just have too high of expectations:( Ya, its like I said earlier in this thread, that since I am out of oil, I am really feeling the pain. Just hope I can get the house warmed up before the wife wakes up.
I don't know if the "lemon law" applies to boilers, but I feel like I got a lemon instead of an exotic fruit.
 
Eric, A few things to check, first - is the back area in the bottom burn chamber clean. The area under the heat tubes (way in the back of the bottom chamber) clean of ash? Next how long are you burning with the gasification bypass gate open? When burning a new fire I find that allowing a new fire to burn for about a half hour is a must. With the gasification style boiler you must have a coal bed for the boiler to operate in gasification. I bet you built a fire let it burn a few minutes and pulled the gate closed. The boiler just can not get gasifying with out a coal bed. I can get a new installation up to 180 in less than an hour.
 
eric. Forgot one other thing. Sometimes when building a new fire I have had customers put kindling in and the piece falls directly over the gasification nozzle and it plugs the nozzle. I always place the first two pieces of kindling sideways in the top chamber this will hold the rest of the wood off of the gasification slot. Hope this helps.
 
The only way to get a full nights burn is to get up at 1 am and feed it, then again at 5 am. That is reality. Don't try to tell me otherwise, because that is the truth. Not a user related issue, mine burns fine and I have learned the knack of firing it and keep it burning well, but a 4 hour burn on a full load is all I can get from mine, even when it goes to low throttle. Refiring is fairly easy IF you maintain a hot bed of coals, but don't let those coals go out, then you will be like Eric and need to start from scratch. I can't imagine those happy customers are not getting up during the night to fire their econoburns. My system is nicely installed and I have no heat waste, as I said before, my house is very well insulated. I have obtained technical data on the electronic controls from the manufacturers and will attempt to tune my injection blower to run slower, that may help on low fire to conserve wood.
 
RICH, FINALLY FOUND SOMEONE HAPPY WITH THEIR BOILER I'M BURNING THE EBW 200 AND NOT GETTING MUCH MOORE THAN 4 HRS MY BE 6 IF IT'S FULL OF BIG ROUND WOOD BUT THE TEMP SUFFERS .
I TALKED TO THE FACTORY ABOUT CHANGING THE FAN SPEED TO RAMP DOWN LOWER AND I WAS TOLD THAT IT WAS SET UP TO THE LOWEST POSSIBLE SETTING ANY LOWER WOULD CAUSE VOLTAGE PROBLEMS AND PREMATURELY BURN THE FAN OUT.
ALSO IN A PAST BLOG I HAD MENTIONED THAT I WAS SEEING NARROW SHEETMETAL STRIPS HANGING DOWN IN THE LOWER HALF OF MY UNIT I HAVE OVER COME SOME OF MY DISAPPOINTMENTS WITH MY BOILER BUT I'M CONCERNED WITH THE LONGEVITY OF THE UNIT. WOULD LOVE TO HAVE ANY ECONOBURN DEALER BUY MY BOILER BACK AND START FROM SCRATCH
WITH A NEW GASSER
 
Keep in mind the happy person is a dealer. Thanks for the heads up on the fan speed, I will research that further. I am hoping some other happy Econoburn owners will jump in here, especially with regards to the burn times.
 
Altheating, I clean out the back of my boiler at least weekly as best as I can with the ceramic in. The other day I took them out (because the fire was out)so I could clean it out completely. There was some ash but not too much, doesn't seem to help if it is clean or not. Also, it doesn't matter if I have a bed of coals or not. Even with a bed of coals as you say it will still struggle to heat up. I had a very hot fire in it the other day using only 2x4's and kiln dried wood. It would get up to about 165-170 but not any hotter. I have had some coals or pieces block the nozzle a couple of times but I pushed them away. Also, how can one maintain a bed of coals when you only get 4 hours of burn time? I like to sleep more than 4 hours at a time,and I can't come home for lunch everyday. Plus, it doesn't put out enough heat to get my storage up to temp. I only got my storage tank up to 150 burning all day yesterday. Luckily I had a slow day so I could mess with it. I had to turn my manifold off that supplies 600' of infloor and 2 panel rads to get it to that temp:( So, I guess that if I could come home every 4 hours and stoke my fire and shut down everything but my tank, I could get the water up to temp. What keeps the bed of coals from blocking the nozzle? To me it would seem that coals are just as small as kindling that gets burned up. I started a fire this morning at 5:30. It is now 10:30 . 5 hours of continous burn. I have the manifold off and just supplying the tank. Oh, ya i do have a heat exchanger in my oil furnace that is also running once in a while, but not too much. The temp of my water is 160, and my tank is at 135. Needless to say I am still burning all day long when the temp. out side is reaching 30-40. All I know is that the problems with my boiler go above and beyond user errors. I could go on but I won't.
 
Lube guy said:
The only way to get a full nights burn is to get up at 1 am and feed it, then again at 5 am. That is reality. Don't try to tell me otherwise, because that is
the truth. Not a user related issue, mine burns fine and I have learned the knack of firing it and keep it burning well, but a 4 hour burn on a full load is all
I can get from mine, even when it goes to low throttle. Refiring is fairly easy IF you maintain a hot bed of coals, but don't let those coals go out, then you will be like Eric and need to start from scratch. I can't imagine those happy customers are not getting up during the night to fire their econoburns. My system is nicely installed and I have no heat waste, as I said before, my house is very well insulated. I have obtained technical data on the electronic controls from the manufacturers and will attempt to tune my injection blower to run slower, that may help on low fire to conserve wood.

I think the sales pitch that storage isn't needed is coming back to bite. As a learning gasifier user of a eko80 I believe it is very important to have stoage and the more the better. 300 gal isn't enough as all it will do is help keep the boiler from short cycling a little bit but won't store many BTU's to heat the house for very long. Most gasifiers will burn there load in 4hrs. If you idle them they will burn longer but will not be as efficient. If you pull the water temp down and don't keep the water temp up in the boiler it will take along time to get it to gasifiy good. If I put a full load of cold wood in a cold boiler it will take a very long time to get the water temp up. If I have my water temp up to 160*f + with in just a few minutes the gasification will be heating it up. They work best at 170 to 180*. So I think the solution to alot of your problems is to have high boiler water temp protection and run alot of storage. I haven't seen the econoburn boilers but I understand they are a take off or copy of the eko's. They are a new co. and when I heard they were telling costomers that the were better built than the eko and didn't need any storage it don't surprize me that there is some people unhappy. As people learn how to use them I'm sure they will become more satified and as the co. learns how to properly promote and educate the customers and not try and run down other boilers to make a sale they will make have many satified people.
We (new gasifier users ) are all having to rethink how to use these. They are new here in the US and our uses and houses are different than in other parts of the world and we heat differently. We have to get out of the OWB ideas and learn how to fire these but I am very convinced that gasifiers, in some shape or form, are the cheapest most pracical way to heat rural America. I do believe that chip gasifiers will be the future when they come on line. Chip bio-mass is everywhere.
leaddog
 
leaddog, thanks for your candid and beneficial input. I now believe that a lot more storage will benefit me and the others here, especially after reading some of the other threads on this forum discussing storage and the benefit of running at high fire for a long time. I just feel bad that myself and others are somewhat being guinea pigs in this scenario, especially with so much money being spent on these machines up front. It is a lot of money to spend and then have to spend more for storage solutions.
 
Lube guy said:
leaddog, thanks for your candid and beneficial input. I now believe that a lot more storage will benefit me and the others here, especially after reading some of the other threads on this forum discussing storage and the benefit of running at high fire for a long time. I just feel bad that myself and others are somewhat being guinea pigs in this scenario, especially with so much money being spent on these machines up front. It is a lot of money to spend and then have to spend more for storage solutions.

Don't feel to bad. Most of us have been guinea pigs as gasifiers are so new here. Most of the dealers are new to them also so we are all learning together. I'm so glad this forum is here and I tell everyone thatis thinking about wood boilers to come here as there is alot of knowledge here. I started to reasearch gasifiers last winter and there wasn't much info out there but the more I learned the more I was convinced that storage was the key. We here in the US have big homes and want to only stoke a fire a couple times a day. The manufaturers don't like to talk about storage as it is so different from what WE know. I have to give Tarm, eko, and garn credit as they recommend it up front. All the others said it wasn't needed. Burn them HOT and store and you will be happy.
leaddog
 
I agree that storage probably is the best thing. I did get storage when I got mine.(512 gal.) Probably not quite enough but should do pretty good. My problem is that my boiler won't get my storage up to temp. Like today, I have only been feeding the tank and my HX to my furnace which only runs for 10-15min/hour. As of right now, the tank is only at 150. The boiler has been at full burn since 5:30. If I could heat my tank to 175 in 4-6 hours and then use that I would be a lot happier, that's just not the case for me. Going thru ALOT of wood:(
 
It sounds to me like maybe you've got a heat exchanger problem, Eric. Have you tried bypassing the tank and see how that works?

How hot does your boiler get? Does it smoke? What are your stack temps like?

We have a few EconoBurn dealers here. I think one of them ought to be able to walk you through a step-by-step diagnosis to try to figure out the problem. I don't see how an EconoBurn can be that much different than the EKO, and that's a pretty straightforward process--I mean the heat from all that wood has to be going somewhere. If it's not going up the stack, then it's somehow getting lost in transmission.
 
gopherwood said:
I agree that storage probably is the best thing. I did get storage when I got mine.(512 gal.) Probably not quite enough but should do pretty good. My problem is that my boiler won't get my storage up to temp. Like today, I have only been feeding the tank and my HX to my furnace which only runs for 10-15min/hour. As of right now, the tank is only at 150. The boiler has been at full burn since 5:30. If I could heat my tank to 175 in 4-6 hours and then use that I would be a lot happier, that's just not the case for me. Going thru ALOT of wood:(

I'm wondering if you have your boiler running hot enough. You need to have it running atleast 160 and 170 would be better to get good gasification. You will burn alot of wood if it isn't gasifing good. You need a control of some sort to keep the boiler up and then feed your storage or house from that.
leaddog
 
Eric Johnson said:
It sounds to me like maybe you've got a heat exchanger problem, Eric. Have you tried bypassing the tank and see how that works?

How hot does your boiler get? Does it smoke? What are your stack temps like?

We have a few EconoBurn dealers here. I think one of them ought to be able to walk you through a step-by-step diagnosis to try to figure out the problem. I don't see how an EconoBurn can be that much different than the EKO, and that's a pretty straightforward process--I mean the heat from all that wood has to be going somewhere. If it's not going up the stack, then it's somehow getting lost in transmission.

My boiler only got up to 170 degrees and only for a little while. That was while i was tending it today. I left for a few hours and when I got home it was down to 160. Then after supper I put some wood in and checked it at 10:00. It was down to one piece of wood and 149. 149 is what my tank is at. I am just frustrated, puzzled, confused and upset. It smokes some on start up but once it gasifies not much to speak of. I had a fire in it today that was huge. I had a lot of small kiln dried wood and got it burning real good with the draft open. Then I shut it to gasify and it was just raging when I checked the gasification door. Flames consumed the whole box. It smoked for a while even gasifying until it burned the excess gases. But, even then it didn't come close to overheating. Checked my wood tonight with a moisture tester my dad bought. It ranged from 25-38%. I know this might not be the best % but don't think that it is the culperate. My real delima is that I have the option to get a EBW 150 to replace mine. With all the trouble of mine not heating good and the problems of the other guys that were similar to what I had, I am very sceptical to do that. If i decide to get it and have the same problem, I won't be able to handle it and I would be stuck with trying to get rid of a used boiler. We've checked everything except the back of the boiler. No heat loss from boiler to house. Snow and frozen ground where the line is. Maybe the hx is blocked in the back, because my turbulator is broken:( I am not going to tear it apart and find out because whatever happens this one is still going back to Econoburn. I really appreciate all the advise and experienced knowledge from you guys. Being new to gasifyiers, I read this all the time and have learned a lot from it. Just wish I had the confidence to get the EBW150, but I don't especially with what skidsteer and lubeguy are going through. So far, only one happy customer. Wish I could hear more good things:)
 
Gopherwood, I am curious as to the inside diameter and length of your underground piping. Also what size pump are you using. I agree with Eric's statement on the similarity between the EWB and EKO. I would think you should see similar performance to the EKO. Good luck in finding a solution to this.

Don
 
Rich, I have a couple of quick questions that might help with a solution. Forgive me if you have posted these answers already. I have a suspicion that your unit
heats the house well, and then doesn't idle down low enough to slow the burn consumption rate.
First question... Can you get the storage system heated and the house warm at the same time while you are at full burn ?
Second question... Can you get (not keep) the house warm while it is cold outside ?
Third Question...is the unit in the house or in an outbuilding ?
Fourth question... Tell me about your chimney. Are you high on a hill ?
Fifth Question... Tell me about you home heating system. Hot Water or Forced Air ?
Sixth Question.... What is the return temp (delta) to the E-Burn after things are warmed up ?

Let me qualify my position, I am looking at the E-Burn as a dealer. I have installed dozens of OWB's and other Wood/Coal Boilers, but only a couple Gasser's.
I am dropping the line of Gassers I currently handle. I am interesting in using what I have learned to help others, in turn reinforcing what we have learned and learning more ! I believe that you should get an 8-10 hour burn out of a well designed and sized wood heating system, or why bother ! Life is too short. Wise Men Still Seek Him !
 
Although this is probably obvious, length of burn SHOULD be short when charging large storage tanks. That is the whole idea of storage! Burn the boiler at full boat and therefore clean.......

So burn time only comes into play when heating without storage.

Some math.....

4 cubic foot firebox using good hard wood......
Total output from wood when all adjustments are made
400,000 BTU

or, 4-5 hours of burn time on a full load and 100K BTU input to the water.

As nofossil has pointed out MANY times, total system efficiency is MUCH lower than advertised for ALL wood boilers. Gasification are still 50 to 100% better than others, but all the nuances of the system have a BIG effect on actual delivery of heat to the house.

As I said, just stating some of the obvious.....
the calcs are from our burn time calculator at:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/burn_time_calculator
 
Correction : What I should have said is " You should be able to get 8-10 hours worth of heat out of a burn cycle with the appropriately sized and designed system." I currently heat 2000 sq. ft. with a Wood Burning Avalon F-Place insert. Our home is in a cold climate
and is a 1970's poorly insulated chalet with alot of glass. I can load the stove @ 10PM with the house @ 68 F, and I wake up @ 5:30 AM and the house is 62 F with a good bed of coals. I currently burn around 15 face cords a winter.

Firstly, We are going to tighten up the house, then install a Gasser in a separate structure, heat 500 gallons of storage, put in some radiation, forced air and an indirect DHW tank preceding an electric DHW. Additionally, I will be installing a bank of Flat Plate Solar Collectors for Summer Time DHW. I want to start a fire, load the unit and walk away knowing I can get 8-14 hours of heat. I dont mind a 4 degree drop in the house while I am gone, as long as it doesn't take 4 hours to get that temp back.

Wise Men Still Seek Him !
 
HAPPY EASTER EVERY ONE
I feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place with my boiler . I drive my self and everyone around me crazy trying to make my mind up weather I'm going to keep my boiler or sell it. I don't have the troubles that some of you other people are having with not being able to make enough heat . I'm having doubts In the longevity of the boiler a lot of my problems with the fluctuating temps that I was having have been answered by all of the knowledge of the people of this site not the company I bought the boiler from. In fact most cases I'm making too much heat at all the wrong times (KNOW WATER STORAGE) I have serious doubts in the factory because I feel I have got-en a runaround with them on information about the use of my boiler in the early stages . Right now as soon as it warms up I'm moving a boiler to my out building and adding water storage . So that's ware the confusion comes in . Option #1 sell the econoburn at a loss and buy a new gasser with a better reputation or roll the dice and stick with what I have, either way I have to reinstall a boiler
 
hotwaterman, from rich:
"First question… Can you get the storage system heated and the house warm at the same time while you are at full burn ?
Second question… Can you get (not keep) the house warm while it is cold outside ?
Third Question...is the unit in the house or in an outbuilding ?
Fourth question… Tell me about your chimney. Are you high on a hill ?
Fifth Question… Tell me about you home heating system. Hot Water or Forced Air ?
Sixth Question.... What is the return temp (delta) to the E-Burn after things are warmed up ? "

1) no, I need to "charge" system first at full throttle burn, otherwise it can't keep up, I keep my zone setpoints below SP during warm up
2) house will stay warm when very cold outside, but frequent loading is necessary, 4 hrs to coals
3) boiler is in finished basement, in a utility section
4) not on hill, but I do have an exhausto chimney fan calibrated to my system, as I had smoke issues (if you want more detail, I can pm you on that.) I do not believe it is a factor in my "problems"
5) combination of baseboard heaters and a plenum exhanger on my existing oil fired hot air furnace
6) when system is up and stable, delta T is as low as 10 deg F

I do have capability of monitoring all temps and pressures, as I have Honeywell UDC 3300 controllers in my control package and multiple thermocouples for zone and loop monitoring. I also have flow and pressure instrumentation on my loops. It is over the top, but I am an Instrumentation and Controls technician by trade.

I did a lot of tinkering and massaging this past weekend while running and I am very much of the belief that I need a lot more storage. I plan on putting in a 1000 gallon tank this off season. I wish I knew this up front, but I truly believe it to be the answer to many of our issues here.
 
Skidsteer and Lubeguy

I've been dealing with gopherwood's Econoburn 100 for a while now and have come to a few conclusions. Number 1 is that good dry wood makes all the difference in the world.........I said ALL.......the difference in the world. Gopher has been using red oak that for the most part has been standing, dead timber, recently felled and split. Some other stuff he's had has been dead wood again (gypsy moth) but cut and split within the last 6-9 months. When you look at a piece you would think that it's dry.......it's gotta be dry............it's been dead for 5 years. Right? ...........Wrong.

I tested it with a moisture meter and found that on the outside it runs between 15-25%. Good..........Right? ..........Wrong again!!!

I split a few pieces of the already split wood and stuck the meter in it again. Now I saw readings from 30% to over 45% moisture content. In a nutshell this means that a good share of the heat produced is being used to evaporate the water out of the wood before it will actually burn. It also means that gasification can't take place due to the lowered temperatures caused by the amount of vapor in the exhaust stream. You use water to PUT OUT fires as I recall. So even though there's a fire in there and the wood is being consumed there is very little heat left over that can actually be transfered into the water. All the BTU's in the wood are in fact being generated, but are wasted or lost in the process of evaporating moisture instead of being available to heat his water.

How do I know this? Because he got his hands on some good dry wood. It tests at 13-22% in the middle of a freshly split block. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!!

His Econoburn is now able to pick up his storage tank along with driving the heating system for the house. This morning it was -2* here at around 6:30AM. Little bit of a North breeze. Pretty much design conditions. He had his 500gl tank up to 160 last night when he fired the boiler before hitting the hay. This morning the boiler and the tank were still at 135* with the fire out. He fired it at about 7:15 and called me about 9 to tell me about the difference in the way it burned the last couple days. I went there at about 9:30 and checked his boiler and tank to see how it was picking up. The boiler was at 164* and the tank had picked up to 148*. This is at 0* outdoor temps and the house was being heated besides. We have NEVER been able to make this happen until he got this last load of wood which is good and dry. All other parameters of the operation and the system are the same. The only difference is the wood I need to say that again............ The ONLY difference is the wood.

I had suspicions about it before but was never able to confirm what I thought was going on until I got a good moisture meter and stuck it in the wood. The stuff he had LOOKED good but obviously was pretty marginal.

A secondary item that we found helped out a little bit was to insulate underneath the boiler. They lose a fair amount of heat out the bottom of the secondary burn chamber, which I would guess is a fact of life with any other brand also. The Econoburn has a water jacket underneath the secondary chamber to absorb heat but the bottom is uninsulated as built.

We also found that how you fire the boiler makes a big difference. The best method when starting from a cold firebox is to build a small fire with some kindling and small pieces then let it burn down to coals. When that's taken place (20 minutes or so) load your normal amount of wood in the box and let it get established before you close the draft diverter. It seems that the firebox needs to be at a pretty good temperature to get a larger fuel load gasifying. Once you get it up there it will again initiate gasification when the draft fan cycles on/off. If you take the time to get the box up to temp before filling the boiler it makes the whole burn function better.

Running a gasifier is different than just heaving a huge load into an OWB. They are all more of a thinking man's boiler regardless of brand and I think you'll find that you'll have the same issues regardless of whose piece of equipment you're running. Do yourselves a favor and hang in there while you learn the ropes because I have a suspicion that you'll encounter the same issues with another brand, whatever that may be.

As far as the mechanical problems with the agitator handle and/or leaks go, please work with the factory or the dealer you bought the unit from on them. I have found Econoburn to be well above the industry average when it comes to addressing issues that arise with their product.

Keep us posted.
 
I would second the "ALL the difference" observation based on my experience with the EKO.

I think the Econoburn hx cleaning handle is an example of a design that's technically superior, but if you're not aware that it isn't supposed to be cranked all around, it could lead to problems. Probably the result of a design team used to dealing with trained service techs--not homeowners. The handle on the EKO looks a little awkward, but it doesn't look like a 360-degree crank, which is the whole point of the design, I think.
 
FIY to all concerned:

Econoburn has a real live technical service department that can be reached during normal business hours at 716-792-2095.
Ask for Dan. He has over 30 years of experience in hydronic related businesses including Dunkirk, Weil McClain and White Rogers. A very knowledgeable chap with a wealth of experience in the areas of both hydronic engineering and controls. Homeowners as well as dealers are welcome to call.

I recently learned that Econoburn has received the Energy Star rating from DOE, the only wood boiler to achieve this. They have also completed and passed EPA ratings for Phase 1 with flying colors. In addition they will have ASME {H} rating on all their boilers in May. I think that they will be the only manufacturer of wood boilers to have this rating as standard on all their products.

From where I sit, Econoburn looks like a company that is pulling out all the stops to be the best it can be. That's a far cry from what I see in most of the wood burning equipment manufacturers that I have dealt with.
 
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