Drolet Eco-65, how to fix auto-ignition problems

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joecool85

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Last fall I installed a Drolet Eco-65 in my unheated basement. I wished to keep my basement basically unheated and to use the Drolet as backup heat to my wood stove for the cold nights when it can't carry the load. To do this I installed their ducting kit. Everything worked fine until December when the basement got down below 50F. At this point, the Drolet wouldn't auto-ignite every time. The issue is that it needs to get to 130F until the stove considers it a successful light and it was only getting to between 115F and 125F most times. I tried many types of pellets, the best being the La Crete softwood pellets. But even with those, it still failed sometimes. The stove works perfect on full pilot mode, but most times I only need the stove to run a few hours during the night and don't want to leave the pilot on all the time. The fix is to bring the "warm" temp down. For me, I set it to 110F. Then I brought the "cold" (IE - shutdown) temp down from 100F to 90F. Someone had shared a video on how to do this here on Hearth: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/drolet-eco-65-problem.148638/#post-1997504. I've typed it all up for archival purposes. Hope it helps someone!

Of note, now that I've made this change, it always starts up first time and it will carry the house load (1,250sq ft) by itself even when it is -6F outside (coldest we've had this winter here so far). Judging by performance, it should be able to heat the house to 65F even when it is around -15F outside. I'm good with this as 99% of the time the wood stove is running anyway and between the two I can put out double what the house needs for BTUs.


Extended Programming for the Eco 65, firmware version 1.09

Press + and – keys at the same time to start the programming – will display “DEFAULT”

Press the auger key to cycle through items forward, fan key to go back

EXH1-6 are the exhaust fan settings (factory settings for EXH1-4 are 68v, EXH5-6 are 105v)

CVL1-6 are the fan blower settings (change these via normal programming per the manual)

CMB1-6 are the combustion blower settings (factory settings for CMB1 is 65v, CMB2-6 are 85v)

AGA1-6 is bin feed auger (factory settings for AGA1 is 8, AGA2 is 16, AGA3 is 19, AGA4 is 24, AGA5 is 31, AGA6 is 38)

AGB1-6 is front auger (needs to stay at 100 for all, runs constant)

OVRT is over temperature (factory set to 325F)

WRMT is when the stove turns to “on” from “ignition” (factory set to 130F)

CLDT is cold temperature when the stove turns off (factory set to 100F)

PILT (factory set to 1)

EDLY (factory set to 10)

Press reset button to save once you go through the whole menu.
 
Last edited:
Update for v1.17 firmware.

Extended Programming for the Eco 65, firmware version 1.17

Press + and – keys at the same time to start the programming – will display “DEFAULT”

Press the auger key to cycle through items forward, aux key to go back, and use mode key as enter.

EXH1-6 are the exhaust fan settings (factory settings for EXH1-4 are 68v, EXH5-6 are 105v)

CVL1-6 are the fan blower settings (change these via normal programming per the manual)

CMB1-6 are the combustion blower settings (factory settings for CMB1 is 65v, CMB2-6 are 85v)

AGA1-6 is bin feed auger (factory settings for AGA1 is 8, AGA2 is 16, AGA3 is 19, AGA4 is 24, AGA5 is 31, AGA6 is 38)

AGB1-6 is front auger (needs to stay at 100 for all, runs constant)

OVRT is over temperature (factory set to 325F)

WRMT is when the stove turns to “on” from “ignition” (factory set to 115F)

CLDT is cold temperature when the stove turns off (factory set to 100F)

PILT (factory set to 1)

EDLY (factory set to 20)

Press reset button to save once you go through the whole menu.

*****
My changes:

AGA1-6 is bin feed auger [12/21 changed AGA3 to 20, AGA4 to 26, AGA5 to 33]

WRMT
is when the stove turns to “on” from “ignition” (factory set to 115F) [12/21 changed to 110F]

CLDT
is cold temperature when the stove turns off (factory set to 100F) [12/21 changed to 80F]
 
Update for v1.17 firmware.

Extended Programming for the Eco 65, firmware version 1.17

Press + and – keys at the same time to start the programming – will display “DEFAULT”

Press the auger key to cycle through items forward, aux key to go back, and use mode key as enter.

EXH1-6 are the exhaust fan settings (factory settings for EXH1-4 are 68v, EXH5-6 are 105v)

CVL1-6 are the fan blower settings (change these via normal programming per the manual)

CMB1-6 are the combustion blower settings (factory settings for CMB1 is 65v, CMB2-6 are 85v)

AGA1-6 is bin feed auger (factory settings for AGA1 is 8, AGA2 is 16, AGA3 is 19, AGA4 is 24, AGA5 is 31, AGA6 is 38)

AGB1-6 is front auger (needs to stay at 100 for all, runs constant)

OVRT is over temperature (factory set to 325F)

WRMT is when the stove turns to “on” from “ignition” (factory set to 115F)

CLDT is cold temperature when the stove turns off (factory set to 100F)

PILT is for whether the stove is set to "auto pilot" or "pilot on" by default. "1" is auto pilot. (factory set to 1)

EDLY is the time in minutes the exhaust fan runs after the unit cools down to CLDT (factory set to 20)

Press reset button to save once you go through the whole menu.

*****
My changes:

AGA1-6 is bin feed auger [12/21 changed AGA3 to 20, AGA4 to 26, AGA5 to 33]

WRMT
is when the stove turns to “on” from “ignition” (factory set to 115F) [12/21 changed to 110F]

CLDT
is cold temperature when the stove turns off (factory set to 100F) [12/21 changed to 80F]

Added info for PILT and EDLY settings after speaking with Drolet today about something else.

Also, pilot mode is 1.1 lbs/hr. So if you leave it on "pilot on" mode, you will burn 26.4lbs per day (2/3 of a bag) with no heat calls from the thermostat.

The reason I had called was for no ignition when it was really cold in the basement. The support line suggested I put insulation over the thermistor on the exhaust. I did this and it raised the reading by about 15F ! I won't know for sure until tomorrow morning when it goes to kick on in the cold basement, but my guess is this will help.