ÖkoFen pellet boilers – Any horror stories?

About to take the plunge on a biomass heating system. This is at the top of the list.

I done a google search and can’t find anything bad about them.

Are they as good as they’re made out to be?

my neighbour has one.

He’s had it for 4 or 5 years now.

No major breakdowns as I recall. Service cost was OK at about £150, but the lad doing it did manage to spend most of the day doing it, which doesnt sound particularly profitable for them. A pro ought to be able to do it in a half day I guess.

As a boiler his has got a USB port. My boiler has a door where you put logs in and another door where you take ash out and that’s about it. It’s quite a “smart” machine and you can download and monitor all sorts of data if you want to.

His is installed without a buffer, although there is a standard HW tank in the house. It doesnt cycle as much as I thought it did. instead it seems run quite a lot through the day, possibly on fairly low fuelling rate.

His was expensive too, but it is MCS cert and so attracts RHI to cover most of the cost for the next 15yrs ish.

If you’ve ruled out Windhager, then Okofen are a good second choice IMO.

Just in case you haven’t done so already – I’d ask this question on the Navitron forum. The folk on there have a lot of info regarding this sort of stuff.
Stoner, Bear and probably a couple of others can help on here with this sort of stuff, but Navitron is more specialised and would be more informative.

Uncle has one and it’s been in about 6 years. Their house was getting cold (and shouldn’t have been) and it looks like the Okofen has a pretty advanced weather compensation controller and they have underfloor heating (which is all good) but it seemed to have been set up by someone who’d treated it as a fast response radiator type system so it’s not been working very well. I think sorted now as they got someone else in.

It hasn’t broken down. so seems reliable. His one regret is undersizing his pellet hopper. Find out the most efficient size of delivery and ensure you’re storage is 10 or 20% larger than that….. If you size your hopper to the minimum size of delivery you’re a bit screwed….

Thanks Sharkbait, I’l head over to Navitron.

Stoner, it is a very smart boiler, the CEO of the Uk company comes out personally when they’re commissioned and he’s happy to answer your questions over the phone. It’s coupled to a thermal store that is a buffer/ unvented cycler/immersion all combined. Apparently they never go wrong.

His is installed without a buffer, although there is a standard HW tank in the house. It doesnt cycle as much as I thought it did. instead it seems run quite a lot through the day, possibly on fairly low fuelling rate.

Thats what I’ve read and been told they constantly monitor everything and burn accordingly. The servicing does seem very good value as they do spend a lot of time cleaning and checking everything out to make sure it’s working to its optimal performance.

We’re in a part of the world where most companies won’t bother coming to quote – not sure why. But we’ve got quote for the OkoFen and one for a Strebel on the way, the Windhager which is the other ‘best make’ is the only one we’ve not been quoted for.