Does anyone have experience with the Venmar EKO 1.5 HRV? (or the vanEE 90H-V ECM; they're the exact same unit) I'm looking to purchase one, but I'm worried about the noise from the ECM motors. I've read the Lifebreathe ECM unit puts out a lot of noise; is motor noise an issue with the Venmar ECM units? TIA, Sean

Yes, I have one, love it. The motors are silent, only the rushing air makes noise (which is quite minimal).
The controller is pretty fancy, almost more so than it needs to be. I still haven't figured out what's so smart about "Smart mode" - no documentation on how it works.

H.

Thanks. I did end up buying one, and have been quite happy with it. Minimal noise and minimal power draw.

Agree with 'Smart Mode'; I just leave mine on low speed most of the time.

What is this machine you are talking about?

I'm talking about Venmar's AVS HRV EKO 1.5. One of the newer ones on the market (and most efficient).

@mg_gti: I tend to leave mine on low speed too (or 20min/h if I'm on a trip), and ramp it up if I burn something :-) or am doing renos (dust, smells,etc) which has been a lot lately!

Interestingly, this past week while running the unit on high I noticed that there was no exhaust coming out of the house (intake working fine). I called up my installer and they were perplexed. They ended up taking a spring out of my unit that holds the exhaust damper in place, now it exhausts just fine, and they said they would contact the company and get back to me. Seems like there is an actuator that isn't working, we'll see what they come up with.

H.

An update on my problem. I had it fixed back in September (forgot to update here). One actuator opens both dampers, it had come loose from the second damper, my HVAC guy hooked it back up and I now have working dampers (and a working HRV)!
On the whole I am very happy with the Venmar EKO HRV. I do wish that the controller let me access all four speeds of the unit (according to the spec sheet it has four speeds). The controller only lets me use MIN and MAX. I also wish the controller had a humidity sensor and could turn itself on if the humidity in the house was too high. In general though, I run the unit often enough that humidity has not yet been a problem.

H.