My boiler wasdown for a few days as the Johnson Controls A419 died . Of course you are supposed to return the item to where you purchased it...Ha Ha Ha .... Adobe Boiler/ Phil “The Crook “ Dougherty. I called Johnson Controls directly about this and of course they told me to return it to where ever I bought it . I proceeded to tell my story and they referred me to two local distributors and that the control has a three year warranty. Luckily the local distributor warranteed the control and I had a new control in two days. I took the down time to clean out the boiler - I rapped on the pressure vessel with a brass hammer and used a boiler brush in between.  I removed the stove pipe from the exhaust and cleaned quite a bit of creosote by hand and mirror through the exhaust exit. I brushed the chimney which was’nt in too bad shape. My boiler is located in my attached garage - my mistake. At this time I had ran out of the truckload of logs I bought last summer. All my wood was cut and stacked in my pole barn by Aug 07. I bought another truckload of logs a couple of weeks prior and cut away. Now comes time to fire the boiler up again. Here comes the green wood ...remember your seasoned wood is valuable....go ahead and burn all the green wood you can throw in. Another pipe dream sold by Phil . I fired it up with some green wood and it proceeded to drip creosote on all sides and now it blows smoke from numerous places it never did before . It seems the creosote breaks down the fireproof caulk and now the skin separates from the frame. This thing will not burn exclusively green wood the way it was built. All the reasons I bought this thing were nothing but hype.  I too , like roaring fire ,plan to strip it down when I shut it down .  Stainless panels with clean out access panels $$$$$, who knows what the insulation looks like until you take it apart $$$$ ( I have a feeling it will be soaking wet with creosote) , heat resistant tape material $$$$ (something to stop the smoke but you can take the skins off for cleaning), I don’t have storage but know I should $$$$. With all that MONEY I saved I probably could have bought that Tarm with their factory storage tank.  Can you say Money Pit ? I don’tmind working with someone to solve a particular quirk , but like Muleman 51 says less than six month old boilers - they are not six years old. I don’t expect to get anything from Phil but my ultimate goal is to see him go out of business, that’s all. It ticks me off to no end for me and the rest of us to have to literally rebuild a virtually new boiler.  My time and everyone else’s time is worth something- how many hours are we going to spend rebuilding our new boilers?!?!  I know I just have to deal with this thing and hopefully it will last ten years or so and pay for itself.  I will try and post some pictures of my install within the next few days. thanks for listening/reading my rant.

I decided to try the Adobe toll free number 1-877-498-1556. Everyone should call this number and listen to the message. It sounds like a grade school student wrote the message. I can not beleave they are still trying to sell these boilers. I spoke to the owner of an Adobe the other day. The stove is a desaster! Leaking, rotten skins, broken refractory (if it is truly refractory at all) air tubes rotted off, full of creosote and burns wood like it is going out of style.
Take a look at the warranty page paragraph #8 reads: 8. Any legal action against Dirigo Manufacturing will suspend your warranty until such actions/accusations are suspended. If it is found that you fraudulently accused Dirigo Manufacturing your warranty will be permanantly void.

How can anyone fraudulently accuse them of anything? About the only thing one can fraudulently accuse them of is producing a quality product with top notch customer service!

Beware of a company who will not put a phone number on their web page.

Paragraph #6 6. Improper placement and or treatment of the unit causing undue rusting. All units are to be thoroughly cleaned annually to prevent rusting of the interior or exterior. Any warranted rust must be a complete rust through to be considered and expecting to cause a malfunction of the unit. All units must have a sufficient rust inhibitor installed in the boiler pressure vessel semi-annually (not provided by dealer) such as Wt-41.

What are the customers supposed to do with this one? Its not like they have the units out in the rain causing rust, the dam things are rusting from the inside.

I can’t even finish this, the warranty is BS! You poor folks got took.

I refer every perspective customer that mentions Adobe to this site. Most return a call in a few days and look towards the Econoburn, Tarm or Eko.

I’ve been playing the last couple of days. Put the draft fan on a aquastat that is on the return line. I have it set to turn off when the return temp hits 130 or so, that is water temp of 140 I think. Hard to tell as there seems to be 10-20 degrees difference in pipe surface temp and water temp. I need more temp probe ports.  It seems to work. Helps get it up to temp faster but might cut down on wood use. I seem to have delta of 20* ( difference of supply minus return?) . What gets me is how I can have a exaust temp of 450 - 600* and not change temp. Must be plugged again.  Have been playing with running the draft inducer on and off at times if I don’t run it I get smoke all over. Could take the inducer out and put in allpipe with no openings, but I only have so much time. I would really like to have something other than this boiler on my mind.

Just an update on my personal problems of a boiler that doesn’t have as much as a sticker on it (gasifire). I’ve got csa international investigating his company and the so called ul and csa listed part. When I hear back I’l post my findings and then come up with my next plan. If this pisses me off any more I think I’l fly down there and see what someone looks like after............. backspace..backspace (Sorry almost typed plan B)

I worked at a facilty where the Adobe was manufactured. Phil cut every corner he could to keep the costs down. These units need to burn properly seasoned wood. If you dont where do you think the moisture goes. It collects on the skins of the unit and in time rust…
I tested one of the Adobes for 6 months and hated it. I would load before going to bed and ZERO heat in the morning. 6 hours MAX.  I also found the pressure vessel was too far away from the flame.
I have pics of the Adobe in all stages of manufacture and no 2 boilers were made the same…
Please feel free to ask any questions
And if there is a person from New Foundland that purchased an Adobe that read this please respond

Norman - 23 April 2008 09:40 PM

I worked at a facilty where the Adobe was manufactured. Phil cut every corner he could to keep the costs down. These units need to burn properly seasoned wood. If you dont where do you think the moisture goes. It collects on the skins of the unit and in time rust…
I tested one of the Adobes for 6 months and hated it. I would load before going to bed and ZERO heat in the morning. 6 hours MAX.  I also found the pressure vessel was too far away from the flame.
I have pics of the Adobe in all stages of manufacture and no 2 boilers were made the same…
Please feel free to ask any questions
And if there is a person from New Foundland that purchased an Adobe that read this please respond

I found that out this month -green wood is NOT the wood to burn in this thing and the skins will soon fall off if I use the boiler with more green wood. All his advertising is nothing but lies.

Here are pics of Phil and a Rusted 3 month old boiler

Here are pics of Phil and a Rusted 3 month old boiler

Thanks , everyone gets to see Phil but no one can talk to him . Is that an indoor unit ? It looks very similar to mine .

That pic of Phil would go good on a dart board

Hopefully his picture will get his attention and if he contacts me I will let you people know. And if there are any questions please fire away…

I see Phil has a phone too bad it doesn’t work. I hope something happens with these boilers. I’m pretty sick of mine. The MN attorney general has gotten no replies from him at all. I wish Maine would step up and do something they at least could find him, maybe. Keep everybody posted.  Thanks Jim

I can’t help but be saddened by hearing this stuff. The company seems to be ripping off the people who can least afford it! Heck, if someone is going to be a crook, why not concentrate on relieving wealthy people from just a few crumbs of their fortunes? But taking hard working wood burners...people who are attempting to save money and become independent - to the cleaners....that is bad in my book.

In a manner of saying (since I don’t believe in Hell), “There might be a special place reserved for people who take many thousands of dollars from trusting wood burners and deliver chit to them”.

Webmaster - 23 April 2008 10:15 PM

I can’t help but be saddened by hearing this stuff. The company seems to be ripping off the people who can least afford it! Heck, if someone is going to be a crook, why not concentrate on relieving wealthy people from just a few crumbs of their fortunes? But taking hard working wood burners...people who are attempting to save money and become independent - to the cleaners....that is bad in my book.

In a manner of saying (since I don’t believe in Hell), “There might be a special place reserved for people who take many thousands of dollars from trusting wood burners and deliver chit to them”.

I just hope I get some response from Phil, He is the type of guy that if he se this he will possibly try to contact me....

Thought this might be of interest to you all:

Dirigo Manufacturing
P.O. Box 344
Hampden, ME 04444

Phil Dougherty
5 Town Farm Road
Hampden, ME 04444
Cell:  207-745-7881

People now we have a face and address email for Phil wonder if he can be found!!!

Remember we live in a small world we can run but we can not hide