First off, I have been looking on here for a while and appreciate all the information and the way it is distributed on here. This is a nice place with people actually willing to help, thanks for having me.
Now, off to the issue(s) at hand.
3 years ago I purchased a Blaze King Princess Insert from the local Southern Oregon dealer and had it installed to replace the failing pellet stove insert we had. The house is 2200 sq. ft. with a centrally located stove location and 15' exposed beam (severely under insulated) cathedral ceiling. Come to think of it, the entire house is under insulated, but that's on my project list.
When we first had the stove I was excited to have a top quality stove that was going to heat my house and give me something to talk about. My Dad and numerous friends all have Blaze King's of some sort and love them to death.
Flash forward now to last week.
I get up on the roof and clean my chimney to find it heavily packed with creosote (again), and go in the house to find that the cat is falling apart in pieces (again). So all in all, 4 cat's in 3 years, 1 blower fan replaced, heavy creosote in the chimney and burns lasting up to 5 hours.....woo freakin hoo, go Blaze King!
Up to this point I have talked to the local dealer til' I'm blue in the face only to hear that it's something that I'm doing wrong, and it's not the stove or the install. Period. I have used different species of wood, different firing methods, bought moisture meters, thermometers and bought wood because my 15% moisture content wood is "excessively wet and causing problems in the stove." I even did tests with the dealers wood and mine with the data expressed in a spreadsheet over the course of 4 days, and made sure not to burn Madrone and Oak together because "the Oak will extinguish the Madrone when burned together in the stove box". I don't even want to go into that one.
So with all the top quality advice I have been given from the dealer, I figured I would call Blaze King directly and see if that offered any relief. I phoned the Walla Walla shop and was directed to Chris. I explained the issues and history to Chris and within 5 minutes on the phone he offered a replacement stove at no cost and asked for the old stove to be returned to him for testing in his lab. I was dumbfounded and relieved that someone felt that it was not my fault and could possibly be the stove, components thereof or the install that was causing all the problems.
The new stove was installed a few days ago, and wow what a difference. 15 hour burns with consistent temps and the blower is not keeping us up at night with all the rattling and vibrations.
This was a pretty negative experience to us and had we not received the top quality customer service from Blaze King, specifically Chris, we would have never even spoken of the brand again.
If you happen to go to the only authorized Blaze King dealer in Southern Oregon, go in there prepared and informed as they are neither. Thanks Chris!
Now back to the fire.
Now, off to the issue(s) at hand.
3 years ago I purchased a Blaze King Princess Insert from the local Southern Oregon dealer and had it installed to replace the failing pellet stove insert we had. The house is 2200 sq. ft. with a centrally located stove location and 15' exposed beam (severely under insulated) cathedral ceiling. Come to think of it, the entire house is under insulated, but that's on my project list.
When we first had the stove I was excited to have a top quality stove that was going to heat my house and give me something to talk about. My Dad and numerous friends all have Blaze King's of some sort and love them to death.
Flash forward now to last week.
I get up on the roof and clean my chimney to find it heavily packed with creosote (again), and go in the house to find that the cat is falling apart in pieces (again). So all in all, 4 cat's in 3 years, 1 blower fan replaced, heavy creosote in the chimney and burns lasting up to 5 hours.....woo freakin hoo, go Blaze King!
Up to this point I have talked to the local dealer til' I'm blue in the face only to hear that it's something that I'm doing wrong, and it's not the stove or the install. Period. I have used different species of wood, different firing methods, bought moisture meters, thermometers and bought wood because my 15% moisture content wood is "excessively wet and causing problems in the stove." I even did tests with the dealers wood and mine with the data expressed in a spreadsheet over the course of 4 days, and made sure not to burn Madrone and Oak together because "the Oak will extinguish the Madrone when burned together in the stove box". I don't even want to go into that one.
So with all the top quality advice I have been given from the dealer, I figured I would call Blaze King directly and see if that offered any relief. I phoned the Walla Walla shop and was directed to Chris. I explained the issues and history to Chris and within 5 minutes on the phone he offered a replacement stove at no cost and asked for the old stove to be returned to him for testing in his lab. I was dumbfounded and relieved that someone felt that it was not my fault and could possibly be the stove, components thereof or the install that was causing all the problems.
The new stove was installed a few days ago, and wow what a difference. 15 hour burns with consistent temps and the blower is not keeping us up at night with all the rattling and vibrations.
This was a pretty negative experience to us and had we not received the top quality customer service from Blaze King, specifically Chris, we would have never even spoken of the brand again.
If you happen to go to the only authorized Blaze King dealer in Southern Oregon, go in there prepared and informed as they are neither. Thanks Chris!
Now back to the fire.