Pellet stove repair/maintenance busisness

Flammam said:

Just a question. I seem to be spending a lot of time fixing and maintaining stoves for friend and friends of friends. I guess words got out and I have been keeping pretty busy on the weekends. Does this type of business seem to have any long term viability? Just thinking of something to do in retirement.

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People seem to have a allergic reaction to pay to get their stove working. And especially if all it needed was a good cleaning.

Start charging the friends of friends - you'll find out soon enough if there is a market. I don't see why you couldn't supplement your income that way. Advertise on CL under "skilled trades" and that will also give you a clue on how it might go.

I suspect MUCH of the trouble is electronic controls circuit board failure...2/3 of the companies that made them have gone out of business...If you can find parts at all they can be pricey. If an electronics engineer designed a robust "universal" control panel that could be adapted to virtually any pellet stove, many, many dead stoves could be salvaged and money could be made....

It's definitely seasonal but I see a couple companies around here driving around going to houses. So at least around here there is a market for it. Especially if you have any upper class neighborhoods. I know many people who love the stoves but would rather pay someone else to maintain it for them.

Flammam said:

Just a question. I seem to be spending a lot of time fixing and maintaining stoves for friend and friends of friends. I guess words got out and I have been keeping pretty busy on the weekends. Does this type of business seem to have any long term viability? Just thinking of something to do in retirement.

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I think that it really depends on how much effort you want to put into it. If you just want minor supplemental income weekend jobs would probably keep you busy enough. If you wanted to keep yourself busy for the other 5 days you could do that too. Just depends on what you really want and how many more chickens you need
Go for it.

Flammam said:

Does this type of business seem to have any long term viability? Just thinking of something to do in retirement.

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Reading quite a few threads here, I think the answer is "yes" but with a caveat; with so many people on this list reverting from pellet heat to oil, and all of our pellets eventually going to Europe -- you need to start your business over there (and specialize is servicing pellet power plants).

Think about it Flammam...Three things must be controlled. Four if it has an automatic igniter. Main blower. Combustion blower. Pellet feed auger motor. These things are controlled by timers and or temperatures. The auger is the most important from a safety standpoint. Operating conditions MUST be correct to energize the auger motor. Abnormal operating conditions must always always block the auger power and shut down the stove..You are an EE If you could design and build a universal replacement control board so the stove could be manually controlled, just switches for the blowers and a timer circuit for the auger motor, the world would beat a path to your door.....

Stove service is customer service. It's often a tough business to be in, but with solid management service can have good margins. A service business is like any other business; you're gonna need insurance, an accountant, and an attorney. So to me the real question is do you want to be a business owner, specifically in the service business? Start from that perspective.

I'd say there's a market. Much easier if it's to supplement and add a bit of extra fun to a retirement, vs. feeding a family (so good place to be, for you).