Adobe Problems- Owner Unite

Will do.

Well it's been a while but I finally got all my paperwork together for the Maine AG. I will mail out the complaint form and all paperwork tomorrow. The cancer has now spread to all panels on the boiler. I'm sure no one has heard from Phil, right?

well i did replace some of the rotted metal with stop sign alum.--and the back elbow was plugged up--so i give it a good cleaning and fired it back up--it is working--my model is a 200-- and it has a big hopper-- i fill it twice a day--the temp goes up to 174--and does pump the hot water over--but it goes through alot of wood--i'm wondering if the stack is sucking some of the heat out to fast when the air fan is in the off position??my refactory is busted up bad ready--i have a friend giving me some new wool material for the inside--i'm going to disassemble the complete unit during the summer--i'm not sure if its ever going to work the way the sales pitch was--unless there some thing wrong--is there anybody elese out there --that their stove is working correctly?? and i also have to get off my butt and finish the coplaint with the n.y.-ag. i'm open for any suggestion ! very dissappionted--druzzy

I have one of the beasts & like you plan on a complete overhaul this spring ie new skins & wool blanket
I also have burned a lot more wood than exspected. There seems to be a lot of Greenwood owners around here
& I am taking my cue from them. I have Maxx R insulation 130 ft underground, anyone else use this stuff,
overheated the system last fall & it shrunk to hell. I have had snow melt along the supply route this winter.
Before I drop the axe on the ADOBE I have to
1) Replace underground lines ( I have built in overheat protection)
2) strip unit replace skins, making sure of tight seal
3) add wool blanket to reduce radiant heat
4) thoroughly clean the water vessel, I plan to install an access panel on the side of unit for periodic inspection, cleaning.
5) measure stack temperature under load using a turkey thermonotor to make sure I am around 300 degrees
6) Install exhaust hood to avoid smoke in the face.

Thanks for the post druzzy, need to get cracking.Anthony, steam man, did I miss anything on the overhaul?

roaring fire said:

I have one of the beasts & like you plan on a complete overhaul this spring ie new skins & wool blanket
I also have burned a lot more wood than exspected. There seems to be a lot of Greenwood owners around here
& I am taking my cue from them. I have Maxx R insulation 130 ft underground, anyone else use this stuff,
overheated the system last fall & it shrunk to hell. I have had snow melt along the supply route this winter.
Before I drop the axe on the ADOBE I have to
1) Replace underground lines ( I have built in overheat protection)
2) strip unit replace skins, making sure of tight seal
3) add wool blanket to reduce radiant heat
4) thoroughly clean the water vessel, I plan to install an access panel on the side of unit for periodic inspection, cleaning.
5) measure stack temperature under load using a turkey ther to make sure I am around 300 degrees
6) Install exhaust hood to avoid smoke in the face.

Thanks for the post druzzy, need to get cracking.Anthony, steam man, did I miss anything on the overhaul?

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I love to here when people want to take take control of their equipment and make any necessary repairs as needed including some safe design mods to make it work to peak efficiency in your individual situation . I would hate to see anyone have to give up a major investment and call it a total loss .
Roaring Fire sounds like you got it pretty well covered .
Check out the cost Stainless Steel side panels .
Also make sure you do a native air smoke test to find an fix all leaks . If done right it will help reduce creosote when boiler shuts damper on high limit .
I could go on forever , Anthony

muleman51 said:

I purchased an Adobe boiler last March,I started to measure and the boiler they sent does not have the dimensions of the one I ordered, however did does have an ALTERED SERIAL number to match the model that I paid for.

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for the record, as trivial as it sounds , altering the serial number on an issued data tag for a UL listed item which has to be subjected to safety testing VOIDS THE LISTING (at least it does in the section of the stove buisness that i work in) i strongly suggest you include visual evidence of the altered tag to you complaint to the BBB. and you might also follow up with the CPSC.

mind you (this is my disclaimer) i do not bash other companies in public, but thats pretty bad. im usually pretty neutral when it comes to other manufacturers but im not going to wave at this one. if you like i will see about what the direct law about altering these tags is and get it to you.

roaring fire said:

I have one of the beasts & like you plan on a complete overhaul this spring ie new skins & wool blanket
I also have burned a lot more wood than exspected. There seems to be a lot of Greenwood owners around here
& I am taking my cue from them. I have Maxx R insulation 130 ft underground, anyone else use this stuff,
overheated the system last fall & it shrunk to hell. I have had snow melt along the supply route this winter.
Before I drop the axe on the ADOBE I have to
1) Replace underground lines ( I have built in overheat protection)
2) strip unit replace skins, making sure of tight seal
3) add wool blanket to reduce radiant heat
4) thoroughly clean the water vessel, I plan to install an access panel on the side of unit for periodic inspection, cleaning.
5) measure stack temperature under load using a turkey thermonotor to make sure I am around 300 degrees
6) Install exhaust hood to avoid smoke in the face.

Thanks for the post druzzy, need to get cracking.Anthony, steam man, did I miss anything on the overhaul?

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Roaring fire how deep down are are your underground lines buried ?
Did you notice the heat loss from day one , or only after the system was overheated ?
My underground pipes run 125' are buried 4-5' down and are insulated with MAXX R insulation system . This was my first season starting from scratch , we never had any snow melt or any noticeable heat loss from the underground pipes I monitor the supply and return tempature under no load , they stay within a couple degrees of each other.
One other thing for your list , if your boiler is in a outside building make sure the building is well insulated with plenty of air for unrestricted burning process of your Adobe boiler . Could you or anybody with a Adobe boiler please post some pics of your boiler , chimney bypass system , induced draft system, panel problems and aqustat location . Anthony

The underground lines are a painful point with me Anthony. They were overheated from day one.
My boiler is installed in 1000sq ft workshop 6 to 8 ft higher elevation than my house. I stupidly didn't
install temp controll valve ,only the 30 lb pressure relief supplied withthe unit. When unit overheated
the pressure relief did not work , the 1 inch pex proximal to the boiler blew. I didn't know the lines were damaged
until later that fall. During a rain storm water water entered my basement by way of the pex pipe inside the insulating foam.
I dug of line & every joint had separated 6 to 8 in. This was just prior to winter so we rejoined all the Maxxr
& came up 8 ft short. I put in a new length & hoped for the best over the winter.The first frost told the storey, my 130 ft
supply line has been frost & snow free most of the winter. Interestingly I installed a temp guage where supply enters the house
& tried to compare with my temp guage at the furnace end. Looking at the guages you would not think there was a problem, no appreciable
drop over 130 ft.
My lines are only down a couple of ft. M y plan is to go deeper & put in drainage under the lines & carry the drainage away from the
house to avoid creating a water way to my house.
Looking forward to getting set up properly.

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.

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 said:

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

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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 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 said:

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".

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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
[email protected]