Didn't See A Foundry Or Welders, But Met The Man That Designed My Stove

[BrotherBart]

As the regulars know I recently purchased and installed a new Englander 30-NCL free standing stove. An instant love affair started with the stove but I discovered a manufacturing defect that affected the door sealing. Mike Holdon the customer service manager and I have been talking about it and he wanted to send me a new stove. In fact he actually wanted to load one up and bring it to me. I was concerned about it getting damaged if a freight company got their hands on it.

Well today I put it in a pickup and took a run down to England Stove Works and we swapped stoves. Mike gave me a tour of the plant, no welders they are inventorying right now, and showed and told me a lot about how they build stoves. It was great to see where and how my stove was made. Man are there a buncha stove bodies ready for the finish work in that place.

Even though finally meeting Mike was great, the high point of the trip was meeting Bob. Mike took me over to meet Bob in his burn lab. He is a really nice guy and spent a good deal of time answering my questions about my stove, which he designed and took through the UL and EPA testing drill. It isn't every day ya get to meet the man that designed your stove and get to ask him a ton of questions about your particular installation and how to best burn in the stove.

Any manufacturer can have a defect in a product. All do at one time or another. But the way these folks jumped on fixing the problem and the reception at England Stove Works gives me a heck of a lot of confidence in both the stove and my decision to buy it.

Now to get this heavy sucker back on the hearth and back in action. It is gonna be real cold around here soon.

 

[Marty]

You picked a great week to change it out. And the bonus is you get another brand new stove (minus the GD break in).

 

[BrotherBart]

You picked a great week to change it out. And the bonus is you get another brand new stove (minus the GD break in).

I am going to buy stock in the company that makes Stove Bright paint. Refurbed the old stove and painted it in September. It shot craps in October. Painted the new stove in November. Now I get to do it again. That paint company is making a ton off of me this year.

 

[elkimmeg]

Behind the sceens here: BB e-mailed me his concerns with his new stove. He knew I asked Englander to participate in the donor program. I, in turn e-mailed Mike and told him how important it was to get things straightened out with BB. I told him, that Englander would be doing damage control, image wise if they dropped the football. Mike e-mailed me back and thanked me
for the heads up and promised to get this straightened out. Today he made good on his promise Kudos to Mike and Englander.

We all know stuff happens, but what is long remembered is how it is addressed. Mike back to arm twisting LOL

 

[Corie]

You're going to have permanent brain damage if you paint another stove, you realize that, right?

 

[kd460]

BB, just curious, did they take advantage of the situation and do a little marketing research with you? In other words, since they had you, did they take the time to ask you what you thought of the stove, any improvements you would like to see, any features that are benificial, etc?

Seems to me, it would have been a golden opportunity for them to get some real world feedback.

Thats great that they did the right thing by you. Turned the situation into a positive for both of you. Now they have a nice, thumbs up here on the hearth net. Can't ask for a better review, other people are gonn read this and realize Engandler stands behind there product. Very nice of Elk to get the ball rollinig as well. Good luck with the stove, KD

 

[hardwood715]

Way to go BB, and Elk for going to bat for us forum members! BB did they patent your stove color when you returned it? Now you know all the tricks of the trade on that puppy! BB's new forum specialty ENGLANDER!! After painting the new one, just hang a sign , BB's Paint shop!

 

[BrotherBart]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Mike had already said he was going to take care of the problem before I talked to anybody but him about it. There were questions of course since I had already been bragging about the stove. But never any hesitation in addressing the problem. I just didn't locate the problem until the stove was already installed and burning. Before I looked more closely at the stove I went through the process of looking at the wood, how I was operating it and going back over my venting looking for draft leaks. The last place I looked was at the stove and when Mike was notified he was all over it in a heartbeat.

As to input for them on new things to include in a stove, one of the reasons I bought this particular model stove is that I can't think of anything that I would want different in it for my application. I would love to have thermostatic burn control in the late stages of the fire but I don't see how they could do things like that and still produce a stove with the features of this one at the price point they have to maintain in their market segment. It has to be a stretch to produce a quality 3.5 cubic foot firebox stove with 1.6 gram EPA numbers that has done a 13 hour burn in the lab that you can sell for under a thousand dollars as it is.

Corie: Yeah. I think the brain damage is already done. This one will be done outside.