I just signed on to this forum--never done this before and I am happy to learn there is whole lot people out there who are willing to share their experience and knowledge. I have DW India 224 CCL which I inherited when I bought my house in 1999. It was probably installed in 1989 as part of a renovation/addition. I have been using it every winter, more and more each year and I love it. Judging from the posts I have read in this forum, I have learned to use it pretty well and it functions quite nicely. I don't know if I could get an 8 hour burn without restocking but no smoke, the little thermometer gets up to 1200 pretty easily. My only complaint is that it is hard to regulate the temp in the house.
All that being said, I have never had maintenance on it other than pipe and chimney cleaning (no residue) and having a couple of gaskets replaced by the pipe and chimney guys (who say I probably need to replace the pipe in a year or two--the pipe is probably, 10-15 feet between the top of stove and ceiling). However, I would like someone to look at it to see if it is maximally efficient, needs some kind of major cleaning, needs parts replaced or anything else. Though it seems to work well, it looks pretty rough--rusty spots, all the outside sheen worn off, windows seem permanently dirty, and in off season never seem to be able to get the inside clean.
SO--being that I am not so handy and work about a zillion hours, I am trying to find someone REALLY good who can come and do a general maintenance and talk to me about the stove. Such people seem very hard to come by.
I noticed in one of the posts that someone had taken their DW to someone who completely took it apart, overhauled and painted it a beautiful red. There were great pics. And also, I saw in the postings of Feb. 2010-2011 that VC Burner bought his stove from someone near Fitchburg who works on these stoves.
I live Northwest of Boston--How is it possible to find out the name/number of the guy in Fitchburg and does anyone know of anyone else in the southern New England who works on these stoves. I would appreciate any help.
All that being said, I have never had maintenance on it other than pipe and chimney cleaning (no residue) and having a couple of gaskets replaced by the pipe and chimney guys (who say I probably need to replace the pipe in a year or two--the pipe is probably, 10-15 feet between the top of stove and ceiling). However, I would like someone to look at it to see if it is maximally efficient, needs some kind of major cleaning, needs parts replaced or anything else. Though it seems to work well, it looks pretty rough--rusty spots, all the outside sheen worn off, windows seem permanently dirty, and in off season never seem to be able to get the inside clean.
SO--being that I am not so handy and work about a zillion hours, I am trying to find someone REALLY good who can come and do a general maintenance and talk to me about the stove. Such people seem very hard to come by.
I noticed in one of the posts that someone had taken their DW to someone who completely took it apart, overhauled and painted it a beautiful red. There were great pics. And also, I saw in the postings of Feb. 2010-2011 that VC Burner bought his stove from someone near Fitchburg who works on these stoves.
I live Northwest of Boston--How is it possible to find out the name/number of the guy in Fitchburg and does anyone know of anyone else in the southern New England who works on these stoves. I would appreciate any help.