We will now see how good Travis Indistries is...(PICS at bottom)

[Jfk4th]

OK for those that have read my earlier posts this past year, I have been having problems with what I thought was burning dust smell on my Avalon Olympic. I have thoroughly cleaned all inside the stove, outside the stove, still no luck with the smell that was on the stove top. I finally decided to call the local Avalon dealer and have him do a thorough inspection of my chimney, stove, whatever else he wanted to look at to make sure it was indeed the stove that was causing the smell and nothing else. I paid 147.72 for a guy to come and check everything and I also told Country side stoves that this guy needs to stay until I have a nice hot fire going to make sure he knows what I am smelling.

So the guy comes, nice guy checks everything, does a thorough cleaning and he starts a nice fire. After about 10 minutes he says I don't smell anything, so I said we need to wait until it hits 400 stovetop temp. Like clockwork, once it did hit 400F, here comes the smell (Now keep in mind I have curred this stove to well over 600F for many hours and I have had this stove for over a year)

He put his nose to the stovetop and said WOW, that is some strange oily smell...I said yep, been like this for over a year. He also said I had 2 cracks inside the stove, right in the back in between the back firebricks...He said that should be covered under warranty (should be, it better be, in my mind). The guy took pictures and is speaking to the boss at Country Side Stoves in Holland, NY.

I told him I just want my stove to not smell so I can burn it correctly, over 400F. I am hoping I either get a new stove or they do whatever they need to do to get rid of it. Take it to their stove shop, whatever, I just want to be able to burn the Olympic like it should be burned, nice and hot

So this is the true test for Travis Industries, stay tuned in the next couple of days to see if indeed they treat me like a good company should. hh:

 

[Todd]

Maybe a bad paint job or just bad paint. Is it pealing or look different in spots?

 

[Jfk4th]

It did have some bad paint spots, but the guy sprayed everything today, looks good. After the paint smell was gone, there came the oily hot smell again....

 

[Jfk4th]

Here are some pics of the 2 cracks, not the best with a cell phone

 

[BrotherBart]

It will be a cold day in hell when I tell a dealer I burned a stove at or over 900. In fact it will be a runaway if it happens to me me again. That kind of cowboy burning stuff popped a weld in my old stove which was one hell of a lot thicker steel than any stove made today. :coolsmirk:

I know the smell problem is driving you nuts but be careful what you are saying when you talk to them about that and the cracks.

 

[webbie]

So do you or he have a theory as to what is causing the smell?

As you say, the pics are not really clear but the cracks you are talking about appear to be in the air chambers which feed air into the secondary burn tubes.
Is that the case?

I have run into the dust smell thing a number of times - including once with a Travis stove (gas, in this case).......
It's one of those problems that is almost impossible to isolate.

Another problem is that most of these complaints did go away with the common advice - burn very hot, make sure there is no dust or dirt around the stove, etc.

Once once - and that is out of MANY stoves - did I ever have to replace a stove...when all other possibilities ran out.

I'm just trying to apply some kind of science to this. Where could the smell be coming from? If it was products of combustion (the firebox), then it would be picked up by a combustible gas detector of smoke detector...or CO detector.

Strange. But you are definitely not alone.

 

[Jfk4th]

It will be a cold day in hell when I tell a dealer I burned a stove at or over 900. In fact it will be a runaway if it happens to me me again. That kind of cowboy burning stuff popped a weld in my old stove which was one hell of a lot thicker steel than any stove made today. :coolsmirk:

I know the smell problem is driving you nuts but be careful what you are saying when you talk to them about that and the cracks.

Ooops I meant to say 600F ;-)

 

[Jfk4th]

So do you or he have a theory as to what is causing the smell?

As you say, the pics are not really clear but the cracks you are talking about appear to be in the air chambers which feed air into the secondary burn tubes.
Is that the case?

I have run into the dust smell thing a number of times - including once with a Travis stove (gas, in this case).......
It's one of those problems that is almost impossible to isolate.

Another problem is that most of these complaints did go away with the common advice - burn very hot, make sure there is no dust or dirt around the stove, etc.

Once once - and that is out of MANY stoves - did I ever have to replace a stove...when all other possibilities ran out.

I'm just trying to apply some kind of science to this. Where could the smell be coming from? If it was products of combustion (the firebox), then it would be picked up by a combustible gas detector of smoke detector...or CO detector.

Strange. But you are definitely not alone.

Craig, I have cleaned everything inside and out. I have an air purifier, humidifier I used the past year. There was a lot of dust but after cleaning it, blasting it with an air compressor, the dust is all gone. I even bought swifter brushes to sneek in all the hard to reach spots. The only smell is from the top if the stove. I have spilled nothing on top to boot. I am stumped just like everyone else is. :grrr:

I guess I will have to wait and see what happens.

 

[begreen]

Hang in there and good luck JFK. There are occasional stove stumpers that it seems have no better solution than to send it back to the factory to figure out what happened. A lady who posted with a problem Osburn trashing her living room comes to mind here. It was a pretty odd problem, but she was very cooperative and thorough about considering and trying all the alternatives and suggestions. (stove pipe, paint, bad wood, etc.) But the problem persisted and eventually the stove was replaced. End of problem, the new stove worked fine.

 

[savageactor7]

Yikes that smell is still there after a year? I'd be looking for a replacement stove lets hope the company make some kind of offer.

 

[SmokeyStover]

Is the optional fan kit installed on this stove? If so the odor could be coming from the fan when it heats up. If not, the Avalon has a very effective convective air chamber. It pulls cold air from the floor around the stove and circulates it around the fire box before exiting from a vent at the top of the stove. The hotter the stove gets, the more convective air flow. Is there anything on the floor near the stove that could be be producing and odor when it heats up? Could something be stuck somewhere in the convective chamber?

 

[Highbeam]

A rat?

 

[Jfk4th]

Is the optional fan kit installed on this stove? If so the odor could be coming from the fan when it heats up. If not, the Avalon has a very effective convective air chamber. It pulls cold air from the floor around the stove and circulates it around the fire box before exiting from a vent at the top of the stove. The hotter the stove gets, the more convective air flow. Is there anything on the floor near the stove that could be be producing and odor when it heats up? Could something be stuck somewhere in the convective chamber?

Couldn't find anything on the floor that would cause the smell, good guess though.


Update #1

Country Side Stoves in Holland called today and so far it is good news. Even though I didn't buy the stove from them they are still honoring the warranty so the cracks will be taken care of. I need to make sure the smell is taken care of too so I will nicely make sure this happens. So right now Country Side Stoves in Holland gets a plug from me

 

[pyro68]

from my experience w/ Travis they would typically take the stove back, cut all chambers out of interior of the stove and re-build it, sandblast and re-paint the unit. When you get it back should look like new. Some people send stoves back that don't have problems, just to have them re-built" You may be looking at a charge for the dealer to take the stove out of your home & re-install after it's finished. Keep us posted. Would love to know how it ends. Travis is a personal favorite of mine for customer service. Good Luck!

 

[Jfk4th]

from my experience w/ Travis they would typically take the stove back, cut all chambers out of interior of the stove and re-build it, sandblast and re-paint the unit. When you get it back should look like new. Some people send stoves back that don't have problems, just to have them re-built" You may be looking at a charge for the dealer to take the stove out of your home & re-install after it's finished. Keep us posted. Would love to know how it ends. Travis is a personal favorite of mine for customer service. Good Luck!

I was thinking that might happen and I have no problem with a charge from the dealer to take the stove out and re-install. I only expect good things from such a huge company. Like I have said before, I just want to burn my stove like I know I should be, 400-450F, good long burns...Not that much to ask from such a stove junkie like myself

 

[johnnywarm]

from my experience w/ Travis they would typically take the stove back, cut all chambers out of interior of the stove and re-build it, sandblast and re-paint the unit. When you get it back should look like new. Some people send stoves back that don't have problems, just to have them re-built" You may be looking at a charge for the dealer to take the stove out of your home & re-install after it's finished. Keep us posted. Would love to know how it ends. Travis is a personal favorite of mine for customer service. Good Luck!

I was thinking that might happen and I have no problem with a charge from the dealer to take the stove out and re-install. I only expect good things from such a huge company. Like I have said before, I just want to burn my stove like I know I should be, 400-450F, good long burns...Not that much to ask from such a stove junkie like myself

What happened???

 

[summit]

dust burning makes an aldehyde smell, but should go away after a while... the cracks you have inside are part of the inner air mainifolds, should not affect an odor of any kind.. strange.

 

[Jfk4th]

I really never figured out what the smell was, a welder funded by Travis Industries ;-) came last month and welded the small cracks. I sold the stove last week for a great price and now I am getting a Lopi Berkshire (as noted in my signature). Travis Industries proved themselves to me and so did a local Lopi/Avalon dealer. This is why I will be supporting Travis Industries again with this Lopi Berkshire Freestanding Gas Stove
A happy ending

 

[BrotherBart]

A gas stove!! My eyes! My eyes! :ahhh:

 

[Jfk4th]

A gas stove!! My eyes! My eyes! :ahhh:

I know, I know it is painful looking right now at my empty hearth with no wood stove. However I will get my woodstove fix with my Quadra Fire 5100 insert in my Living Room. I will be using this to heat most of my house.

This Lopi Berkshire will heat the far, Family Room end where my little guys are most of the day. Plus this what the wife always wanted and.... If the wife ain't happy, nobody is right ;-)