I work on stoves for my stove shop, along with installing them, and selling them, but I'm the only one who fixes/works on/services stoves. We clean and do some service on stoves we don't sell. Any-who, I was working on an Englander (the dreaded home depot stove) for one of my customers. Man, those things are a pain, most stoves have side panels that come off easily so that I can get to all the parts. On the Englander that i worked on only the back panel comes off, and in order to take out the room air fan I had to do some serious yoga moves to get in and behind the stove. From what I saw, it looks like I could have taken the hopper off, but wasn't about to empty the darn thing too. My vacuum was half full of ash so if I were to vac the pellets out, its not like I could put them back in when I was done. The time it took me to put the darn motor back on was probably 3x that of what it would have taken me to remove and re-install the same motor in a different stove.
Who else here works on stoves for a stove shop or something of that nature?
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jtakeman
Minister of Fire
I worked for a stove shop part time to make some extra cash. But My son play's baseball so I had to give it up for now. I help on the coaching staff! I will have almost no free time until the end of August!
Might see if he need's me next fall. Or if the primary job falls through! Just might have to think about doing it for the main income.
I love getting paid to tinker with things. And I like working on the stoves very much. I started doing the electronics for him. But ended up doing everything but stove and pellet sales.
jay
Might see if he need's me next fall. Or if the primary job falls through! Just might have to think about doing it for the main income.
I love getting paid to tinker with things. And I like working on the stoves very much. I started doing the electronics for him. But ended up doing everything but stove and pellet sales.
jay
What kind of stoves do you work on? How have they been?
I love tinkering too, I'd rather fix a stove than install it. I can turn a wrench better than I can swing a hammer.
I love tinkering too, I'd rather fix a stove than install it. I can turn a wrench better than I can swing a hammer.
stoveguy13
Minister of Fire
Thats what I figured, have you ever worked on an Englander and had the problems I had? Any other stoves you find similar to that?
jtakeman
Minister of Fire
I do mostly the breckwells and quads. He has a guy that strikly does the Harmans. But have done a little bit of everything. I haven't done too much with the Englanders besides cleanings. The ones I have seen work pretty darn well for a cheaper stove.
What issue's have you had witht he Englander???
jay
What issue's have you had witht he Englander???
jay
mjbrown
Feeling the Heat
I HAVE WORKED ON THE ENGLANDERS AND EXPERIANCED THE SAME AS PELLETWISE (JUST NOTICED THE CAPS ...SORRY). as you can see by my avatar, i am on the larger side of things and have hands the size of baseball mitts(exaggerating a little). i did speak with mike holton about this and he said the company was looking into this.engineer and design issue.
i do most of the work for family and friends though. my folks bought the englander last fall, and i figured, dad is 70 yrs old and there is no way he is going to be able to get down on the floor and do the work he needs to do so i better learn how.
i learned REAL fast...my neighbors have the same stove and one nite had a hopper fire while mom and dad were at work and the girls were home alone.the girls come over and said"mike i dont know what wrong , but the house smell awful, and there is smoke coming from the back of the stove"....guess who took off running?i got inside and pulled the plug from the wall to shut the stove down, and opened a bunch of windows.
a week before, they had trouble with a n auger motor, so mike sent them a new one and walked hubby thru the install over the phone , and all went well....for a week.after the stove cooled down, i unhooked the plumbing and turned it around so i could work. when i took the back panel off, i thought oh my this is going to be interesting.
the wife immediately sent mike an e-mail and within minutes he called her from his own home.he talked me thru what was going on and what i was seeing.when i opened the front of the stove , there was a smell and fumes so bad, it burned your eyes and nose.we thought oh no...electrical. this was about 10 pm , so mike asked me to check the motors...stuck. so mike said he would have the shop send new motors overnite on monday(this was a friday nite).
meantime, i told mike i would dig in the next day and see what had happened. next a.m. i went over with tools, took off the motors and found that both auger were jammed.i thought hmmmmmm...this cant be good.so, i figured i would pull the augers and see what was going on.when i got the bolts out of the bearing blocks, and pulled the first auger, SURPRISE, the block was toast. the bad smell stated earlier came from a burn back in the auger tube and burned out the nylon gasket and grease. e-mailed mike again, and he called right back. i told him what i had found and he told me he would send out 2 new motors, 2 new bearing blocks, and, 2 new nylon gaskets...asked how the augers were. i rolled them across the table top and they didnt seem to be bent ,so we held off on those.when the parts came, i got it back together, and running within a couple hrs, been running good since.
what a way to learn(crash course), thank goodness dads went good all winter, and thank goodness for mike holton and quik responses.
it is certainly a bugger to work in them. if there were removables panels in the sides just big enough to get to the blowers would be good.
since then i have had the chance to work on one for a friend. his is beyond warranty, so we tried a modification. i work in a fab shop, so we cut out the sides in the stove and made new panels so access was better to the blower motors. i made them about 3/4 inch bigger all around, and connected with sheet metal screws. painted them black to match the stove and now, it looks like a factory job.
keep in mind , this stove is beyond warranty, or i would NEVER have done the mod! i dont recommend cutting up a new stove like that, and in no way suggest it.
sorry for such a long post, just wanted to be in detail as to my exp. also, if i had to buy another stove, it would be the englander, based on the heat it throws, and the tech support...kudos to mike holton!
mike
i do most of the work for family and friends though. my folks bought the englander last fall, and i figured, dad is 70 yrs old and there is no way he is going to be able to get down on the floor and do the work he needs to do so i better learn how.
i learned REAL fast...my neighbors have the same stove and one nite had a hopper fire while mom and dad were at work and the girls were home alone.the girls come over and said"mike i dont know what wrong , but the house smell awful, and there is smoke coming from the back of the stove"....guess who took off running?i got inside and pulled the plug from the wall to shut the stove down, and opened a bunch of windows.
a week before, they had trouble with a n auger motor, so mike sent them a new one and walked hubby thru the install over the phone , and all went well....for a week.after the stove cooled down, i unhooked the plumbing and turned it around so i could work. when i took the back panel off, i thought oh my this is going to be interesting.
the wife immediately sent mike an e-mail and within minutes he called her from his own home.he talked me thru what was going on and what i was seeing.when i opened the front of the stove , there was a smell and fumes so bad, it burned your eyes and nose.we thought oh no...electrical. this was about 10 pm , so mike asked me to check the motors...stuck. so mike said he would have the shop send new motors overnite on monday(this was a friday nite).
meantime, i told mike i would dig in the next day and see what had happened. next a.m. i went over with tools, took off the motors and found that both auger were jammed.i thought hmmmmmm...this cant be good.so, i figured i would pull the augers and see what was going on.when i got the bolts out of the bearing blocks, and pulled the first auger, SURPRISE, the block was toast. the bad smell stated earlier came from a burn back in the auger tube and burned out the nylon gasket and grease. e-mailed mike again, and he called right back. i told him what i had found and he told me he would send out 2 new motors, 2 new bearing blocks, and, 2 new nylon gaskets...asked how the augers were. i rolled them across the table top and they didnt seem to be bent ,so we held off on those.when the parts came, i got it back together, and running within a couple hrs, been running good since.
what a way to learn(crash course), thank goodness dads went good all winter, and thank goodness for mike holton and quik responses.
it is certainly a bugger to work in them. if there were removables panels in the sides just big enough to get to the blowers would be good.
since then i have had the chance to work on one for a friend. his is beyond warranty, so we tried a modification. i work in a fab shop, so we cut out the sides in the stove and made new panels so access was better to the blower motors. i made them about 3/4 inch bigger all around, and connected with sheet metal screws. painted them black to match the stove and now, it looks like a factory job.
keep in mind , this stove is beyond warranty, or i would NEVER have done the mod! i dont recommend cutting up a new stove like that, and in no way suggest it.
sorry for such a long post, just wanted to be in detail as to my exp. also, if i had to buy another stove, it would be the englander, based on the heat it throws, and the tech support...kudos to mike holton!
mike
I am the service tech for my families stove shop. We sell and service quads and eco tecks but i am willing to service anything if i can get the parts. i love to service stoves that we don't sell but the hard thing for me is getting the parts to do so. the manufactures will tell me that they will only sell parts to there dealers and some of the dealers wont sell to me because i am competition for them. I don't see why when they don't service what they sell!!
MainePellethead
Minister of Fire
I believe your the company that installed my stove...in Sanford right? You people did a great job with my install and very happy with it and have promoted your service/store here and on other sites. My Quad has performed flawlessly and what probs I did have was problems with me and not the stove. You guys did a neat and clean install and very happy with it. Keep up the great service!
fluemasterjr said:
maine pellet head I am pleased to hear that you are happy with our service we try very hard and do every thing we can to make our costumers happy.
I worked for a Stove Mfg for 4 years. I obtained the NFI certification for Pellet Stoves. I got another job about 2 years ago and I still am involved with the industry. I help my old employer out with shows and I do installs when they need it. I also purchase and refurbish older pellet stoves as side work. I then usually end up providing parts and service for a few of those people. I enjoy working on pellet stoves and I do miss the industry. However when I get a call from a customer that refuses to clean the stove I don't miss the industry.
Johnny
Johnny
stoveguy2esw
Minister of Fire
customer service manager for England's stove works. (yes your "dreaded" home depot stoves) personally ive never found it that hard to work on our stoves, though the room fan in a couple of our models can be a bit tight to get to if the install is fairly tight to the wall. the newer models coming on line do make access a bit easier.
jtakeman
Minister of Fire
stoveguy2esw said:
Nothin wrong with the England's, Alot of bang for your buck! And with you helping the owners they can't go wrong! You have been a big help to alot of owners here. And I am sure there are plenty more we have not seen or heard! Keep doing what your doing! A+ service and support in my book! Nothing wrong with that
just my 2
jay
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