Wood Gun Customer Service

What's the general consensus on Wood Gun's customer service? Had a independent installer quote me a price on a install and he questioned how helpful they would be with any trouble shooting. He has dealt with Econoburn and had nothing but good things to say. Has anyone had good experience with AHS/ wood gun providing assistance during the install? I've emailed them a couple of times and found them to be incomplete in their responses. In a nutshell they didn't address all the questions from the emails. Also put in a call and they never called me back. More or less testing their responsiveness and they provided done reason for concern. Hoping that they'll be better when I become a paying customer, but my experiences have proven otherwise.

I think you will have a lot better luck with trouble shooting on this site than with most other options. There are a lot of guys here using woodguns that have first hand experience and a lot of guys that have a wealth of knowledge about all boilers that are more than willing to help out.

Huff

I called those guys so many times during my install that I started to appologise before I asked my many questions to them. Never were they anything but 100% willing to help. This attitude has continued with my recent trouble with an eroding center brick (a wood gun nozzle).

I have had no problems to speak of with my Wood Gun. Did not need them during installation because I learned what I needed from this site. I then explained to my installers how I wanted it done. I did ask a few questions of people from AHS since then. Using the phone with any business always gets better results than e-mail. Using the Boiler Room on Hearth.com with any boiler manufacturer gets even better results.

I had a coupla questions about the unit and how to solve particular issues. My installer also called them once regarding a wiring issue. If they didn't answer "live", they got back within an hour.

I would 2nd what Huffdawg said. Start with the "Simplest Pressurized" sticky and understand what parts go into an install and, why they are positioned where they are. These set ups are different from Oil Setups or whatever you may be using for primary heat. A couple of the most common topics are the location of the expansion tank(s), less critical, and the location of the WB circulator and mixing valve, very critical.
What size of WB are you putting in ? are you contemplating storage ?
Welcome Rob...

This is why I went with my Tarm over an EKO or something of that sort. Both the local folks (ReVision Heat) and Tarm BioMass have been very good to talk to and have helped me work through a few problems. I would buy from them again in a heart beat.

Not saying that you wont get the same thing from Wood Gun, they could be just as good but I would like to know before I spent my money.

I went to a local home show to see the VIGAS, the local distributor also sold EKOs. The fellow from AHONA was there and seemed like a pretty good guy but the local guy seemed really fly by night. If I recall his business card was two sided, one side selling wood boilers and the other selling firewood or something like that. It was also the same time that AHONA was starting to go away from EKO and to VIGAS.

I guess I just sleep better with my Tarm in the basement. Not only that but I did like the design a lot better.

K

Farmer! How the hell is that boiler treating you man? Good to see you around here. There you go, sneaking up on us again.

I've had my WG for 3+ years now. During the first 6 months I was on a first name basis with their tech guru...he even gave me his cel# for after hours/weekends in case I needed him. Back then if a problem could not be solved over the phone they would send somebody out or contract a person in your area to visit the boiler site. I had a problem with a Honeywell part that they promptly exchanged thru the mail several times(must have had a bad batch?). I kept track of their charges and had to correct their book keeping so I would advise you to keep diligent records of any financial transactions to be safe.

The ownership changed and a few people were let go including this tech person. I now find that emails are rarely repsonded to but phone calls are usually returned within a reasonable amount of time. Fortunatley for the last 2.5 years I have had little reason to contact them. I do know that they no longer will send a person out to the boiler if a problem cannot be resolved over the phone but the boiler is so basic that this should not be an issue a long as the owner is somewhat mechanically inclined.

It has been my experience that between AHS and this forum there should be a solution to any problem with a WG.

K How many years ago was that?

Two maybe?

The local guy, I can't remember his name, seemed to be selling them on the side and also seemed to be just getting into it. I could be wrong though. He was located in central Maine, maybe Lewiston or something like that.

The Vigas seemed like a nice unit, it's just at the end of the day Tarm was just a more common name, at least around here. My greatest fear was buying something then not being able to get parts for it a few years down the road. Tarm BioMass, ReVision and Tarm all have been around for a while, I liked that.

K

K I know who you mean,he is not a dealer any more.The Vigas line has been selling great we have 15 installs in Maine all with great feed back.Tarm is the old standby name like Vermont castings and LLBean.Takes a while to get that name recognition but when you do it helps sales.

I guess that doesn't surprise me to much.

I glade to hear the Vigas is getting a foot hold though, it's was on my short list along with Froling and the Scandtec. I think with these boilers you tend to learn more about them after you buy one then when you are making your decision. I'm very happy with my purchase but some of the reasons (features) that I've learned to really like about the Tarm I didn't completely understand until I got it up and running and especially after reading this forum more frequently. In the end I shot for the middle, not as fancy or expensive as the Froling but a more modern design then the Scandtec.

So I'm guessing you are the dealer in this region now?

Sorry for leading this thread astray.

K