Another cracked PE insert replaced
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clemsonfor
Minister of Fire
Seems like they would want it to destroy it so that someone could not get it, either you selling it or if you hauled it for scrap the scrap yard guy getting it and seliing it then a house fire and PE getting sued for it? I m also supprised they did not haul it off for scrap?Stove is in! Looks beautiful, took a long time but in the end they did what is right. Alot of the time was dealer issues since I did not have one and the distibutor needed to find one to do the install. As far as construction goes (disclaimer: I am not a welder) it looks just like the old on as far as the welds go in the firebox. Maybe the penetration is better but who am I to know. The ash lip and upper trim are more decorative and there are two blowers instead of one. Just something in the back of my head says its going to crack but it probably won't! Here is the kicker. They did not want old stove back but since I have a bad back an no way to move it it went out for scrap! I did keep the old firebricks for spares since they were in good shape. Had to use the old door and surround but that was no big deal. All in all I'm very happy and cant wait for it to get cold again! ( I will regret saying that I know)
Good to hear that you are back in action. Thread title updated. Send a link to PE if you haven't already.
That is the same as my replacement. The only thing different is that the distributor took my old firebox. I hope PE used it to study what went wrong and didn't just scrap it.
Sprinter
Minister of Fire
September to July for resolution. Sigh.
I just gotta show this to a dealer I talked to the other day. He made a point of mentioning the cheaper Englander's to illustrate how important local customer service is and the importance of quality in a wood stove as a safety issue. He's not a PE dealer, but the point he was making was generic.
IMO, any manufacturer can have occasional issues, but how they handle them is paramount. This can't be PE's finest hour.
The PE Super 27 step top is high on my short list, but this episode does not leave me with a warm, fuzzy feeling about the company. I will still be talking to a PE dealer, but I will ask about this issue just to see what they say about it.
So I have to ask, was this an aberration or does PE warranty service actually suck this bad? Any other PE horror stories? I know PE has a following here. BTW, I guess there was an early problem with no original dealer on this, but PE needed to step up and do what's right regardless of that. No excuse there.
So far it looks like there was a batch of Summit inserts around 2007 that had bad welds. This has not shown up in other lines. The mid-sized PEs have a great track record. I would not hesitate if this is your stove of choice. If you're concerned about dealer support, get it from Tom's shop in Bellingham. They shoot for customer satisfaction as their first priority.
I got one from Tom a couple of years ago. And he may be the best person I have ever dealt with when it comes to customer satisfaction. It is a long story, but suffice it to say that Tom is the finest, and my PE Summit is a winner.
Sprinter
Minister of Fire
neumsky
Minister of Fire
You don't want to know how PE handled my situation....went and bought a Jotul. I think PE is a good stove...but PE likes to drag their feet getting anything done. As I would expect from probably any of them...But they really took their time getting things done for me. Hopefully they fix their lethargic thinking.
Sprinter
Minister of Fire
neumsky
Minister of Fire
Sprinter
Minister of Fire
Workin' on it. This is very unfamiliar territory to me and I figure I have all summer to bug the hell out of you guys.
No problem, but remember prices jump up sharply after Labor Day. And of course this season's wood should have been stacked and drying a long time ago.
Sprinter
Minister of Fire
Yeah, the first thing I did when we moved here and my wife said "Can we get a wood stove?", which really meant "We're going to get a wood stove!", was to buy about 6 cords of wood for the next two or three years. Some of it was semi-seasoned, some very green, some fir, most alder, and I was counting on the older stuff to season out well enough for this winter, but with all the dreary weather, I'm a bit worried. Maybe we'll still see a summer yet, though. Gotta be optimistic. Last two days have been a good start... Being a gadget guy, I got a moisture meter, the 2-pin kind, and I'm monitoring a few sample quarter splits every few days to see if there's any hope.
6 cords for 2 or 3 seasons? I assume your only burning occasionally, otherwise, your going to run short somewhere between year 2 and 3. Especially first few years of burning and learning the stove and burning habits.
Sprinter
Minister of Fire
Point taken. I actually don't now how much we'll burn but it will be largely for ambiance and supplemental heat. It's also a pretty mild climate. We only pay 5.2 cents/kwh for electric here, so a $3,000 stove installed and $175 wood isn't exactly cost effective anyhow. Oh, and It's more like 7 cords now, but mostly alder which isn't that great for BTU's. I've really got to get some better species here for later years. The alder was pretty cheap, though.
If the wood is split, covered on top and stacked so that the prevailing wind can blow through it, you should be ok with the wood that was not totally green. Fir and alder dry reasonably quick after splitting. Save the totally green wood for another year. And be sure the alder is off the ground. It goes punky quickly if left on the damp earth.
5.2 cents per kw is great. We pay twice that. What electric company is that with?
5.2 cents per kw is great. We pay twice that. What electric company is that with?
Sprinter
Minister of Fire
It's Lewis County PUD. It's almost all from BPA (For the others here, it's Bonneville Power Administration which supplies much of the NW with hydro-electric power from the huge Columbia River dams). This is an interesting paragraph from PUD's website:
Apparently, some of the customers complain about rates, so they go on to explain their costs and increases. I think this is the lowest I've ever seen, even from other PUD's we've been on. This is a comparison chart for Western Wa: (broken link removed to http://www.lcpud.org/images/Rate%20Comparisions/Utility%20Rate%20Comparison%208-18-11.pdf) We were previously on Seattle's PSE (private company) at almost 10c.
clemsonfor
Minister of Fire
Sprinter
Minister of Fire
Apparently, that's about average in the US. Just to put things in perspective, take a look at this chart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_pricing
The highest is Denmark at about 40 cents (US money)
Maybe that will make you feel better
Talk about stealing a thread j/k but back on topic. This problem is not just with Summits. I know of at least two mid size PE's that have been affected and mine was one of them (an insert) and mine was manufactured in 2007
Sprinter
Minister of Fire
Are these kinds of cracks obvious to a typical user? I'm wondering how many such defects might go undiscovered or ignored by most owners. Thermal stresses must be a huge problem in stove design.
Yes and no. Some cracks we internal but obvious is you knew where to look (I did thanks to this forum) and the othrs occur on the face of the stove and should be noticed by the average user that cleans his stove once a year. You can look up in this thread for pictures.
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