Can't contact dealer and problem with Tribute. What to do next?

[jeffman3]

OK.... I have a problem with my Hearthstone Tribute that should be covered under warrenty, but I can't contact my dealer where I bought the stove. No answer on the phone, not taking messages or voice mail, e-mail undeliverable.

I have a door leak, and after putting a straight edge to the door, it is warped slightly. The stove has never been over fired and is less then a year old! I need to get this taken care of, but am at a loss as to what to do next.

 

[STOVEGUY11]

Have you tried stopping in to see if there still there? If not I would try to call Hearthstone direct.

 

[pinewoodburner]

Is the door leaking, dollar test, or just warped slightly?
on the Hearthstone site, at the top is the contact us. If you click that you can send them an email, no phone # to call.
Good luck

 

[BrotherBart]

Hearthstone

Phone: (802) 888-5232
Toll Free: (800) 827-8683
Fax: (802) 888-7249

 

[webbie]

A certain warp may be OK........it may just need regasketed or the latch adjusted, etc.

HearthStone is pretty good in terms of support...I would think a fax explaining your problem and the dealers lack of response might get you an answer....or call.

 

[jeffman3]

Thanks guys, I will try to contact Hearthstone directly. The dealer is over a hundred miles away, so stopping by just isn't a option. When I was able to talk to him last, he said it sounded like the latch just needed to be adjusted, but the manual doesn't say how to do that. Maybe Hearthstone will be able to help. I will let you know how this turns out.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Thanks guys, I will try to contact Hearthstone directly. The dealer is over a hundred miles away, so stopping by just isn't a option. When I was able to talk to him last, he said it sounded like the latch just needed to be adjusted, but the manual doesn't say how to do that. Maybe Hearthstone will be able to help. I will let you know how this turns out.

You're right, you shouldn't be having a problem so soon. But have you replaced the door gasket? Having just gone through replacing a broken door latch, I'm at a loss to know what the guy could possibly mean by "adjusting the latch." There is no adjusting of the latch on a Tribute.

The latch on my Tribute broke after replacing the gasket and having a hell of a time getting the door to close on it. After a couple days, the tip of the latch simply broke off from the pressure.

The dealer sent me a new handle/latch assembly, which was easy enough to put on, but the door was still way too tight and I was very much afraid the same thing was going to happen again. The only thing that solved the problem is that the new handle/latch package included I think 4 washers, although only one is supposed to be needed. This puzzled me until I discovered that two of the four washers were just a tiny weeny bit too tight to fit, although they looked identical. In any case, I added the one extra washer from the package that fit plus the one from the old handle, and using three instead of one give me the extra fraction of an inch to close the latch tightly but properly.

So after doing quite a lot of fiddling and asking questions trying to solve my too-tight latch problem, I can tell you with certainty that there's no way to tighten the latch and only scrounging of extra washers of the right size to loosen it a bit.

It does sound like your dealer has either gone out of business or is about to. Do try Hearthstone, though. If the door is truly warped and they believe you that it's not from overfiring, they should send you both a new door and doorframe. I hope they don't insist you send them yours first so they can assess it.

 

[jeffman3]

Thanks guys, I will try to contact Hearthstone directly. The dealer is over a hundred miles away, so stopping by just isn't a option. When I was able to talk to him last, he said it sounded like the latch just needed to be adjusted, but the manual doesn't say how to do that. Maybe Hearthstone will be able to help. I will let you know how this turns out.

You're right, you shouldn't be having a problem so soon. But have you replaced the door gasket? Having just gone through replacing a broken door latch, I'm at a loss to know what the guy could possibly mean by "adjusting the latch." There is no adjusting of the latch on a Tribute.

The latch on my Tribute broke after replacing the gasket and having a hell of a time getting the door to close on it. After a couple days, the tip of the latch simply broke off from the pressure.

The dealer sent me a new handle/latch assembly, which was easy enough to put on, but the door was still way too tight and I was very much afraid the same thing was going to happen again. The only thing that solved the problem is that the new handle/latch package included I think 4 washers, although only one is supposed to be needed. This puzzled me until I discovered that two of the four washers were just a tiny weeny bit too tight to fit, although they looked identical. In any case, I added the one extra washer from the package that fit plus the one from the old handle, and using three instead of one give me the extra fraction of an inch to close the latch tightly but properly.

So after doing quite a lot of fiddling and asking questions trying to solve my too-tight latch problem, I can tell you with certainty that there's no way to tighten the latch and only scrounging of extra washers of the right size to loosen it a bit.

It does sound like your dealer has either gone out of business or is about to. Do try Hearthstone, though. If the door is truly warped and they believe you that it's not from overfiring, they should send you both a new door and doorframe. I hope they don't insist you send them yours first so they can assess it.

So how do you get the latch out?

There is set screw between the handle and the door, I assume you take that out and it comes apart. There is a spring (heavy spring) that fits in the latch recess and the door. My assumption was that this may be able to be adjusted to tighten the door up. Does that make sense to anyone?

 

[gyrfalcon]

Thanks guys, I will try to contact Hearthstone directly. The dealer is over a hundred miles away, so stopping by just isn't a option. When I was able to talk to him last, he said it sounded like the latch just needed to be adjusted, but the manual doesn't say how to do that. Maybe Hearthstone will be able to help. I will let you know how this turns out.

You're right, you shouldn't be having a problem so soon. But have you replaced the door gasket? Having just gone through replacing a broken door latch, I'm at a loss to know what the guy could possibly mean by "adjusting the latch." There is no adjusting of the latch on a Tribute.

The latch on my Tribute broke after replacing the gasket and having a hell of a time getting the door to close on it. After a couple days, the tip of the latch simply broke off from the pressure.

The dealer sent me a new handle/latch assembly, which was easy enough to put on, but the door was still way too tight and I was very much afraid the same thing was going to happen again. The only thing that solved the problem is that the new handle/latch package included I think 4 washers, although only one is supposed to be needed. This puzzled me until I discovered that two of the four washers were just a tiny weeny bit too tight to fit, although they looked identical. In any case, I added the one extra washer from the package that fit plus the one from the old handle, and using three instead of one give me the extra fraction of an inch to close the latch tightly but properly.

So after doing quite a lot of fiddling and asking questions trying to solve my too-tight latch problem, I can tell you with certainty that there's no way to tighten the latch and only scrounging of extra washers of the right size to loosen it a bit.

It does sound like your dealer has either gone out of business or is about to. Do try Hearthstone, though. If the door is truly warped and they believe you that it's not from overfiring, they should send you both a new door and doorframe. I hope they don't insist you send them yours first so they can assess it.

So how do you get the latch out?

There is set screw between the handle and the door, I assume you take that out and it comes apart. There is a spring (heavy spring) that fits in the latch recess and the door. My assumption was that this may be able to be adjusted to tighten the door up. Does that make sense to anyone?

Yes, the screw comes out with an Allen wrench. I suppose it's theoretically possible to stretch the spring, but not without some kind of tools. IOW, it's not something you can just pull and push with your bare hands to fiddle with this or that slight change in tension. Might work, but personally, I wouldn't try it unless I had a replacement all ready to swap in just in case.

Did you say you'd tried putting in a new door gasket? How do you know you have a leak? Is it just on one side, the one at the handle end? I'm having trouble figuring out why a year-old stove would suddenly get a warp in the door. Seems to me, too, that if it's actually warped, making the latch tighter isn't going to help much and may end up putting the same kind of stress on the latchpiece that ended up breaking the tip off of mine. If you weren't having the leak before and you are now, seems to me the gasket is the more likely culprit, or maybe a combination of the two things, a good new gasket compensating for the warp.

 

[jeffman3]

The problem showed up late last spring, after a couple months of burning. My dealer said he would take care of it when he came this fall to check out the stove, and clean the chimney. Well long story short, after calling him mid-summer and talking to him again I was told the same thing. The last time I was able to talk to him was in Sept. He said that the chimney should be fine (I only burned for couple of months last winter/spring) and that I should go ahead and burn it till he could get a round trip lined up with several customers out this direction. I haven't been able to contact him sense. I haven't changed the gasket, but I will be doing so as soon as I can get one ordered and get it here. The door passed a dollar bill test when it was installed, and the leak developed on the latch side of the door. The half of the door with the hinges is tight. The door latch was tight when it was installed but now is not as tight.

Is the latch screwed on a shaft that goes through the door? Or is it just held on by the set screw? My thought is that if it is screwed on the set screw may have slipped and the latch itself isn't as tight as it was. Does that make sense? My wife doesn't want me taking it apart till I talk to someone about it and know what I'm getting into. We heat our house with this stove and I seriously need to not break it.

 

[gyrfalcon]

The problem showed up late last spring, after a couple months of burning. My dealer said he would take care of it when he came this fall to check out the stove, and clean the chimney. Well long story short, after calling him mid-summer and talking to him again I was told the same thing. The last time I was able to talk to him was in Sept. He said that the chimney should be fine (I only burned for couple of months last winter/spring) and that I should go ahead and burn it till he could get a round trip lined up with several customers out this direction. I haven't been able to contact him sense. I haven't changed the gasket, but I will be doing so as soon as I can get one ordered and get it here. The door passed a dollar bill test when it was installed, and the leak developed on the latch side of the door. The half of the door with the hinges is tight. The door latch was tight when it was installed but now is not as tight.

Is the latch screwed on a shaft that goes through the door? Or is it just held on by the set screw? My thought is that if it is screwed on the set screw may have slipped and the latch itself isn't as tight as it was. Does that make sense? My wife doesn't want me taking it apart till I talk to someone about it and know what I'm getting into. We heat our house with this stove and I seriously need to not break it.

It seems possible, though not likely. But I suppose it could have been put on hastily at the factory or the shop and it's only showing up now because the gasket has settled and compressed. I caution you that I'm no expert, just somebody who knows a bit more about the Tribute's door latch than I ever wanted to.

There's no reason not to take the handle apart and have a look and then reassemble it. I'm not wildly handy and I had no trouble with it. It's quite simple and there's nothing to break. Just keep track of the parts and the order they go together. Please tell your wife that I'm a girl and had no trouble replacing the handle/latch assembly. You might want to promise her not to mess with that spring, though. That idea does sound to me dubious for somebody who doesn't know for sure what he's doing.

Your dealer, btw, is clearly a creep. You might try a little research to see if there are other storefront businesses near his and call to see if they know whether he's gone out of business altogether. And do yourself a favor and find a good sweep who also does installs and therefore knows a bit about the stoves and not just the chimneys. If your dealer is still in business, sounds like he's so unreliable that you don't want to be dependent on him for anything more than absolutely necessary.

 

[jeffman3]

Thank you for your help with the latch. I took it apart and understand what you were talking about. Next step is a gasket kit for the door, I will order it on-line tomorrow, I think Lehman's has them, and continued attempts to contact Hearthstone, or a dealer. I left a message with a different dealer even farther away then the guy I bought the stove from, 150+ miles. I hope they will help. I need to get this door thing fixed. I also sent a message to Hearthstone on there web-sight. I hope to hear from them as well. I guess for now we will just be careful with it, and wait.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Glad to help. The single thing I know more about than any of the fantastically knowledgeable people here is the Tribute door latch!

I was unable to find a gasket kit for the Tribute per se, but the dealer told me to get 3/8" gasket. I got mine and the cement at www.northlineexpress.com, which has the best prices for everything stove-related.

A word of caution on that, though. With my stove, the new gasket made the door so tight that the strain broke the tip of the latch off and the stove was unusable until the new latch assembly came.

So be ready for the possibility you'll need to rip out the new gasket and relay it if you find, as I did, that the new gasket made the door uncloseable without monstrous, strenuous effort. When you lay in the gasket material, you have a little leeway in stretching it just a bit or pushing it together so it's thicker. I was about to take mine off and redo it stretched out a little when the latch broke. Adding the extra washers (or "spacers" they call them) that came with the new latch assembly plus the old one made it all fit the way it should, so I never did redo the gasket.

Er, just in case, you do have back-up heat in your house you can use if necessary? I had to get an expensive emergency oil delivery on a Friday afternoon when my latch broke off to keep me from freezing until the new latch could get here the following Monday.

Good luck, and be sure to let us know how it works out and whether you hear from Hearthstone, one of the dealers, etc.

 

[jeffman3]

We have a bit of heating oil, and some electric space heaters just in case. I will check northline. Thank you for all the help.

 

[jeffman3]

Update!

I was able to contact different dealer, better then 1/2 the state away, but he said he would help me out, and that Hearthstone is really good about standing behind their stuff. He is getting the ball rolling so to speak with some calls to Hearthstone, and I am waiting for a call from him as soon as he finds out what Hearthstone is going to do, and what kind of lead time we are looking at for parts, and/or replacement stove. (Those are his words not my idea.) (I really don't think they will replace the whole thing, I just need the door situation fixed. I can't believe they would replace the whole stove for a leaky door.) Anyway I feel better now about this whole situation now that I have a dealer that I can talk to and that will d something to help. So now I guess I wait for a call back from him.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Update!

I was able to contact different dealer, better then 1/2 the state away, but he said he would help me out, and that Hearthstone is really good about standing behind their stuff. He is getting the ball rolling so to speak with some calls to Hearthstone, and I am waiting for a call from him as soon as he finds out what Hearthstone is going to do, and what kind of lead time we are looking at for parts, and/or replacement stove. (Those are his words not my idea.) (I really don't think they will replace the whole thing, I just need the door situation fixed. I can't believe they would replace the whole stove for a leaky door.) Anyway I feel better now about this whole situation now that I have a dealer that I can talk to and that will d something to help. So now I guess I wait for a call back from him.

Oh, good for him! Did he think the warping you described was beyond what's acceptable? Having the dealer make the contacts with Hearthstone for you is a big plus.

Just curiously, have you checked the doorframe for warping, too?

At one point, I was afraid the catch on the doorframe of my stove -- that little crescent-shaped lip in the metal -- had worn down and that the frame would have to be replaced, and my dealer told me Hearthstone wouldn't replace the door without the frame and vice versa because a new frame wouldn't fit right with a door that had had some use and vice versa. I took that to mean that these parts do warp a bit or settle or get just slightly out of alignment together in use, not so the operation of the stove is affected but just enough that a new part wouldn't fit right into an old one.

I'll be very eager to hear whether Hearthstone ultimately takes your word for it, and that of a dealer who doesn't know you, for how this developed and will ship out replacement parts or otherwise make it right for you.

Did this second dealer know anything about what's going on with the first one?

 

[jeffman3]

He didn't know anything about my first dealer, I hope that they just do the parts and not the whole stove. I doubt they will cover shipping and install on a new stove, and to be totally honest about it, work at the factory is way down, and my finances are absolutely shot! (X-mas is going to be mighty slim) I guess a new title for this thread should be: "All I want for X-mas is a new door."

When I checked the door, I also checked the frame. It was fine, without any obvious warping. I hope we hear something soon. It is getting cold here, and I really don't want to "push" the stove with the door leaking like it is. (Highs in the 20's, lows in the low teens with a good stiff wind behind it.) We have good draft, especially when it is really cold, and I really don't want to hurt anything. So I haven't been loading it for maximum burn so to speak.

 

[jeffman3]

update for my update!

I talked to my new dealer again today and he needed the original invoice for the warranty claim. I finally figured out how to scan and e-mail it to him. (big thing for me) :bug: Now we wait, again, to see what they will do with it, and what kind of backlog Hearthstone has on warranty claims.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Did he sound optimistic about your claim? Did he have any idea whether they'd send you parts or replace the whole stove? (Good for you for figuring out the scan/fax. I do it so seldom, I have to bury myself in the manual every time, and screw it up six times before I get it right.)

 

[BrotherBart]

Kudos for this dealer and probably some financial remuneration is going to be in order here shortly. As has been established here often dealers hardly get squat from manufacturer's for stove warranty claims. This guy is a saint for picking up the ball and running with it when all he will probably end up with is lost time to devote to his business.

 

[jeffman3]

If all this works out I am going to ask if they do any work out this way. They are literally half way across the state, so I doubt I could afford the mileage to have them come and sweep each year, but I will encourage some people their way that are looking to install stoves in the near future. I hope this all works out well. When this is all done, I may post the dealers business name and contact info on the board, with Kudos, and a recommendation, if that would be OK with the moderators. I feel like I need to do something for them.

The guy I talked to wasn't sure what they would do, He did say that Hearthstone is really good about standing behind their products, time will tell I guess. He kept saying he didn't know if they would just do the door, or a whole new unit. I really hope they don't replace the whole stove. I like the little stove we have, and I can't afford the shipping and install of a new stove, even if the stove would be a warranty replacement. I just can't see them replacing the stove for a leaky door.

I agree, I need to do some business with them, after this is all done, and I can afford to do so. I wish I could afford to get my wife the soapstone steamer for the stove top. That would be a great X-mas present, and would be a nice gesture for the dealer that is actually helping me, but it just isn't in the budget right now, unless something unexpected happens.