I need immediate advice from members, firefighters, etc...

[GunSeth]

Glad things seemed to have worked out Joe.

 

[joefrompa]

Holy crap - I did my first fire last night since the elbow was fixed and some block-off was given with insulation around the liner/closing the chimney off above the stove.

Crappy little fire - box was never more than 1/3rd full and using wood with alot of surface moisture. Surface temps never went above 350.

At the end of the night, with a weak fire, I FULLY CLOSED MY AIR and was getting light secondaries and the fire looked healthy.

Before, even with a fire at 500-600 degrees and good quality wood in there, closing my air all the way would immediately shut the fire down to smoldering.

I'll need to re-learn the stove now and I'll post a fuller update in a week or two.

 

[shawneyboy]

Joe great to hear. I am glad the installer took care of the situation. You may want to ask him if he reccomends a stove shop, other than the one you bought the insert from, for you "4k" purchase. Enjoy the "new" old insert. Let the learning begin.

 

[tickbitty]

Adios or anyone else,

Can anyone explain to me in layman's fashion why this setup would be substantially more dangerous than a traditional open fireplace with a screen left to burn down at night?

That's the one thing I don't fully understand yet (though I know there is more danger) and if someone says "Its not a danger to you or your family; it's like having a normal open fireplace", I want to be able to answer appropriately.

Thanks. Calling up the stove shop within an hour or two.

The difference in these two scenarios is that with an open fireplace, the flue is open. With normal draft the combustion gases always head up the chimney. Your flue is not, it's capped at the top. Combustion gases either head up the flue pipe or out into the room. It appears that the only thing that saved this from being a disaster was the good draft on the flue.

joe, it would just be speculation on why this happened, except that for sure either the elbow was under high tension or damaged on installation. The clamp being on the liner only is a good indication this is the result of sloppy, careless workmanship.

Ah, right. I was just thinking myself for a minute "wait, isn't this just basically a slammer install then?" but it's NOT, for the reasons you mentioned. It would not be freely drafting up the chimney if it got out of that pipe, it would be reaching a closed cap. Not good!

 

[tickbitty]

Glad you got this resolved. Hope it meets your expectations this time!

 

[bajaspecial]

Installer called and left a message on my cell phone from his secretary/admin saying "We received the pictures and are very sorry that this has happened. It should never have happened and it appears the part broke. We will come out and install a heavy-duty welded version to correct the issue and ensure it does not happen again."


.

Well, you know the riff. They could be right but have not answered the sloppy workmanship shown by the clamp out on the liner. You are in the driver seat now. Hopefully they will work with you to rectify the problem and will go over the installation with a fine tooth comb. I would be cooperative, but firm on your concerns of safety and about where else they were not paying attention to details. The ball is in their court now to make this safe and to do right by the customer.

joe, i hope you found our workmanship original and the needed repair to be up to snuff.
i believe with some good seasoned wood you will have better results and all will be good. i hope we assured you and your wife of the quality of our/your install.

i can only say im sorry for your inconveniance and wish you had called us the day you began your thread so we could of addressed this matter at that time.



BEGREEN, please go back and look at the pictures joe had posted and you will see that the clamp was not just on the liner it was laced thought the elbow and clamped to the liner as it should have been.

as far as the elbow having undue pressure on it after the broken elbow was removed the liner sat in the same possition as it did when the elbow was on it. after the new style elbow was installed and attached to the stove the liner moved freely in the damper case not binding on anything in that area. so your "SLOPPY WORKMANSHIP" may have been a bit prematurly evaluated.

this was a manufacture defect from an outside vendor to my supplier in the part used and nothing more. i have been assured from my supplier that these parts wont be available from them again and have checked and pulled any left in there inventory.in being asked to sit in on some of there new product reviews and seeing how they respond to comments i have no reason to believe anything else. they are top notch from top to bottom. to quote some others here "stuff happens" the sign of your contractor is how they deal with problems when they come up. approx 48 hours from our first hearing of this issue to repaired explained and up and running isnt too bad

this post could go on for days responding to everyone sitting in front of a keyboard with there "proffesional" 2 cents but what would that get done.

joe i hope you have nothing but good experiances with your stove and hope you and your wife are assured that we care about our /my customers and are just a phone call away. thank you for allowing us back in your home to repair our install.

 

[joefrompa]

Bajaspecial (I'll share your name/info if you'd like, but only at your discretion since it's your name and business) -

I appreciate it. I discovered the fault around 11pm on Saturday night and sought advice on here. My initial reaction was concern that my family was in danger, which made me over-react. Like I said, I should've called you first on Monday.

As you point out, within 24 hours of you receiving the photos you had came to my house, fixed it, cleaned the liner out in case the elbow break had caused creosote build-up, inspected everything, and took the time to answer all my questions. Despite my original reactions, I can't ask for much more than that and I appreciated your demeanor throughout.

As far as I'm concerned, this issue has been satisfied for me. It was unfortunate, but no other harm was done besides a few hours of life/work lost. I'll respond to things in this thread, but aside from that I consider this done as well. I am going to post an update in a week or two on the performance of my stove after all this is done.

 

[bajaspecial]

Bajaspecial (I'll share your name/info if you'd like, but only at your discretion since it's your name and business) -

I appreciate it. I discovered the fault around 11pm on Saturday night and sought advice on here. My initial reaction was concern that my family was in danger, which made me over-react. Like I said, I should've called you first on Monday.

As you point out, within 24 hours of you receiving the photos you had came to my house, fixed it, cleaned the liner out in case the elbow break had caused creosote build-up, inspected everything, and took the time to answer all my questions. Despite my original reactions, I can't ask for much more than that and I appreciated your demeanor throughout.

As far as I'm concerned, this issue has been satisfied for me. It was unfortunate, but no other harm was done besides a few hours of life/work lost. I'll respond to things in this thread, but aside from that I consider this done as well. I am going to post an update in a week or two on the performance of my stove after all this is done.

Honestly joe i would prefer that you didnt, and heres why.

unless someone is to read this from start to finish and absorbe the time frame of the information given to see the responce time that was given once we were to find out about the problem it does not look good or even what should have been expected for you shelling out your hard earned money.

unfortunatly most people only look at one post prior and shoot from the hip with a comment, wrong or right. and the feeding frenzy begins

if you personally feel we did what you expected personal ,friends and family referals are more than appresiated but as far as here id say no thank you.

 

[pen]

Holy crap - I did my first fire last night since the elbow was fixed and some block-off was given with insulation around the liner/closing the chimney off above the stove.

Crappy little fire - box was never more than 1/3rd full and using wood with alot of surface moisture. Surface temps never went above 350.

At the end of the night, with a weak fire, I FULLY CLOSED MY AIR and was getting light secondaries and the fire looked healthy.

Before, even with a fire at 500-600 degrees and good quality wood in there, closing my air all the way would immediately shut the fire down to smoldering.

I'll need to re-learn the stove now and I'll post a fuller update in a week or two.

Now this is what I was waiting to hear!! Now, I realize it's been 6 pages worth of posts but I have to say it...... I told you so!

And I'm willing to bet nobody's eyes were watering either! (unless this was the first time the stove got hot enough to cure the paint).

So glad to hear that things are not only safe but performing as they should also.

I just knew you wouldn't believe the difference once things were fixed. This is a terrible situation that could have had equally terrible consequences. Lets all be thankful that it is resolved and everyone is no worse for the wear. End of bad story, start of good story where the stove actually does what it's supposed to!

pen

 

[BrotherBart]

I am closing this one folks. It is fixed. But not without a little editorializing. Enough stresses on that elbow to bust it should never have happened. I think the installer knows that. And the installer should have been contacted immediately. I think the OP knows that.

If either feel otherwise then jump on me in PMs. Like everybody else does. :lol:

But the story has a happy ending.