Pellet Stove Technician therapy thread

[Overfireinthehole]

Ya that’s not right, and I’ve definitely heard stories like that. I’ve also driven 2.5 hours for a 100% free to customer warranty call on a power surge issue that shouldn’t even have been covered under the warranty. I’ve also had customers who I personally showed how to clean their stove three years in a row when I was cleaning it, tell me for the fourth year in a row that nobody ever showed them how to clean their stove properly. This isn’t really the thread to be complaining about bad dealers on. We all know they are out there, but the whole point of this thread is for the ones who are doing their job to hear they aren’t the only ones that have to deal with sociopathic, homicidal, ungrateful, and unsanitary folk at all hours for a lousy pay check that barely pays the bills. This is the bchn thread.

 

[JRemington]

We stress to everyone the importance of cleaning properly. They are also shown the instructions in the manual and told if they have questions to call us. The most don’t call until the stove is shutting down and when they call they say it’s been cleaned. Then when you go and open it up it’s plugged. This is the case in over half the calls. They end up with a free cleaning. This is going to be a bad year as there’s already garbage pellets.

 

[Overfireinthehole]

That’s where you and I differ. I don’t do free cleanings. We send out flyers reminding them to clean in the summer and call and remind them. If they fail to clean its because they ignored us. We also try to talk people through stuff on the phone if they are willing, but most aren’t

 

[Ashful]

...most don’t call until the stove is shutting down ...

“I called their customer service line just to tell them everything was going well with their product,” said no customer, ever.

 

[jsiets]

The company i work for used to sell St Croix stoves and had them displayed on the floor, they have been gone since i started there 4 years ago and we still carry a few parts for them for the customers that want to fix their own stoves. I was so excited when the boss told me that we were no longer going to be working on corn stoves after the last customer came in and chewed on my boss (after getting upset with me when I gave him the bill once i was done) as to why I charged him so much for working on it. I had charged him 150 dollars plus parts to put in a combustion blower and completely go through and do the seasonal cleaning, and he griped about the 75 dollar per hour labor rate being far too high and that he could have gotten the part on Amazon for half the price of what i charged him.

 

[JRemington]

I will gladly take 10 minutes on the phone to troubleshoot a problem and hope to find the problem than to drive to a customers house.

 

[JRemington]

“ I can’t keep this piece of chit stove I bought off you running for more than a day without it shutting down and having to be cleaned”. This stove was cleaned 15 hours ago.

 

[JRemington]

This is the worst mess I have seen in a stove. They have had it 3 weeks. I have no idea what is in these pellets. The brick liner is covered in what looks like a clay powder. They really did clean this stove 15 hours before. Hat a piece of chit stove. I quit.

 

[JRemington]

And then I get this text a short time ago from another person. “Hey did you find any thing out? There is a issue w this one I got. Between the small opening the hopper only holding one bag and you don’t have enough time to get the whole bag in the hopper and close the lid before it goes out. Let me know about the one for my house. I’m waisting a lot of pellets because that one is just burning as fast as it can. When it gets to 85-88. I have to shut it down and hope it’s good time if for me to be home and get it back on. Let me know when you can install another one in my house. ty”. Heres how I’d like to respond to this one. If it takes you so long to put pellets in the hopper that the fire goes out I’d suggest not having to drink a beer while doing it. As for the temps being to hot why not set the stove to thermostat mode. But why do that, you wouldn’t have anything to complain about now would you? And if this one is so bad, and hot of all things, why exactly do you want me to put another one in your house? I quit.

 

[Oregun]

Ha, This made me laugh. I envisioned someone thinking the burn pot was the hopper and they tried putting a whole bag in a lit burn pot.
I sincerely hope that is not the case.

 

[Overfireinthehole]

This one wanted to know why her stove sometimes doesn’t light. We cleaned it a month ago so what your seeing there is 26 bags. She tried to tell me that she cleans it all the time, and I tell her I have the same stove a home, often burn the same pellets, and that my five year old and four year old do my daily, weekly and monthly cleanings, and I’ve never seen them let it get that dirty ( all of that is true). I also tell her that the igniter can’t light the pellets if it’s buried under three inches of ash and show her the burn pot dump, which she claims she’s never seen, which I tell her I showed her last year when I cleaned it and that my brother probably showed her last month when he cleaned it. I probably would’ve given her a break at this point and just vacuumed the front of the stove and charged a few bucks but she starts claiming my brother must not have cleaned it well enough and that it must have something wrong with it, So I do a full cleaning (we call it a 25 point inspection) just to satisfy her. I pull a teaspoon of ash out of the pipe and a tablespoon from the back exhaust channel. The stove is still basically clean in the back. I run it for 20 minutes to show her that everything is working as it should, charge her 139 and tell her we would be happy to come do this every month, or she could follow my directions and vacuum the front of the stove out or at least dump the firepot on a regular basis and save herself a lot of money.

 

[zrock]

How about those people that sell/give away a perfectly good stove because they are to lazy to clean. I missed out on a smoking deal on a fairly new stove because they were upset that the glass got dirty.. Within 10 min of the add being posted their was over 20 responses it was so cheap

 

[JRemington]

I cleaned the stove exactly how you showed us. It won’t burn right no matter what we do. Do you think the company would take this one back and give us another one?

 

[johneh]

Lord give me strength
I see to many like that

 

[Overfireinthehole]

It just won’t feed pellets and we’ve only burned a few bags since you cleaned it so it must be your fault. It looked like the grandkid put some of the stuffing from his teddy in the pellet bucket.

 

[Overfireinthehole]

It just won’t feed pellets and we’ve only burned a few bags since you cleaned it so it must be your fault. It looked like the grandkid put some of the stuffing from his teddy in the pellet bucket.

This thing burnt fine for the first 4 ton but now I’m ready to throw it in the yard cause it won’t burn right.

 

[Marc S.]

This thing burnt fine for the first 4 ton but now I’m ready to throw it in the yard cause it won’t burn right.

I don't understand how people can let their stoves get like that. If you don't want to get a little dirty and clean them, don't blame someone else and just get rid of it. geezzzzz

 

[johneh]

Another one told never needs maintenance once a year to clean is OK
Plug and play
Some people should not have a stove

 

[JRemington]

“Something is wrong with this stove. It doesn’t heat my house like it did when I got it. I have to run it on a higher setting and it’s burning more pellets”. That’s probably because the temperatures are 40 degrees colder than they were in October. “That doesn’t make sense. It’s still putting out the same amount of heat regardless of the outdoor temperature”. And yes. That was a real conversation.

 

[SidecarFlip]

What great reads...lol I did both my own installs (last 20 years) and no one has ever cleaned my stoves except me. I guess people are really that dumb and the local hearth store wanted me to come work for them part time because they found out I've been burning bio-mass (pellets and corn for over 20 years now) never had an issue. Clean it every 3 days and clean it right, venting too. Motor gets noisy, I replace or rebuild it. Always have spares on hand.

I told them I was retired and not interested. I don't have the patience you guys have. If I went to someone's house and saw that crap, I'd turn around and walk out. Like I said not interested and after reading this entire thread, glad I told them that.

You guys are saints.

 

[Tonyray]

One of the pictures shows stove chows wich is a very heavy ash pellet . Had to clean my harman more often back when i was a newbie and used them due to cheap price.

 

[Overfireinthehole]

Harman 52I: 5 years without cleaning flu.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Harman 52I: 5 years without cleaning flu.

Nice and probably wondered why it wasn't working correctly too. Like Forrest Gump said...'Stupid is as stupid does'.......

 

[Overfireinthehole]

It’s going to be one of those days. I swear I haven’t been to this house in two years but I can already smell it. The only debate now is whether I don’t put down a dropcloth so I don’t ruin it or if I put down a dropcloth to try and protect myself and then throw it away after.

 

[johneh]

Oh my God that bad
Reminders me when I was working solar
I went to a house to do the plumbing board and wiring installs
in the basement. Went downstairs to Cat pi$$ and 4 inches of $hit
Turned around and walked out . 4 weeks later was in the same house
basement cleaned and disinfected. Took him 2 weeks straight to do