# Pellet Stove Technician therapy thread



## JRemington (Oct 27, 2019)

This could be fun. And teach people at the same time.  Let’s share our stories of some of the dumbest things that customers have abused us about. I don’t know about you guys but I get it on a weekly basis. And some of these customers are outright abusive. I’ll go first. Yesterday I answer a call with a customer telling me the piece of sh## stove he bought from us won’t stay running. I go through all of the basic questions , cleaning, damp pellets etc hoping to get it running as I’m already at 70 hours for the week. Nothing works so the customer demands Icome today as his wife and children are going to freeze to death although the low is 45. I try and put it off until Monday but get threatened with a lawsuit if it isn’t done today. So at 5 I drive 45 minutes praying I can get it going. When I get there this stove is filthy. And I mean filthy. The heat exchanger cleaning rod won’t move. The blowers and everything are caked in dust and dog hair. I turn on the stove and it starts to feed pellets and shuts down. I asked them if they had cleaned the chimney and they say of course but I know that isn’t true because their idea of a thorough cleaning is dumping the burn pot and vacuuming. I go outside to check the chimney and there’s a wad of insulation crammed into the cap. Now I’m smoking mad. I leave it their and go in and get the owner to show me how he cleans the chimney. He says he’s going to get his shop vac so I just ask him to look in his cap. He sees it and remembers putting it there to keep out the bees.  Now we go inside and start the stove and it barely burns it’s so plugged up. I ask him to get his manual, that he says he read, but he missed the seasonal cleaning and doesn’t understand why after only 6 ton of the cheapest pellets he can get he needs to do all that. Then he wants to know if it’s covered under the warranty. WTF?  I tell him if I took pictures of this the company wouldn’t warranty anything ever. I told him all the hair was going to start a fire and it needed tore down and cleaned. I gave him a price but he said it was too much and he’d do it himself. I left with no apology and not even a thank you.  I did record me telling him that he was going to destroy the stove and burn his house down so when it happens we won’t get blamed. I hope he reads this.


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## Tonyray (Oct 27, 2019)

JRemington said:


> This could be fun. And teach people at the same time.  Let’s share our stories of some of the dumbest things that customers have abused us about. I don’t know about you guys but I get it on a weekly basis. And some of these customers are outright abusive. I’ll go first. Yesterday I answer a call with a customer telling me the piece of sh## stove he bought from us won’t stay running. I go through all of the basic questions , cleaning, damp pellets etc hoping to get it running as I’m already at 70 hours for the week. Nothing works so the customer demands Icome today as his wife and children are going to freeze to death although the low is 45. I try and put it off until Monday but get threatened with a lawsuit if it isn’t done today. So at 5 I drive 45 minutes praying I can get it going. When I get there this stove is filthy. And I mean filthy. The heat exchanger cleaning rod won’t move. The blowers and everything are caked in dust and dog hair. I turn on the stove and it starts to feed pellets and shuts down. I asked them if they had cleaned the chimney and they say of course but I know that isn’t true because their idea of a thorough cleaning is dumping the burn pot and vacuuming. I go outside to check the chimney and there’s a wad of insulation crammed into the cap. Now I’m smoking mad. I leave it their and go in and get the owner to show me how he cleans the chimney. He says he’s going to get his shop vac so I just ask him to look in his cap. He sees it and remembers putting it there to keep out the bees.  Now we go inside and start the stove and it barely burns it’s so plugged up. I ask him to get his manual, that he says he read, but he missed the seasonal cleaning and doesn’t understand why after only 6 ton of the cheapest pellets he can get he needs to do all that. Then he wants to know if it’s covered under the warranty. WTF?  I tell him if I took pictures of this the company wouldn’t warranty anything ever. I told him all the hair was going to start a fire and it needed tore down and cleaned. I gave him a price but he said it was too much and he’d do it himself. I left with no apology and not even a thank you.  I did record me telling him that he was going to destroy the stove and burn his house down so when it happens we won’t get blamed. I hope he reads this.


That is just pure ignorance. And of course if it's house catches on fire the pellet stove will be the blame.


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## Ssyko (Oct 27, 2019)

I drove an hour to do a quad castle insert yesterday making noise and a high pitched squealing sound when stove was placed in high heat. Pulled insert out and found a half inch of dust, pellets and some screws and washers(no idea where they were from). Owner said stove was serviced and cleaned a year ago, but he cleans it weekly. Well i pulled the combustion and convection blower motors and found the combustion only had enough room for the impeller blades to turn, it was packed to capacity. So now i take the chimney liner off and find it has about 5 lbs of ash that just falls out and creats a cloud. Cleaned that mess up and the housing then reinstalled the motor. On to the noisy convection blower, that is so full of hair, dust and don’t have a clue that i don’t even think it could move air. Cleaned out all shtuff in the blades and reinstalled. Assembled everything and slid into hearth to test. Stove stars and is roaring with the amount of air it can move now. Owner says it hasn’t worked like that since it was new, now when it gets up to temp the convection blower is making a high pitch squeal the goes away when i touch the housing, I loosened the holding clamp and  took out the blower again to find what looked like a caked pile of dust under the mount holding the blower higher off the mount and contacting the back of the stove rubbing.  Scraped the pad off and  repositioned the blower a fraction of an inch and all is good. Now i have a scheduled Deep clean in the spring. But who ever did the last service didn’t do chit and the install was atrocious.


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## JRemington (Oct 27, 2019)

Man have I conned you into this crap lol. They seem like nice people. They wanted a few hundred for it on a trade in. Are they glad now they didn’t?


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## Ssyko (Oct 27, 2019)

Yeah im sure they are


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## Overfireinthehole (Oct 27, 2019)

Yes to both of those. Nothing worse then working late to help someone whose freezing to death because we sold them a piece of sh$t only to get there to a warm house with an unplugged stove, or a pie plate over the pipe, or a filthy stove. Last year I had a customer in his underwear and beer belly scream at me to get the f$$$ out of his house because his cb1200 was trashed after two winters and 7 tons and I told him that’s probably why it won’t feed.
Customer: “If It needs cleaned then clean it!”
 Me: “sure thing, but that’s not a warranty issue so I’ll have to charge you for a cleaning”
Customer: “ We paid over $3000 for that thing, how much is this gonna cost”
Me trying to ignore the fact that the man is only wearing his underwear: “well, we take the stove apart completely, clean it all and brush the pipe. Usually takes about two hours. It’s $119 but if you do it in the summer next time it’d save you 10 bucks”
Customer: a long stream of profanities and obscenities that amount to I’m not giving you a dime and you need to leave, to which I smiled, grabbed up my vacuum, tool bucket, drop cloth, drill bag and brushes (usually carry all that in two trips) and say, “alrighty, well y’all have a nice day.”
I had a crazy old man pull a gun on me and make me sit down and listen to him play a couple songs on his guitar about how Trump was gonna stop the “Juan’s” and save the country from the commies, before he would let me leave. 
Cleaned a stove in a meth lab once. Called the cops afterward but the guy had an arsenal so I wasn’t going to argue with him about anything while I was there.
Had a customer complain that I was shady once cause I had a big beard...
Had a customer complain that I smoked a cigarette in her driveway while the stove was test firing.
I could go on and on.  Fortunately I’ve outlasted the other techs where I work, so the office pretty well ignores the crazy people cause they know I’m doing my job and not being an a$$ hat about it. It’s always nice to see how many people will wait a month or two just to get me to clean their stove vs one of the guys I’ve trained. For every crazy one there’s several who tip well and tell their family and friends to ask specifically for me.


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## Overfireinthehole (Oct 27, 2019)

Also, I’m just gonna leave this RT&R here for your enjoyment. Customer installed during remodel. Zero attic access, because he didn’t figure he’d ever need back up there. We call this a Red Tag & Run cause that’s what you wanna do.


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## blades (Oct 28, 2019)

ah yes the life of a service tech-  Not only was I a tech( different industry) but also the service manager for 20 years.  costomer shenatagins , complaints ,threats,  on and on.


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## Overfireinthehole (Oct 28, 2019)

“We clean our stove all the time “


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## Ssyko (Oct 28, 2019)

Yep thats what i got Saturday lmao.  I would have taken pics but the owner was over my shoulder watching


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## JRemington (Oct 28, 2019)

Ssyko said:


> Yep thats what i got Saturday lmao.  I would have taken pics but the owner was over my shoulder watching


I take pictures anyways. I could care less what they think. I like the ones where they know your coming but don’t bother to clean up the dog or cat crap out of the pellets all over the floor.


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## Overfireinthehole (Oct 28, 2019)

Those are the houses where I don’t use my drop cloth, or if I do, it’s to keep me clean not their floor, and I trash my drop cloth afterwards.


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## JRemington (Oct 30, 2019)

I need you come and fix my blower. I’ve only used it for four months and it quit. I want it fixed.


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## JRemington (Oct 30, 2019)

How the hell is it even possible to have a stove this nasty that you bought inFebruary? Somehow they got pellets into the blower impeller.


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## Overfireinthehole (Oct 30, 2019)

I’m confused by the forklift picture


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## JRemington (Oct 31, 2019)

Overfireinthehole said:


> I’m confused by the forklift picture


I’m sorry. I have no idea how that downloaded lol.


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## jackhammer (Oct 31, 2019)

Overfireinthehole said:


> “We clean our stove all the time “
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That’s gotta be photoshop !


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## Overfireinthehole (Oct 31, 2019)

I wish


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## JRemington (Nov 10, 2019)

Phone rings at 6:15 this morning and I stupidly answer it. Customer apologizes for calling on Sunday, but the 6:15 thing isn’t a big deal obviously, and says blower is making noise. Says they are worried because we have cold weather coming in 2 days. At least it’s only a half hour away. I go about ten and get there and asked if they cleaned it lately. Of course they have. Needless to say the combustion blower is packed and hardly spins. Clean it and put it back together and they complain about the lousy hundred dollar charge, so I just leave. There’s no way I’m making it through November. I think I hate pellet stoves.


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## Overfireinthehole (Nov 11, 2019)

I called one of my Monday jobs test at 6 to remind them as a courtesy that I would be there in the morning and got yelled at for calling at 6pm on a Sunday. Said, “sorry, I’m calling from home and have been in bed all day with a fever until I got up to call you from home as a courtesy.” People are aholes.


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## JRemington (Nov 11, 2019)

Ssyko comes down to our business quite often. He’s my therapist lol. He can tell you where my attitude is at right now.  I’ve already seen stoves plugged up with bad pellets they think they are getting a deal on even though I tell them not to buy them.  Now I just noticed I left my jacket at the house yesterday. You are correct about some people.


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## miteclipse (Nov 11, 2019)

JRemington said:


> Phone rings at 6:15 this morning and I stupidly answer it. Customer apologizes for calling on Sunday, but the 6:15 thing isn’t a big deal obviously, and says blower is making noise. Says they are worried because we have cold weather coming in 2 days. At least it’s only a half hour away. I go about ten and get there and asked if they cleaned it lately. Of course they have. Needless to say the combustion blower is packed and hardly spins. Clean it and put it back together and they complain about the lousy hundred dollar charge, so I just leave. There’s no way I’m making it through November. I think I hate pellet stoves.



You should get paid for time on the job.  Do you inform your customer of service call costs prior to starting a job?  I wouldn't go out of my way for that person next time.


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## Ssyko (Nov 11, 2019)

He won’t he’ll have them call me lmaoooo


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## rickwai (Nov 11, 2019)

I was called out to look at 2 Englander stoves that were 2 years old that were at a dog shelter. I walked in and the smell about knocked me over. I pulled the back cover off the 1st one and was puzzled. There was no wiring? I was baffled for a few seconds, until I saw a large dead rat laying in the bottom of the cabinet! Look quickly at the other one and it was stripped of all wiring also. I told them they werer totaled and got out of there. They said we can bring them to you and you can rework them? No thanks! Everything in the back of the stoves was coated with a 1/4" of mud/feces from rats coming in from outside with muddy bellies and crawling all over the inside of the stoves. It was bad


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## Overfireinthehole (Nov 11, 2019)

It doesn’t happen very often but every now and then we have a customer like that that I tell my boss we don’t need their business.


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## Overfireinthehole (Nov 11, 2019)

JRemington said:


> Phone rings at 6:15 this morning and I stupidly answer it. Customer apologizes for calling on Sunday, but the 6:15 thing isn’t a big deal obviously, and says blower is making noise. Says they are worried because we have cold weather coming in 2 days. At least it’s only a half hour away. I go about ten and get there and asked if they cleaned it lately. Of course they have. Needless to say the combustion blower is packed and hardly spins. Clean it and put it back together and they complain about the lousy hundred dollar charge, so I just leave. There’s no way I’m making it through November. I think I hate pellet stoves.


We charge 119 during the summer and 139 after August. We also charge a dollar a mile for every mile after 30 miles. I tell them that ahead of time and if they I get complaining that I start coming up with miscellaneous labor charges. If I went out and fixed one on a Sunday though I would definitely charge them extra. Most of my customers are pretty nice though, I went and pulled a pencil out of an auger the other night and they gave me a $30 tip and apologize that they couldn’t give me more, and they weren’t even expecting to have to pay anything because they thought it would be covered under warranty because they thought it was a defective stove.


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## JRemington (Nov 11, 2019)

Ssyko said:


> He won’t he’ll have them call me lmaoooo


As far as I’m concerned you can have them all. We almost went an entire day without selling a stove but someone screwed that up around 4.  We’ve installed 64 and we’re still 60 back on installs. I tried firing myself today but that didn’t work. It’s like the Hotel California, lol.


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## JRemington (Nov 11, 2019)

Overfireinthehole said:


> We charge 119 during the summer and 139 after August. We also charge a dollar a mile for every mile after 30 miles. I tell them that ahead of time and if they I get complaining that I start coming up with miscellaneous labor charges. If I went out and fixed one on a Sunday though I would definitely charge them extra. Most of my customers are pretty nice though, I went and pulled a pencil out of an auger the other night and they gave me a $30 tip and apologize that they couldn’t give me more, and they weren’t even expecting to have to pay anything because they thought it would be covered under warranty because they thought it was a defective stove.


I know this sounds funny but I charge them based on what they can afford. Most times we don’t charge anything. We sell a lot of stoves and everyone gets a free home visit for something. Ssyko will tell you I talk people out of buying stoves. I had two people last month trying to dump expensive Quads. I send Ssyko to fix them and then they send 5 people to buy stoves because we didn’t take advantage of them.


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## Marc S. (Nov 12, 2019)

Overfireinthehole said:


> “We clean our stove all the time “
> 
> 
> 
> ...


NO WAY!!


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## Marc S. (Nov 12, 2019)

This is from an owner who took the technicians advise.  We got our stove 4 years ago; Harman Absolute 43.  Tech that installed was great, explained things to us good.  After a couple of weeks it would not start or have to go into start mode several times.  He told me clean it; we are religious about cleaning that thing.  I finally told him we are so he came out.  We were cleaning the stove but not good enough.  There was a lot of carbon build up on the plate that I was not scraping off.  He showed me the problem and how to properly scraped.  During that time because the igniter was cycling several times in a row it warped the floor of the burn pot.  It was fixed on warranty.  You have to keep the things clean; period.


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## Overfireinthehole (Nov 13, 2019)

3 guesses as to what was wrong with the stove


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## JRemington (Nov 13, 2019)

Today was a great day. Customer calls with the famous “stove is shutting down just cleaned it a few days ago “ crap. Get there and there’s a oven laying in the snow with a new one in a box on the porch. They answer the door and the one eyed pit is being held back with them saying he’ll calm down shortly. Only takes one smell to know why the ovens outside. The smell of rats is bad. I open up the side of the Kinderhook and there’s rat feces in there. I tell them I have to get the “blower” for this one and go get the leaf blower. This stoves fogs for at least 15 seconds with thick ash. I go back and relight the stove and look in the kitchen and there’s a rat on the counter eating off a filthy plate. I tell them and they tell me they’ve been trying to get rid of it for a while. I ask them if they have a cat and the woman looks at me and says “I hate fuc**** cats”. She then informs me they aren’t going to bring the new oven in until the rats are gone because they nested in the other one. She thinks they are killing each other because she hears loud squealing in the wall. I tell hr they are breeding and chewing through wall studs making runs. She looks at her husband and she says”that must be why the power doesn’t work in that side of the house. Like it’s no big deal. I tell them to go to a farm supply store and buy about ten pounds of the strongest rat poison they have. We talk a bit more and she says she’s glad the stove is still under warranty. I don’t bother to say anything. I just want gone. And yes the rat stayed there during the entire conversation.


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## Overfireinthehole (Nov 13, 2019)

BLACKLIST!


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## tlc1976 (Nov 14, 2019)

This is great.  You can't make this stuff up.


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## JRemington (Nov 14, 2019)

I swear it feels like fleas are crawling on my legs, lol. Can you imagine what that house must sound like during the night? I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a couple dozen. The messed up part is they didn’t act like it was that big a deal. If they do buy poison they’ll die in the walls and stink. Unreal.


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## Overfireinthehole (Nov 14, 2019)

That’s when you say I’m sorry but your warranty does not cover a cleaning. You clean it for free they’re going to want you to come back and clean it for free again


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## Ssyko (Nov 14, 2019)

Disgusting!!  your a better man than I


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## JRemington (Nov 14, 2019)

Ssyko said:


> Disgusting!!  your a better man than I


If I didn’t hang out how would I get a good story, lol?


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## JRemington (Nov 14, 2019)

I answer the phone and a woman says I can’t keep this stove running for anymore than 15 minutes and our house is cold. We haven’t used it very much and we’ve only burned 5 tons of pellets. She obviously must think I know her voice but I don’t have a clue. After she’s done with her rant I ask her name and check the records. They bought the stove 11 months ago.  How the hell is 5 ton not using it much. So I ask the ever famous question. When was it last cleaned? She informs me her husband cleans it every three days by removing the burn pot and vacuuming the chamber. In freekin real. Here we go. I ask her to have hubby call when he gets home. He calls and he’s not happy. They have a Chatham and there’s two circular clean outs on the back of the firebox held on with a 5/16 bolt. Before he even opens them I tell him the are going to be plugged with fly ash. And sure enough they were. Instead of feeling like an ass he asks me how I would know that? And then tells me it must be a problem with the stove for me to know that. I’ve had enough and ask him if he thinks it might be the 5 tons of pellets he burned without cleaning it that might have been the clue. I ask him to get his manual and go to page 24. He’s never read it but there’s a step by step write up with pics of how to clean it and it says every 2 ton or at the end of the season. He looks at his manual most likely for the first time and tells me if he knew these stoves were so much work he never would have bought one. I tell him to suck out the burn chambers and if it doesn’t fix the issue to call me tomorrow. If I was a quitter I’d quit.


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## Overfireinthehole (Nov 14, 2019)

Tell him to suck ash


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## JRemington (Nov 15, 2019)

I think today when some one calls and says “my fire will hardly burn and keeps shutting down I’m going to have some fun. I’m going to tell them to give me a minute and let me connect my phone the the diagnostic interface in the computer of their stove. I’ll put them on hold for about five minutes and tell them their stove is plugged up and has never been cleaned according to the directions in their owner’s manual. And then I’ll tell them the diagnostic interface in their manual says it’s never been read.


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## Ssyko (Nov 15, 2019)

Jeff we gotta have a talk! See ya in a few hours


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## Marc S. (Nov 15, 2019)

Overfireinthehole said:


> 3 guesses as to what was wrong with the stove


Looks like a "weed" in the burn pot lol


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## Ashful (Nov 15, 2019)

Marc S. said:


> Looks like a "weed" in the burn pot lol



I thought it was a decomposing bat!


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## Marc S. (Nov 19, 2019)

Every owner should be required to read these technicians comments.......


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## Oregun (Nov 19, 2019)

This thread makes me wonder what was said to customers before buying a pellet stove about required maintenance.


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## johneh (Nov 19, 2019)

What maintenance is it not plug and play?
Fire it and forget it?
What do you mean I need to buy pellets !!


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## Marc S. (Nov 19, 2019)

Oregun said:


> This thread makes me wonder what was said to customers before buying a pellet stove about required maintenance.



Mine was pretty good but I think the dealership downplays the importance of cleaning.  My installation tech stressed it.  Though I listened I still didn't get it until he had to show me the carbon build up on the pot.  I was not aware sometimes you have to put some ass into it.  Install techs really need to preach the cleaning.  One thing that I discovered on my own was at least every couple of cleanings was to go out with a brush and clean the pipe end.  About every other month I will take the end cap off and clean the build up off of it.


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## Overfireinthehole (Nov 20, 2019)

Our install techs show the customer how to do daily weekly and monthly cleanings and show them how to take the baffles apart. We recommend they have us do at least the first annual cleaning so they can see what it involves but we will show them how to do it themselves. I constantly hear things like, “ I had no idea that panel came off” which is frustrating cause I know we show them. Our main salesman usually shows them before they even choose a stove. There’s also detailed cleaning instructions in almost every manual. Customers are just usually overwhelmed with information when they first get a stove, and unwilling to call and ask or consult their manual when it comes time to clean their stove.


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## railfanron (Nov 20, 2019)

My neighbor bought a pellet stove from a dealer that was recommended to her. I picked it up for her and installed it. When the stove was loaded on my truck it was on a fork lift up in the air as high as my tailgate. At that time I asked about cleaning. There response was not much to it it's all in the manual. As I would be the one who was going to maintain the stove I took the manual home with me and read it twice. All went well with the install and it burned well for about a month. I cleaned it by the book and it still didn't burn well. Confused (this was her first stove and also my first experience with pellet stoves) we called the dealer and it was then they told us about the 2 access plates that needed to be pulled off and the inside cleaned. I cleaned these areas and the  rest of the stove and all was well. I sympathize with you guys but I have to say there are a lot of unscrupulous dealers out there and this appears to be one of them. When a warrantied combustion fan gave way the answer was we have to come out to warrantee it and that service charge will be 200.00. The part was less than that. We couldn't have them check it at the dealer and replace it. Just sayin "there are 2 sides to every story" and I've was in the service business most of my life. 
Ron


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## Overfireinthehole (Nov 21, 2019)

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.


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## JRemington (Nov 21, 2019)

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.


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## Overfireinthehole (Nov 21, 2019)

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


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## Ashful (Nov 21, 2019)

JRemington said:


> ...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.


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## jsiets (Nov 22, 2019)

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.


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## JRemington (Nov 22, 2019)

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.


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## JRemington (Nov 22, 2019)

“ 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.


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## JRemington (Nov 22, 2019)

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.


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## JRemington (Nov 22, 2019)

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.


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## Oregun (Nov 22, 2019)

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.


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## Overfireinthehole (Nov 23, 2019)

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.


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## zrock (Nov 23, 2019)

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


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## JRemington (Jan 21, 2020)

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?


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## johneh (Jan 22, 2020)

Lord give me strength
I see to many like that


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## Overfireinthehole (Jan 23, 2020)

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.


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## Overfireinthehole (Jan 23, 2020)

Overfireinthehole said:


> 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.


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## Marc S. (Jan 23, 2020)

Overfireinthehole said:


> 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


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## johneh (Jan 23, 2020)

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


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## JRemington (Jan 23, 2020)

“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.


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## SidecarFlip (Jan 23, 2020)

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.


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## Tonyray (Jan 28, 2020)

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.


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## Overfireinthehole (Feb 3, 2020)

Harman 52I: 5 years without cleaning flu.


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## SidecarFlip (Feb 3, 2020)

Overfireinthehole said:


> 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'.......


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## Overfireinthehole (Feb 4, 2020)

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.


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## johneh (Feb 4, 2020)

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


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## SidecarFlip (Feb 4, 2020)

johneh said:


> 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
> ...


 Only one thing worse than cat $hit on the basement floor, Cat $hit on on a lineolum floor.  Slippery stuff.....  

Every time I read comments on this thread I thank myself I didn't take that job as a solid fuel stove tech.

Some scary stuff here....


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## Overfireinthehole (Feb 4, 2020)

What about cat $hit ground into the rotten carpet and subfloor that is bare because the carpet rotted off. Actually in this case it was dog and rat


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## SidecarFlip (Feb 4, 2020)

Overfireinthehole said:


> What about cat $hit ground into the rotten carpet and subfloor that is bare because the carpet rotted off. Actually in this case it was dog and rat



No wonder people get sick from stuff like the Corona virus.  You have nerves of steel going into an atmosphere like that.  All that stuff is floating around in the air for you to inhale.  Not my idea of a good time.


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## heat seeker (Feb 4, 2020)

SidecarFlip said:


> Only one thing worse than cat $hit on the basement floor, Cat $hit on on a lineolum floor.  Slippery stuff.....
> 
> Every time I read comments on this thread I thank myself I didn't take that job as a solid fuel stove tech.
> 
> Some scary stuff here....



Even better when the Roomba has smeared it all over the floor.


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## SidecarFlip (Feb 4, 2020)

heat seeker said:


> Even better when the Roomba has smeared it all over the floor.




You are a demented individual.............


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## heat seeker (Feb 4, 2020)

SidecarFlip said:


> You are a demented individual.............


No kidding - it happened! Homeowner wasn't home while we were working in the kitchen. Dog took a dump, shortly thereafter the Roomba started its rounds, with predictable results. We didn't know whether to laugh ourselves silly, or just sort of pretend we didn't see it. And no, we didn't clean it up - that's the owner's job.  And imagine trying to clean the Roomba out  Makes cleaning a stove out fun, in comparison.


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## SidecarFlip (Feb 4, 2020)

heat seeker said:


> No kidding - it happened! Homeowner wasn't home while we were working in the kitchen. Dog took a dump, shortly thereafter the Roomba started its rounds, with predictable results. We didn't know whether to laugh ourselves silly, or just sort of pretend we didn't see it. And no, we didn't clean it up - that's the owner's job.  And imagine trying to clean the Roomba out  Makes cleaning a stove out fun, in comparison.


  The Roomba turned into a Boomba spreader....

My wife had one.  Was a great cat toy....  Far as cleaning, it was marginal at best.  Expensive toy.


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## JRemington (Feb 4, 2020)

Every week we clean the stove and vacuum the blowers just like you told us we should. The fan is covered under warranty isn’t it?


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## SidecarFlip (Feb 4, 2020)

JRemington said:


> Every week we clean the stove and vacuum the blowers just like you told us we should. The fan is covered under warranty isn’t it?




Come on, it's not that bad.........

Kind of glad I came back after a 3 year hiatus burning propane.  This is a fun site....lol

By the way, what happened to Lake Girl?


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## Overfireinthehole (Feb 25, 2020)

Installing pellet stoves is easy!


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## johneh (Feb 25, 2020)

Whatever works I guess


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## Overfireinthehole (Feb 25, 2020)

johneh said:


> Whatever works I guess


Whatever catches your wall on fire I guess.


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## SidecarFlip (Feb 25, 2020)

Called 'creative cabbage job'  Pretty typical for a home brew install..  I installed one years ago (flat wall install) and when I cut the interior and wall and exterior siding for the wall thimble, too k a look see in the wall cavity and there was NO INSULATION to be seen anywhere.  No wonder they needed a pellet burner plus a central furnace, they were heating the outside and the inside...duh.

Young couple.  I bet they did a lot of 'cuddling' in the winter....lol


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## johneh (Feb 25, 2020)

SidecarFlip said:


> Young couple. I bet they did a lot of 'cuddling' in the winter.


I see a large family in their future


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## SidecarFlip (Feb 25, 2020)

Told them it might be a good idea to get an insulation contractor in and insulate between the walls with either blown in or spray foam insulation....


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## Overfireinthehole (Feb 25, 2020)

Insulation is a scam don’t you know! Air is an insulator! Oil changes are a scam too!


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## SidecarFlip (Feb 25, 2020)

So is global warming.  It's really global cooling...


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## Marc S. (Feb 25, 2020)

Overfireinthehole said:


> Installing pellet stoves is easy!


WTF......


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## johneh (Feb 25, 2020)

He just wanted to be close to a stud and Power 
I really like the invisible surge suppressor


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## Ssyko (Feb 25, 2020)

Lol its not even a thimble, why bother with the decorative ring.paint the vent same as the surge protector and never worry about a thing.


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## Overfireinthehole (Feb 25, 2020)

If you don’t use a wall thimble you don’t need insulation because the pipe will heat up the wall!


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## Lordtimothy200 (Feb 25, 2020)

I am personally a fan of the paper sticker still on the exhaust pipe.

The house my wife and I live in now was quite cold that first winter, so had it checked out.  Inspector said it was the first house he had ever been in with Zero insulation.   I mean zero.  Several places we took off the trim and could see the outside.  VERY cold winter as we only had a tiny little electric furnace.  That is what moved us to get a Corn stove and about 18k worth of windows and insulation.


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## rickwai (Feb 25, 2020)

Yeah, I had one of those kind of those calls to work on a Harman Advance. So many cats and litter boxes and nastiness that the whole stove was rusty from the ammonia in the air. And to make it worse the windows were all covered over with black plastic to keep the draft out? They called in this fall for a service call and I refused to go back. Told them to call someone else because we cant take the cat mess.


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## SidecarFlip (Feb 25, 2020)

Lordtimothy200 said:


> *I am personally a fan of the paper sticker still on the exhaust pipe.*
> 
> The house my wife and I live in now was quite cold that first winter, so had it checked out.  Inspector said it was the first house he had ever been in with Zero insulation.   I mean zero.  Several places we took off the trim and could see the outside.  VERY cold winter as we only had a tiny little electric furnace.  That is what moved us to get a Corn stove and about 18k worth of windows and insulation.



I am too.  In fact my labels are still intact and readable on my venting after 15 years.  That tells me that even if the install sucks, he's not overheating the venting at all.


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## SidecarFlip (Feb 25, 2020)

rickwai said:


> Yeah, I had one of those kind of those calls to work on a Harman Advance. So many cats and litter boxes and nastiness that the whole stove was rusty from the ammonia in the air. And to make it worse the windows were all covered over with black plastic to keep the draft out? They called in this fall for a service call and I refused to go back. Told them to call someone else because we cant take the cat mess.



Black plastic huh?  What were they doing  Growing dope?


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## JRemington (Feb 25, 2020)

I had a guy yesterday tell me we we robbing people charging 49 for a wall thimble because he got his for 9. The problem is his is B vent. He didn’t care for the look of his wall stud after 8 years.


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## SidecarFlip (Feb 26, 2020)

JRemington said:


> I had a guy yesterday tell me we we robbing people charging 49 for a wall thimble because he got his for 9. The problem is his is B vent. He didn’t care for the look of his wall stud after 8 years.




Like Forrest Gump says.....'*Stupid is as stupid does*'  My all time favorite line.


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## rickwai (Feb 26, 2020)

SidecarFlip said:


> Black plastic huh?  What were they doing  Growing dope?


Yeah maybe the stacks of cages and many foil pans over flowing with cat litter and whats left of the carpet worn thru is there to mask the smell of the grow. And the nastiness in the kitchen with stuff running down the front of the cabinets and 1/2 the doors torn off and the junk and trash piled everywhere chest high  is staged to aid in a escape route in case the law caught up to them!
No I doubt there is any of that going on,  It is a old lady with a grown mentally handicapped son.  And when they come into the shop to get pellets they look normal, but the smell gives it away.
I typically dont have to deal with conditions like that. The shop I work for sells Harman pellet and Mendota gas.   We all know the cost of these units so that typically us in nicer homes, or at least kept homes.  If someone is dropping $5000 on a stove install they probably have a decent place (Most of the time).  Some homes are kind of a mess but not filthy and unsanitary.


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## Overfireinthehole (Feb 26, 2020)

It always surprises me some of the homes that have a Harman stove. Sometimes that stove is the nicest thing they own.  I worked on an allure 50 in a house that was so filthy that when they lifted the install packet off their shelf where they had put it The year before when it was installed you could see where it had been sitting because there was about a quarter inch of dust all around the outline of the package.


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## rickwai (Feb 26, 2020)

SidecarFlip said:


> I am too.  In fact my labels are still intact and readable on my venting after 15 years.  That tells me that even if the install sucks, he's not overheating the venting at all.


This is on the back of the St Croix installed in’09 about 12” from stove.  Sorry for the image size. I struggle when uploading... Can  someone add photo loading instructions to the top part of the forum or is it there somewhere?
someone 
	

		
			
		

		
	

View attachment 257595
View attachment 257595
View attachment 257595


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## JRemington (Sep 23, 2020)

It’s that time of year again and I’m needing therapy. 17 calls for stove cleanings. Every one of them want it done now but can wait a “couple days”. Now I’m not going to do anything for 2 days. Ssyko are you ready to clean some stoves?


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## JRemington (Sep 23, 2020)

Has anyone ever seen a vent pipe a foot deep with ash mud? I took the cap off the bottom of the T and mud poured out. The worse part is it was filled into the horizontal section to the flu. I’m not sure how that happened because they had just cleaned it “a week ago”. It’s always a week ago lol.


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## SidecarFlip (Sep 24, 2020)

Musta been a long week........  Not cleaning them prior to warm (humid) months causes internal corrosion too.  You guys have a nasty job...


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## Ssyko (Oct 1, 2020)

my weekends have been doing just that Jeff. word of mouth has me turning my hobbie into another JOB.


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## SidecarFlip (Oct 2, 2020)

I sure am glad not may folks around here have pellet / biomass stoves and no one knows I know how to maintain / repair them.  I'll keep it a secret.


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## Overfireinthehole (Oct 3, 2020)

JRemington said:


> It’s that time of year again and I’m needing therapy. 17 calls for stove cleanings. Every one of them want it done now but can wait a “couple days”. Now I’m not going to do anything for 2 days. Ssyko are you ready to clean some stoves?


Long time no chat Gents. I’m booked into the end of November. How’s your schedule looking? Anyone having to wear masks in customers homes? Positive side effect: I don’t blow black snot at the end of the day! Lol. Negative side effect: some of my customers are pretty annoyed that I’m wearing a mask in their home. Winter 2020 is gonna be a rough one...


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## johneh (Oct 3, 2020)

Overfireinthehole said:


> some of my customers are pretty annoyed that I’m wearing a mask in their home.


Tell them what I tell them that it is for there protection not mine
seems to make them more receptive


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## Overfireinthehole (Oct 3, 2020)

johneh said:


> Tell them what I tell them that it is for there protection not mine
> seems to make them more receptive


I just tell them I’m required to wear it by the company and I don’t want to get fired. Lol


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## Ssyko (Nov 11, 2020)

My latest call. My 2 year old quadrafire mt vernon will not start up and i have cleaned everthing including washed the whole exterior(Beautiful  enameled stove). So i pull the stove adapter (not sealed) and pipe and take it outside and run the brushes through them and had about a coffee can full of soot so not to bad. Now Where the adapterfits on the manifold i see a charred twig sicking out as i take a look, i find a birds nest haha, pulled the combustion blower and found this


The birds beak was holding the blades from turning lmao. What a way to go. yep you guessed it “i cleaned it!!”  Along withe the convection blower and area in and around it


New gasket and sealed pipes all is good. Added to my anual clean list.  The young lady’s dad kept the skeleton of the bird


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## SidecarFlip (Nov 11, 2020)

All I can say is NICE.  Was the young lady pretty?  I can do about anything for a smile (and a buck)....


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## Overfireinthehole (Nov 28, 2020)

SidecarFlip said:


> All I can say is NICE.  Was the young lady pretty?  I can do about anything for a smile (and a buck)....


A buck? My... your cheap!


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## SidecarFlip (Nov 29, 2020)

Overfireinthehole said:


> A buck? My... your cheap!


The older you get and dirtier you get, the cheaper you get.  You'll understand when you are my age....


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## SidecarFlip (Nov 29, 2020)

Maybe I should form a division of my farm LLC and go in the stove service business, I know enough about them to be dangerous and it probably beats doing heavy fabrication in the shop.  Right now I'm working on a front end loader bucket that looks like the owner ran it into a brick wall.  I have to cut one of the sides off as well as the top 2/3rds of the back and replace them and reweld everything after serious hydraulic ram work..  Then I have to completely remove the old welded on mounts and add a SSQA adapter plate and make it all pretty again....  and I have his rotary chopper sitting outside.  Looks like he was chopping car parts with it.  Serious welding on the deck itself plus straightening out the caved in side.  I thank the Lord for my big gas axe and the rosebud.  I can fix about anything if I get it hot enough....  Never seen chopper blades as dull as these.  No cutting edges whatsoever.  The cutting edge is blunt.  Probably have to order new blades and maybe a gearbox too, bet he never changed the gear oil or even checked it but will know more when I get it inside and on the hoist.

I'm thinking stoves might be an easier deal but just as dirty...lol

Years ago I did a couple installs for friends for free but then I'm easy.  I do like cutting holes in people's drywall and studs.  Amazing what you see inside a wall... (no insulation...


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## Washed-Up (Dec 24, 2020)

Well, I’m not a tech, however I do have a good understanding of pellet stoves, specifically Harman...my old pellet pro 2 across the street seemed to crap out, the guy that bought it from me said the “fan wasn’t working, I asked him if he’d been cleaning it like I showed him...he said he vacuumed it out a few times in the past 3yrs...so I went over to have a look, combustion fan was barely turning, and I had to vacuum out nearly 2” of ash on the bottom of the firebox, also could barely see through the window...did the leaf blower trick on it and still barely a spin....I wiggled the shaft and huge movement up and down...bearings...gave him a link for a fan replacement and fan blade...went over a few days ago to put the new fan motor in and was I ever surprised when I pulled the combustion motor...pics below
Well....turns out he was extremely honest....vacuumed out a few times looks about right
It’s back running like a champ with a 1.75a motor in it


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## SciGuy (Dec 24, 2020)

Washed-Up said:


> Well, I’m not a tech, however I do have a good understanding of pellet stoves, specifically Harman...my old pellet pro 2 across the street seemed to crap out, the guy that bought it from me said the “fan wasn’t working, I asked him if he’d been cleaning it like I showed him...he said he vacuumed it out a few times in the past 3yrs...so I went over to have a look, combustion fan was barely turning, and I had to vacuum out nearly 2” of ash on the bottom of the firebox, also could barely see through the window...did the leaf blower trick on it and still barely a spin....I wiggled the shaft and huge movement up and down...bearings...gave him a link for a fan replacement and fan blade...went over a few days ago to put the new fan motor in and was I ever surprised when I pulled the combustion motor...pics below
> Well....turns out he was extremely honest....vacuumed out a few times looks about right
> It’s back running like a champ with a 1.75a motor in it
> View attachment 270247
> ...




Wow, that's a mess.  I'm amazed it was still recently functional.  I hope the neighbor appreciates your help.


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## SidecarFlip (Dec 24, 2020)

Nothing beats filth and lack of maintenance, well, no0thing but a cold butt.


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## JRemington (Jan 26, 2021)

“We only bought this stove 3  months ago and the fan doesn’t seem to be pushing any air. You told us this was a good stove that was reliable. We want you out here today and get this fixed”. WTF do you do, use the fan as your vacuum? Clean your floors every once and a while.


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## SidecarFlip (Jan 27, 2021)

JRemington said:


> “We only bought this stove 3  months ago and the fan doesn’t seem to be pushing any air. You told us this was a good stove that was reliable. We want you out here today and get this fixed”. WTF do you do, use the fan as your vacuum? Clean your floors every once and a while.


Must have a boatload of furry animals in the house (that are shedding).....


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## rickwai (Jan 28, 2021)

Or else they are sweeping everything toward the stove for the fan to take it away


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## SidecarFlip (Jan 28, 2021)

rickwai said:


> Or else they are sweeping everything toward the stove for the fan to take it away




With humans, anything is possible as well all know.  Lot of 'filth' for 90 days.  I'd hate to see what the rest of the house looks like.....


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## Lordtimothy200 (Jan 28, 2021)

Depending on the place it is not hard to get that much dust.  I have 3 homemade dust filters in the house and we replace the filters  every 2-3 weeks.  These are the 20x16 furnace filters, so not some small small time filter.  We are surrounded by farmland and between the  doggie doors for our dogs, the cages for the birds, mice and frogs (what can I say, my wife loves her critters and I enjoy keeping her happy) there just will be dirt.   To keep everything clean it just takes a  more effort.

If your stuff is getting that dirty so quickly, you just have to add that to your monthly list of maintenance  on the house.


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## SidecarFlip (Jan 28, 2021)

All of them are inherently dirty, just like a conventional chunk wood stove.


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## SidecarFlip (Jan 28, 2021)

I will say I have been a little lax in cleaning my venting lately and the 6039 started acting kind of wonky.  I knew what it was and was putting it off (leaf blower suck out) but I turned black yesterday as did the deck, the outside benches and the bushes, but especially me.  The venting was loaded, corn makes a lot of fly ash and I admit I got lazy and shouldn't have.  All good now other than everything outside around the cleanout Tee is dark grey.

I empty the clean out Tee every week but it still needs sucked at least 2 times a season.

Cooking good now on Notch 5.  It's 18 here, 71 inside and wife is happy.  One thing about the 6039HF and that is, on corn, you cannot exceed notch 5 (even with a custom programmed algorithm or the stove will go into shutdown as the high limit snap disc will open.  I run it on the ragged edge of maybe shutting down.  I considered jumping the high limit snap but 2 years ago I warped the upper radius of the firebox fiddling with custom feed rates and had to bring the gas axe in the house and heat the upper firebox sheet and straighten it and then gas weld in a stiffener plate, no easy task in the confined area.  Some lessons come hard.


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