Well, I had an excellent experience at Deans on Saturday!
I went in there not knowing the parts dept was around back in another building so I ended up in their showroom.........holy cow what a showroom they have. Now I haven't been to any other stores like this, but all I can say is I think they have a lot of models to choose from wood,gas,pellet they have inserts- free standings- accessories you name it. I almost walked out of there with a new stove! :lol:
When I got to the Parts Dept I figured I would go easy on him first off and I told the guy I needed a handle for my door cause it was just the steel rod and I saw in the showroom a new Avalon had a wood handle. He said you can get the wood, however they do dry out after time and will crack and fall apart or I could pick a spring handle in Brass, Nickle or Black, which I thought was nice of him to warn me about the wood handle and give me options.
Now I decide to hit him with the blower I needed.Now I went in there ....like a fool not knowing exactly what I needed cause I never pulled my stove away from the wall to look at just how the blower might attach/work figuring "why go through all this if I can't get one or if it never came with one"....So he gets on the computer and starts looking up my stove and shows me what it should look like and where the knock out's are on the stove to mount it. I say do you have any? and he says let me go take a look.....he comes back with a used unit and says "this one was traded in on a new one, all it ended up needing was a new rheostat! I say "okay how much"? :shut: he says 1/2 what a new one would cost an I could have it for $150.00 and it also comes with a new snap disc switch that I don't have either. Wrap it up I'll take it!
I say how about an owners manual, he says I can get ya that... he throws a load of paper in the printer and off it goes some 50+ sheets of paper later I think.....no charge!
So Saturday night I had decided I would let my stove burn down so I could install the blower on Sunday.Sunday morning I pull the stove away from the wall and get down and start looking for the knock outs for the blower install.Now the unit he sold me was a dual motor assembly with two areas for the air to escape, I only see one big knock out on my stove!
hh: this isn't for my stove! I get on the computer and check and Dean's is open Sundays!....I call them and the parts dept is open also with a Tech running the counter to boot! So I take pics the best I can and take the knock out with me to show the actual size opening.
I get there and the Tech is a comedian, with my blower in hand he says..."okay what did we break?" And not getting it until just now I said.."you didn't break anything ya just sold me the wrong blower for my stove" :lol: ......I actually though he thought they broke something that I was returning :shut: ......yeah I'm a quick one I am!
So he says "what stove do you have" So I proceed to explain the events as he is looking my stove up on the computer like the other guy had done the day before. He says "that's the one they say is for your stove" so I show him the pics and the knock out and that there were no other knock outs other than that one. Now he is stumped,he is looking at the same thing the guy was looking at yesterday and shows me on the computer the blower they sold me and where it should mount. I say there is no way I can use that without cutting and welding on my stove. I say do you have any other blowers that would roughly fit the size of this knock out that I might be able to modify a little easier? He says "let me go look" he comes back with a new blower in an old open dusty box, sets it on the counter and it matches up to my knock out plate exactly and it's in a box marked "Travis Industries Avalon 996"
and it has a rheostat all ready wired up! He is as surprised as I with his find and asks if I want the snap disc also and I say sure, as I'm not sure how I want to control it yet.
Now at this point I am willing to pay what ever just to posses this "needle in a haystack" of a blower! Try as he may he can't come up with a price on it and says we need to take this "up stairs" and let them figure this out. That alone sounded like it was going to cost me even more now! :bug: So we proceed outside and go upstairs to the pellet showroom and he explains to the salesman behind the counter what was what and how he couldn't get a price on this blower even after he tried to cross referenced the sku# on Travis Industries web site.....it's like this doesn't even exist anymore they say to each other......and I'm just watching this thing get more and more expensive as all this goes on. So the the Tech says that's why I brought it up here for you to figure out, and the salesman says I think we should just make it an even wash for the return instead of all the time and paper work this could take! I say that works for me
All I need to pay for is the snap disc switch, but now I'm feeling guilty like I'm robbing them, so I start grabbing some leather gloves....some glass cleaner paste and some starting gel for my pellet furnace at work just to show my gratitude! :lol:
So needless to say my trip to Deans Stove and Spa in Plantsville, CT was an all around 100% positive experience!
Sorry for such a long post but I wanted to be thorough! ;-)
