Pellet Stove Technician therapy thread

[Overfireinthehole]

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.

 

[JRemington]

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.

 

[JRemington]

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.

 

[Marc S.]

“We clean our stove all the time “View attachment 250137

NO WAY!!

 

[Marc S.]

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.

 

[Overfireinthehole]

3 guesses as to what was wrong with the stove

 

[JRemington]

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.

 

[Overfireinthehole]

BLACKLIST!

 

[tlc1976]

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

 

[JRemington]

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.

 

[Overfireinthehole]

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

 

[Ssyko]

Disgusting!! your a better man than I

 

[JRemington]

Disgusting!! your a better man than I

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

 

[JRemington]

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.

 

[Overfireinthehole]

Tell him to suck ash

 

[JRemington]

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.

 

[Ssyko]

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

 

[Marc S.]

3 guesses as to what was wrong with the stove

Looks like a "weed" in the burn pot lol

 

[Ashful]

Looks like a "weed" in the burn pot lol

I thought it was a decomposing bat!

 

[Marc S.]

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

 

[Oregun]

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

 

[johneh]

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

 

[Marc S.]

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.

 

[Overfireinthehole]

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.

 

[railfanron]

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