Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers with NON EPA-Certified Models Only => RidgeWood Stoves, defunct, support only => Topic started by: Chas on February 04, 2016, 09:25:06 AM
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Just took a look at the Ridgewood Stove web site, Big bold letters.... "Going out of business liquidation sale" I guess after Craig left,
things didn't work out so well for Tim on his own. Looks like some pretty low prices on their remaining stoves. I wish I had a spare $3500
laying around, I'd buy a spare.
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Sorry to hear it, a lot of owners are very pleased with their Ridgewoods.
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Yup... Tim is a total tool. He actually told my buddy to F#@k off, he don't want to sell his picky as@ a stove... Craig was the upmost respectable person to deal with, while Tim went out of his way to be a douche bag to me and everyone else. I hope he goes bankrupt. And this scares me to think about how my warranty will be dealt with if needed in the future. >:(
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Anyone get wind of where Craig went? Was a stand up dude.. We can all kiss our warranty goodbye. Did the math he is trying to unload his total inventory worth a total of $329,048. Reduced pricing is not very good, I bought my stove new for 3,500 on off season was the regular discount. In the business world we call this chatter. Maybe our first sign of a boiler company that can't keep up with new regulations going under... Many more could meet the same doom. On the other side of the coin boiler manufacturers that could afford to upgrade and testing will boom because the competition will lessen. Regulation at it's finest.
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i read this yesterday on their site as well as i was browsing...i also heard Tim was selling directly to customers and cutting out the dealers. I spoke to a few dealers whom are not happy at all, they totally got screwed. a few of them didnt even know that they were "going out of business"....thats good communication for you!!!
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That's a bummer. Guess I'll have to get a Garn and start posting up there................
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From a Ridgewood to a garn, that's quite a step in the opposite direction isn't it.
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I was completely dismayed at this news about Ridgewood. We purchased ours 2 years ago and have had nothing but good luck with it. Simple design, little electronics to go wrong, let's not beat up on Tim or Craig for not being able to hold the company together. If you want to beat anyone up, the guy lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington D.C.
Let's continue to support all Ridgewood owners on this site!
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Some of you need to realize, this is not about EPA regulations! Michigan passed a bill, stating they will not, and do not, need to abide by the EPA's standards.
This is simply, just rewards for a total asshole, that deserves to be out of business. Craig couldn't deal with Tim since he got out of prison, and bailed. Good for him. Tim is a crook, and word traveled fast about his unprofessional, rude, cheating ways. The business took a hit, and they no longer can stay above water. I alone warned 6 people that were in the process of buying one to stay clear. The mother inlaw, my father, our neighbor, my wifes boss, and two of the guys I work with. All of them called Rigdewood, and all of them said Tim was a bit of a prick to deal with.
Karma....
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Some of you need to realize, this is not about EPA regulations! Michigan passed a bill, stating they will not, and do not, need to abide by the EPA's standards.
They can try that all they want, once the feds decide to start with holding funds, Michigan will follow the EPA standard then. Not to sound like a prick, but once you have a government that thinks its all powerful, it doesn’t like to ignored.
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We are on our second year with our stove, with only a few minor issues. Tim was the only person I ever spoke with at RW. He always answered his phone or called me back same day.
I hate to see any start up go out of business for any reason. I am guessing our warranty will go away when they close.
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I agree with mlappin, once the Feds decide they want to enforce it they will, and it boils down to money. I have had my stove for 2 years as well, still has the original solenoid in it, and no added stacks. I did fabricate a small adjustable blower for helping burn green wood, that is 60cfm max I believe, and adjusted to around 15 Cfm to keep from blowing the heat out of the stack. I have had zero issues with mine and very happy with how simple its controls are. If you think about it, it's a round firebox around 3/8 thick surrounded by a round water jacket pretty much like most of the conventional stoves, air in smoke out, really not much else going on there. I do not have any creosote on my door, it is clean. I run mine at 165 on and 180 out unless it drops below 0 here then I set it for 169 on 183 off. I have been getting great burn times this year by using less wood, especially during the days when I just add a few pcs in the morning. Sorry to see them go out of business , but I fabricate for a living and pretty much planned on fixing anything that goes wrong myself. I was going to make my own stove, but bought my 7500 for 4300.00 bucks, making it hard to justify buying the steel.
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Its too bad they are going out of business. Always very helpful to me when I had the 7500 (2014-15 season).
Had a problem burning up solenoids. I'm not a fabricator and trying to get my friends to help me modify the door draft was a joke, so that never happened.
For the clearance prices, its a stove that's hard to beat. Pretty simple set up. The only thing I would do is modify the door draft so it worked like the old wood doctors or the current non-gasser Hawkens.
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mlappin & updoug are spot on. My post was to direct the attention of the quality of the Ridgewood which so far has been great. I don't buy into beating up those who tried their best. I believe we bought a good product for the money. ZERO problems so far and if we have some, we will fix/fabricate them ourselves. That is what being a conservative means. Quit expecting everyone to fix your problems, SLIMJIM and so many others have been awesome help to me and so let's not beat up on the owners who tried. Let's continue to help all those who have a Ridgewood stove and any future problems they may have ( including myself - a non fabricator but am grateful to those who help daily ). Many thanks to all who helped us install our Ridgewood 2 years ago, I finally have a really warm home with wood cut off our farm. SLIMJIM, I can only hope to meet you one day. Maybe after hay season!!!!!
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Well just my luck there going out of business because Saturday I was out filling stove and found two nice cracks in firebox down by door opening. Pulled tin off below door and the one crack goes all the way down into the water jacket. Have no idea how it isn't leaking. Called Tim and this was before I saw the going out of business on their site. Tim didn't seem to find it an issue and and told me to temperately fix it with fiberglass. I was rather mad since this things only a year and a half old. Its been pretty good this year but last year I went through like 4 or 5 solenoids and its on its third aquastat. I ended up running a ground rod in 8 foot and grounded machine to that and i have not had any more issues with that. But now I have a cracked firebox and I told tim I wanted a new stove once heating seasons done. He just laughed it off and noe he won't even return my phone calls. I did however still have Craig's number and I able to talk to him. He obviously does not own or is even affiliated with Ridgewood and him and tim are not on speaking terms. Long story short Craig said Tims not holding up on the warrenty stuff like he should and now he's try to liquidate a whole lot of inventory. I think he diserves another prison sentence.
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Wow, this is certainly bad news. I just purchased mine and this is my first season with it, although no issues up to now with solenoids, aquastat, etc. The few times I personally contacted Tim was always able to get a hold of him by phone and when wasn't, he'll return the call the same day. I just hope and pray that the warranty is honored?
Sad the company ended up this way, I have nothing but good things to say in regards to the purchase and communication with them.
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Wow....that's crazy. Hope u get your stove fixed!
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I've been looking at these stoves for over a year and doing alot of research on other stoves as well with the price drop it seems like the way to go but after reading these threads about all the solenoid problems and not wanting to hold up to the warranty I may go another way. I did talk to tim right before they put that on the website and he said he would cover the boiler for 1 yr but sounds to me like that probably won't happen.
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I will say this tim was very nice and friendly until I had a problem he should had stood behind he more less told me I was an idiot and there was nothing wrong with my stove he has not stood behind any problem I've had my stove is still not a year old with that being said I knew when I ordered my stove they may not be around long with all the epa crap I'm a handy person and knew I could fix almost any problem I had it a very simple boiler and at a good price am I happy with it yes and no I like it but I'm unhappy with the problems I've had and the way tim as treated me he could had just told me they were going to be going out of business and not been an ass to me with that being said if your a handy person It mite be worth it
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From a Ridgewood to a garn, that's quite a step in the opposite direction isn't it.
Slim,
It is quite the opposite direction. The Garn was always the "final" step, but the money was not there. I guess now since Heatmaster and P&M have started making high end gassers, I might consider them too. Honestly, it will probably be a Heatmaster, but for now the Ridgewood will continue to maintain station right here it's at..
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Run what you have, save some money and by then who knows what will be available, perhaps somebody will have one that produces power for the home being heated.
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Run what you have, save some money and by then who knows what will be available, perhaps somebody will have one that produces power for the home being heated.
They already have something in europe that generates electricity from your exhaust stack heat, quite expensive and only produces 1KW.
I can’t seem to find the link now, but basically operates like a stirling engine but moves a magnet up and down in a coil.
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Run what you have, save some money and by then who knows what will be available, perhaps somebody will have one that produces power for the home being heated.
They already have something in europe that generates electricity from your exhaust stack heat, quite expensive and only produces 1KW.
I can’t seem to find the link now, but basically operates like a stirling engine but moves a magnet up and down in a coil.
Not quite the same idea, but I have hooked the cooling system of my diesel generator into the OWB water system. I got tired of vibration problems destroying the radiator on the 3 cyl. diesel engine and also thought it rediculous to waste all the heat produced so I removed the rad and added piping to circulate heated water through the engine. Not only will it raise the water temperature when running, but the engine remains at operating temperature so starts are much easier. I should note that I am off grid and, while I don't use the generator all the time, I do run it for short periods when the sun doesn't shine such as today. :)
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Run what you have, save some money and by then who knows what will be available, perhaps somebody will have one that produces power for the home being heated.
They already have something in europe that generates electricity from your exhaust stack heat, quite expensive and only produces 1KW.
I can’t seem to find the link now, but basically operates like a stirling engine but moves a magnet up and down in a coil.
Not quite the same idea, but I have hooked the cooling system of my diesel generator into the OWB water system. I got tired of vibration problems destroying the radiator on the 3 cyl. diesel engine and also thought it rediculous to waste all the heat produced so I removed the rad and added piping to circulate heated water through the engine. Not only will it raise the water temperature when running, but the engine remains at operating temperature so starts are much easier. I should note that I am off grid and, while I don't use the generator all the time, I do run it for short periods when the sun doesn't shine such as today. :)
:post:
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Run what you have, save some money and by then who knows what will be available, perhaps somebody will have one that produces power for the home being heated.
They already have something in europe that generates electricity from your exhaust stack heat, quite expensive and only produces 1KW.
I can’t seem to find the link now, but basically operates like a stirling engine but moves a magnet up and down in a coil.
Not quite the same idea, but I have hooked the cooling system of my diesel generator into the OWB water system. I got tired of vibration problems destroying the radiator on the 3 cyl. diesel engine and also thought it rediculous to waste all the heat produced so I removed the rad and added piping to circulate heated water through the engine. Not only will it raise the water temperature when running, but the engine remains at operating temperature so starts are much easier. I should note that I am off grid and, while I don't use the generator all the time, I do run it for short periods when the sun doesn't shine such as today. :)
You run the boiler water through the engine?
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Not sure how boiler water and proper diesel antifreeze compare.
I’ve had to re-sleeve a few diesels before as they didn’t have the right anti freeze and the pits in the sleeves eventually went clear thru.
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I really don't know if this will be a problem long term. The boiler water does have a rust inhibitor and no one I spoke with thought there would be a problem. I guess I'll find out. :-\ It certainly does increase the reliability of the cooling system as I have had to replace several radiators due to vibration fractures and I like the fact that the engine is kept at operating temperature so that it is easier to start in cold weather (much easier on glow plugs and starting system.) Certainly if anyone has any knowledge of the detrimental effect of using boiler water in an engine I would be interested in knowing it. It could be isolated with antifreeze and a heat exchanger.
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I don't think there would be a problem When I was a young fella, around here all the heavy machinery ran on straight water all summer because dozers and excavators and tiling machines and such equipment was left on the job (and often it was in the middle of no where) and if you dared leave a hint of that sweet antifreeze smell, your rad would be drained nightly!
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I was going to do it at one time and don't remember exactly why I decided against it. I know some boiler treatment are not compatible with aluminum. Using a marine heat exchanger works really well to connect a boiler to engine. It wouldn't keep the engine hot though unless you have an electric pump on the engine side.