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[mlappin]

I'm wondering from the gurus on the site what seems to make some stoves last forever and other ones crap from the start?

Won't name brands, but a better known one has stories of boilers leaking in the first year or two and some that last as long as five are so rotted out to be not worth repairing. While on the other hand we hear of some that people might consider "junk" but we hear people running the same one for twenty years or better?

Is it strictly the owner? I find that hard to believe with the one brand as everybody seemed to have leak or corrosion issues.

[slimjim]

Well, I think a lot of it does have to do with the homeowner, cleaning the unit out in the off months, not allowing the rain water in the stack, burning proper fuel (no car batteries) proper maintenance. On the other hand, a good portion of the blame can go to manufacturing and lack of quality control, nobody is perfect here and sometimes crap gets out of every factory, dealers can help with that one by inspecting the unit as well as educating the buyer on the do's and don'ts of their stove. We all need to work together to improve the image of not just the boiler that we sell but instead do our best to promote wood burning.

[ffbare]

  I hate to say this but my dealer was not helpful at all, I still bought the stove but that is because of you guys and your wealth of knowledge.  I hear good things about Ridgewood so that's what I went with

[slimjim]

If they burn wood and keep your family warm in the cold winter months, THEY ARE GOOD!

[fryedaddy]

I think it's a little of both.

If the stove is crap to start it wouldn't last long but if the owner doesn't maintain their stove 5 years sounds about max.

[mlappin]

Okay, so lets say Wood Doctor, slimjim is still using his, a guy just in the next county is still using his, but hearing stories of them starting to leak the first year is not unheard of.

Poor design? Shoddy workmanship or materials?

Hard to believe 90% of the people who bought one didn't take care of them.

[slimjim]

I'm going to say out of the 100 or so that I sold, perhaps 20 have failed and they were almost all gassers

[dirtdigger]

Why on earth would anyone burn or attempt to burn car batteries?    Then the next question is why are gassers so much worse than others for leaking?

[slimjim]

I have seen some pretty nasty stuff thrown into wood boilers!!!!  The environment inside a gasser seems to be much more corrosive than a conventional unit, perhaps because when a gasser idles there is little to no air moving out of the unit.

[woodbutcher]

The first thing everybody should do is rinse the water jacket out. My old CB was clean from the start. But a friend bought one on my advise and in 2 years developed a leak. CB took it back to the factory and said it had slug in the bottom. This did not come from the water and inhibitor he put in it. But the factory blamed him and it cost him $1600. Make sure the water jacket is totally clean before you fill it. I just got done emptying my boiler after 15 years to make sure nothing was in the water jacket. Turns out that there was a little solids in the boiler but not enough to cause a problem. Refilled it half full and added the inhibitor and added more water and I'm circuiting it now, will test in a couple of days. Take care of any boiler and it will take care of you.   

[1ELVIS]

I'm not sure slim was talking about P&M I think he was referring to wood Doctor if I'm not mistaken

[slimjim]

Thank you ELVIS, you are exactly right, It seems Woodbutcher is once again either not reading well or simply attempting to stir up his competition, I'm not sure which it is?

[farmboythegreat]

some people just like to complain

[woodbutcher]

Where does it say Slim sells Wood Doctor. I thought he worked for P&M. Wood Doctor is not even in business, how can they be selling a gasser. He said out of the 100 or so HE has sold, 20 have failed. I not trying to stir up any thing. If the 20 gassers that have failed are Wood Doctor just say so. I did not see the name Wood Doctor come up anyplace.

[slimjim]

Mlappin asked me the question that I answered regarding Wood Doctor, I sold them for about 5 years and still today am running one of their old smoke dragons, a 14000 to be exact, the failures were all on their gassers, most everybody on here knows our history!