Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers WITH EPA-Certified Models => HeatMaster => Topic started by: dls ranger on March 17, 2010, 04:03:23 PM
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Any one out there own a heatmaster? Going to look at one this weekend found a dealer 15 miles away
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I would not buy a heatmaster under any circumstaces ever again. I bought the MF 5000 last October and it was the worst stove you could imagine. The fire went out on 66 different occassions and finally the unit itself caught fire in March... Customer service is HORRIBLE. took the dealer to small claims court and won a judgement and then he filed bankruptcy to keep from paying...nice warranty huh? The company is called Steeltech and are located in Winkler Manitoba and they absolutely SUCK! tHEY WOULD DO NOTHING,ZERO. I now have a woodmaster 4400 and am extremely happy.
STAY AWAY FROM HEATMASTER NO MATTER WHAT!!
*This post was modified by Sloppy. It is not appropriate to claim any entity stole anything (including intellectual property) from someone else. Feel free to express your position but let's please keep it about the wood furnaces performance, good or bad. Thank you.*
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Who did Heat Master steal the designs from? I don't know of another manufacture who had the same design when Heat Master started making furnaces. Just because you had a bad dealer doesn't mean the stoves are bad. I have sold hundreds of furnaces and don't know of a single customer who is unhappy with the furnace. Sounds like the problem may have been a local problem.
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They stole the design from Crown Royal stoves. Like I said the dealer was worthless,the stove was terrible and the home office did not back up the product at all. Very bad experience and like previously stated I would never buy anything related to this company again.
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I may be mistaken but I believe that for a number of years Crown Royal bought Heat Master furnaces and and resold them under the Crown Royal name.
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That is not what I have been told. Anyway if you like them fine I just can't stand them and when they beat you out of $6500 and their warranty is worthless it kind of pisses a person off. Like I said I think they and their stoves suck and I am going to make everyone that i can aware of it.
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What exactly was the warrenty problem that they would not back up? I have sold hundreds of the furnaces and have never had them turn down a claim.
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The stove they sold me was a lemon from day 1. To make a long story short,my fire went out on 66 different occasions last season,sometimes multiple times in a day. The stove itself caught fire in march rendering it inoperable. I called the dealer and manufacturer dozens and dozens of times and finally they said the stove was fine and they would buy me ONE cord of hardwood!!! I was forced to take the dealer to small claims court and won a judgement for the entire cost of the stove and he promptly filed bankruptcy.What a joke. I lost 6500.00 to this POS outfit and you will never change my mind. In asking around they have a poor reputation with other stove dealers. In short in my opinion they and their stoves suck. Word to the wise: DO NOT BUY A HEATMASTER FROM STEELTECH!!!!.
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So I take it you were not burning hardwood? What were you trying to burn?
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I was burning DRY JACKPINE,which anyone who has any knowledge of these type of units recognizes as probably the best wood around. I burned it for years with my heatmor and am now burning it with my Woodmaster. Absolutely zero problems. You are starting to sound just like the manufacturer.
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scissorbill i will not bash any stove manufactureras i have never owned one so i cant say one way or the otherif they are good or not.
it seems you had a bad experience and have the right to comment on how you were treated but i will agreew ith you 100 percent on wood usage. I can say this from my experience with my stove for the last ten heating seasons, i have burnt everything from 2x4 drop offs from the local truss plant to maple, oak, pine, apple ironwood, elm, used rail road ties, even hydro poles, just about every kind of wood grown here in southern ontario.
I can safely say from my experience that it did not matter what kind of wood i ever burnt in my stove, the stove never acted any different except for the amount i needed to put in.
now i t may make a difference with the new gassifiers (i don't know)
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I'm just a dealer of Heat Master furnaces. I'm just curious what the problem was with your situation. I burn 80% pine (most of it fairly green) in my MF3000 and very seldom have an issue with it going out. I wish you would have had a better dealer to work with. I imagine it was a fairly simple problem that a good dealer could have solved if they had taken the time to work with you.
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Yoder,
You are right I had a terrible dealer,however the manufacturer sucks as well and could have as I asked replaced the unit and I would have gladly tried again to give them a chance. $6500 is real money to me and if you think I am upset you are right. I am damn mad and want everyone to know how I was treated by this dealer and company. Which brings me to the bankruptcy laws which are also totally ridiculous. Go run up a bunch of debt and then screw over everyone through the court system...unbelieavable
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How in the world did ur fire go out once? Or 66 times? I don't see how that's even possible if the fan is working.
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That is the million dollar question. Typical morning: Wake up @5 am to a cool house,cold air blowing from ducts,out to stove,fan blowing,stove full of charred wood,fire out,water temp from 65 to 120 degrees depending on how long the fire was out. Yep 66 times that I wrote down so actually more than that. POS stove. I bought a Woodmaster and am burning the exact same wood..zero problems.
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Who installed your heatmasters, I can't think of one thing that could cause something like that. Burning to much or to fast yea, but it beats me. It's kind of surprising you went back with a company with one of the worst warranties in the industry, but I suppose you figured the warranty you supposively had before was worthless.
Were your grates getting plugged with ash? Cause I'd there is fire and o2 available. It's gonna burn
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Why would have you needed another furnace? Was there something wrong with the one you had? I guess I'm must be missing something but I have yet to hear what was broken on the furnace you had.
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scissorbill I am also curious what was wrong with your stove i've been dealing w/ heatmaster for a few years now and have had no problems even close to this did you fill out the warrenty and give a water sample the factory has always been more than willing to give me the benefit of the doubt sorry for your problems
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If I knew what was wrong I would have fixed it. One morning it was out and i restarted it at about 6 am and it was blazing with flames shooting out the chimney and at 7:30 as I was leaving for work it was out!! The stove itself caught on fire on March 29th,2010
I don't know about the Woodmaster warranty but I never heard one person say anything but good about them and many are going 15-20 years. What I do know is tha HEATMASTERS WARRANTY WAS TOTALLY WORTHLESS!!! I do know the design sucks as I can see how the embers could fall into the ash pan and I think this may have been some of the problem I had. Bottom line is it was a total waste of money and a horsecrap dealer and a lousy company to deal with.
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Sounds like the dealer didn't teach you how to properly run the furnace. Because Heat Master uses shaker grates the ash will often fall through easily. I know there are several ways of making sure you keep enough coals and ash on top of the grates. If you had coals falling into the ash pan that was most likely part of the problem. The benefit of buying a Heat Master is that you can burn coal or wood, however the coal shaker grates do take some getting used to. I had a customer last year who had a similar problem. I went over to the guys place every month to reshow him how to run the furnace. This summer I assisted him in finding a buyer for the furnace. I talked to the new owner this fall and the furnace has been running for months with no problems. Unfortunately not all dealers are willing to go above and beyond to make sure everything works well after the sale. I often tell potential costumers that the dealer is more important then the brand, a bad dealer will make any stove look terrible.
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Just had to wade in here, I have had my heatmaster 6 years now and it has never been out. I use it to heat water all year if I do not use it to heat the house. As for standing behind them, my dealer came by this year to look over my stove, his choice, I did not ask for the visit. He found a small pin hole leak at the bottom back of the stove and asked if I would like a new stove or should he replace it with a new one. NO cost to fix and 1500 for a new one. This leak had been there after the first year and had not gotten any worse. Very small, never needed to add water. It was just always damp, never saw a drip.
I went with the new stove, I like the new doors and the fan is better, back up to a 20 year warranty as well.
AS for the fire never going out, I was there when he changed out the stove and I took a shovel of coals out and put on the ground. After we filled the new one with water I shoveled back in the coals and put some smaller wood on top and turned it on. It took right off, no issues.
Sorry to here of your problems but I love mine and they do stand behind it, I burn oak and Hickory mostly. I can burn it green in the summer and still have no issues with it going out.
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That is great that they stood behind yours. they did NOT in my case and I have nothing good to say about them or the stoves. I am burning the exact same wood now in my Woodmaster with zero issues. I was forced to take the dealer (Denny's Plunbing) to small claims court and won a judgement for $6500...of course he didn't pay and filed bankruptcy instead...now he is back in business doing his sloppy work after he stiffed everybody including me.
great system we have in America.Glad you like your stove,just telling of the experience I had.
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For what it's worth, I love mine. My fire has gone out a few times, usually because I push it too long or I am burning extremely dry wood so it just goes "poof" in the chamber, but for the most part it's all been entirely user error. Trying to burn coal in mine has become more of a challenge. I prefer cob corn, but I have such a hard time finding it that I am moving to the coal route.
3 years now on mine and no major issues, like I said, strictly user error.
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jstange,
Glad you have had good results from your furnace. I have found that mixing a small amount of wood with the coal helps keep the coal from going out as often. I actually was mixing a few shovel full of wood chips in mine. Hope this helps.