Not So Good Alaska Hearth Story

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csstoker
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska Kast Console II
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Post by csstoker » Fri. Jan. 02, 2009 1:55 pm

Hey Guys, I ordered a new hearth that was scheduled to come in in September. After several missed planned deliveries (was told by Alaska mid-October, then Halloween, then 3 days later, then definitely by Thanksgiving, then early December, then Christmas) The stove finally arrived December 24. My parents were beginning to wonder if I had really ordered one. It was delivered to my home with coal on Friday December 26. The stove looks beautiful!! As we were installing, we turned on the distribution blower and noticed fine particles blowing out everywhere. Turned out to be sand and fine metal shavings. Alaska said it was from sand blasting the stove and then then shipping & handling the unit. I cleaned up the shavings and dusted off my cats' paws. After restrating the combustion blower, we ended up removing it because more sand/shavings were blowing out. The blower had over a handful of shavings still in the bottom of it. After cleaning it up and plugging it in, my father noticed how noisy it was. It turns out the bearings were bad- not sure if the metal shavings contributed to it but the blower was shot. After waiting 2 days, a new blower arrived. The new blower is great. I was getting ready to light the initial small fire to dry out the flue and something told me to double check all of the other motors. That's when I noticed that the feed motor was not turning the paddle. On the phone again with Alaska... I ended up removing the drum cover and later wiping down the drum. Still the drum would not turn. Alaska said to contact my seller to order a replacement paddle wheel motor. the motor was ordered byt the store late on 12/30. It was suppose to come overnight like the blower. It never arrived new's year eve so they said it would be here Friday (*today). Guess what UPS has already made their store delivery and no motor. According to the store, UPS does not deliver on Saturday so it will be now Monday.

I have to say that I am thankful for this forum because without it I would walk soo far away from coal and never turn back. I had planned a nice Thanksgiving and Christmas that included coal warmth. Both of these plans failed because of Alaska. I don't know what Alaska's problem is but it seems bad. They not only failed to live up to several promised delivery timeframes but obviously, they didn't check the unit before it left the factory and have left me holding the "damaged" bag.

Do I have any recourse? Is this typical?

 
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WNY
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Post by WNY » Fri. Jan. 02, 2009 2:00 pm

Recourse? I doubt it if they fix/replace everything for you

Definitely not typical. Sounds like a QC issue with them. Some things could have been damaged in shipping also.

My Keystoker plugged in and had it fired up the same day I installed it with no issues.

 
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gambler
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Post by gambler » Fri. Jan. 02, 2009 2:58 pm

It is a shame that you wait all of this time only to get a defective product. I wonder if they are buying motors from a different mfg. because they could not get them from there normal supplier. So to get the stoves out the door they got any motors they could.
I was also wondering what the quality of all of the stove mfg. was going to be with this big push to hurry things along. Maybe it has gone down the drain.


 
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jpen1
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Post by jpen1 » Fri. Jan. 02, 2009 3:57 pm

Did you pull the linkage off the paddle . If not remove the linkage and try and turn the paddle by hand. There may be particles under the paddle or in the sleeve bushing. See if the motor turns with it unhooked as well. They probably got some foreign material in the bushing causing the motor to bimd up and possibly burnened it up as well. When you re-install the paddle make sure you put some high temp grease in through the zerk on the arm shaft.

 
csstoker
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska Kast Console II
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Post by csstoker » Fri. Jan. 02, 2009 4:15 pm

the paddle turns easily enough. The drum doesn't spin (although it gets warm) and the shaft bottom thread connected to the drum isn't doing anything. It seems to be suspended into nothing?

I guess it is possible that there is something in the bushings or maybe they are bad- I don't know. Although the drum and area that you can see around and beneath the drum are clean.

 
CapeCoaler
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Post by CapeCoaler » Fri. Jan. 02, 2009 5:34 pm

It is a QC issue and Harman has had similar issues also.
'Get the product out the door'
There was such a big demand for product that some companies chose to lower their QC standards to get the product out quicker.


 
TimV
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Other Heating: Oil Furnace Backup when repairs are needed

Post by TimV » Fri. Jan. 02, 2009 6:58 pm

:( Too bad so many american manufacturers are tossing the old standards out the window in favor get that quota out the door policy.
I bet those motors you had that went bad were fresh of the last boat from China.
Chinese knock off motors are pure crap.
taint Globalism Grand!! :bang:

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Fri. Jan. 02, 2009 8:04 pm

Sorry to hear you'd had issues. Alaska has a reputation for building a good product. I'm trusting that once it's up and running it will make you happy and serve you well. Hang in there!

 
bksaun
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Post by bksaun » Fri. Jan. 02, 2009 10:03 pm

Definitly not the "Norm", I bought my Channing III 3, years ago and it has been perfect since day one. They have a good reputation and no doubt will make things right.

Bk

 
Complete Heat
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Post by Complete Heat » Sat. Jan. 03, 2009 9:12 am

The shavings in the blower motor are from sandblasting. They should not be there. I now take off the blower motors to make sure they are clean, and I also inspect the air cavity where the blower blows into. as there could be some shavings in there too. The feed motor... make sure it is turned to high, and then watch it a couple of minutes, as they do not run all of the time. I have not had any bad feed motors. The convection blower motor is made by Dayton. Dayton moved their manufacturing over to China, where only the best slave labor is used. I am finding about 30% of those motors to be bad. On high they are fairly quiet, but start turning it down some and there is a terrible harmonic noise that does not go away. Make sure that the rheostat is adjusted properly as well (turn it to low, and then using a jewelers straight slot screw driver, turn the pot screw on the side to where you want the low setting to be).

It is a good unit, and once you get the motors squared away it will give you many good years of service.

Mike

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