Thursday

Hearthstone Heritage Nightmare Update

The folks we bought the Heritage stove from have come through. Yesterday we got rid of the Hearthstone Heritage and replaced it with a Lopi Liberty. After we get through the break in fires I'll will let you know how it performs.

Karis at JR Bolton was just excellent--she looked after us every step of the way. The Hearthstone rep, who lives in the same town as we do, never showed an interest in learning why his product was not working properly. Every variable was checked: stove pipe height, the  air tightness of the house, roof pitch, wind and, of course, the wood.  All checked out and in the end the thinking is it was just a lemon.

Anyone in the business of building a product is going to have some problems at some point--that's a given. The hope is that they are responsive to their customers and are focused on making it right. Sadly some are and some are not....but in the end its the consumers who will reward the good companies and stay away from the ones that are bad. As for me, I will not buy another Hearthstone product but when I need another stove or some other product that Bolton carries; I will not hesitate to buy from them.

Lessons learned.
1. It pays off to do alot of reseach up front. Know the products and how they work
2. If you're buying a product that you are unfamiliar with, buy from a local company just in case you have trouble.
3. Shop around for a reseller and for the product. The more you know the better off you will be.
4. In particular with wood burning stoves-there are a lot of factors that can affect their performance, take the time to know what they are.

Take care.