Travis Industries review: Poor quality gas fireplace 32

Its going to be very difficult to service a high tech unit like Fireplace Xtrordinair if you are not a factory trained technician. The fans are meant to be installed prior to installation of the unit to avoid exactly the kind of difficulty you experienced. The call from consumers for gas fireplaces with IPI ignition was answered by Travis with this new Greensmart System which provides a large collection of features that are unrivaled by any other manufacturer today. and provide fuel savings. That tangle of wires behind the dashboard gives you total control over all features of the fireplace, and the position of them is critical to heat transfer and longevity of the components they control. The blower is activated by a snap disc or thermodisc that supplies current once the operating temperature of the fireplace reaches 120 degrees. In some cases using a lower temp snap disc has been more preferable to certain customers. Remember that this is a variable speed blower that can be turned from low to high or off at any time desired.

I have a fireplace Xtrordinair and I have built a new house in Oct 2006 and we had the fireplace installed, we used it for 3 seasons and the blower is constantly screwing up and the place that sold us the unit will not return my calls. I know its the blower snap disk, however the schematic shows it as a thermostat outside the blower, but it is not that sensor, I have 120v going into the motor and it goes on and off constantly, please help anyone with this problem!

I have been fighting with Travis Industries for a couple of years. I'm trying to get them to take some accountability and stand behind one of their products: the Avalon "Tree of Life" gas stove. Our stove has emitted noxious-smelling fumes since it was new, and we have not been able to tolerate using it for more than a few minutes at a time. I have had not luck with the store that sold me the stove. I paid a repairman to look at it, and he diagnosed "bad paint". The crew that built our house burned the stove to cure the paint before we moved in; and, following the Travis service manager's direction, we have burned it another 8 consecutive hours (with doors and windows open to air out the stink). Nothing has helped. I have written numerous letters and had phone conversations with the service manager...all to no avail. The stove is very pretty but defective and useless. I need a replacement or a refund. But nobody will help me. Carolyn Dowdy

Good luck trying to get by travis industries service managers, scott, and shawn. these 2 guys are smart mouths, who will not let you get any calls, or letters piast them. I have been trying to contact the president of travis myself, due to a piece of garbage pettel stove. Each attempt was intercepted by scott, and shawn. The pellet stove has been replaced one time already after 1 month of use, as it kept turning itself off, burning out of control, the auger gets tight and makes the loudest noises, that wake you out of a sound sleep. They cannot figure out whats wrong with the stove, so it was replaced one time already. The new one has even worse problems than the first. So now we have to replace it again this summer, hopefully after travis gets all the bugs worked out of the units. have no confidence they will fix the issues, but ill have to wait and see.
As for travis standing behind their product, take your own chances, as they will fight you every step of the way. Im glad to see im not the only one who has problems getting travis to stand behind the product. They try their best to get past the one year warranty, so this way you have to pay for all repairs, and service, even though its 90% of the time, its travis's fault. They have had horrible issues with all of their products this year [protected]. The biggest issue is getting them to take care of the issues. I am on pellet stove number 2, which as stated earlier has worse and more problems than the first, and they will be replacing again in a couple months after winter. so this will be 3 installs of 3 different stoves within 4 months. also watch your pellet burn. We have went through almost 6 tons of pellets since the beginning of december 2012. we are averaging 3 bags a day, and 90% of the time, my ashpan is filled with full red hot pellet embers, which makes my floor incredibly hot and actually dangerous. I was told the door rope was faulty from the factory, and it needed to be replaced. I recieved the rope and adhesive from the dealer, replaced all the ropes, which were checked by a travis service tech. He said everythings fine, theres no reason you should be wasting pellets as such. So as it seems, he himself is not sure why the stove wastes so many pellets. All i know is i have to empty my ashpan 2 times a day, sometimes 3, because its so full of red hot embers, its a real fire hazard.
I would not recommend travis industries to anyone. save yourself thousands of dollars and go elsewhere. check out US stoves, or harmon, or anything else other than travis. I spent $3, 500 on the stove and door. Then $200.00 on the vent kit for the travis avalon camano. Had it installed, it died. Had the original un-installed, and number 2 re-installed. now stove number 2 needs to be replaced, Which travis industries expects me to eat that cost. plus burning and wasting way more pellets than should be used, ive spent over $1, 200 on pellets, plus over $1, 000 out of pocket to have the 2 original stoves installed and re installed. so for a $3, 000 dollar pellet stove, which is a real piece of junk, and horribly problematic. I have lost thousands of dollars due to it. 3, 500 for stove, 1, 200 for un install- re install, $1, 200 on pellets, $80 on misc parts for uninstall- reinstall, 3 hours of running around on a saturday afternoon to try to find vent pipe parts at various locations, $120 on gas running around for parts, countless hours of un necessary cleaning of the stove, hassles, middle of the night cleanings to get stove to turn back on, no back up by travis, no making good on promises made by travis. A service tech from travis checking the stove and putting new parts in. 5 minutes after the dealer and service tech leave my house, the stove turns itself off again and were back at square one. so basically for a $3, 000 stove which does not come with a door, you have to pay an extra $269.00 for the door. A entire winter of nothing but the stove dying and having a mind of its own, its noisy, never runs properly, basically i am into this pice of garbage for over $6, 000. And travis still cant get it right. Oh and try to get a reimbursement for any of your hassles, , , LMAO... this place is a joke. And as stated above, if you could get around the service tech and manager scott and shawn, you may have a chance at getting to someone who truly cares about travis's product. But god luck doing so. I would not recommend travis products to anyone. They change things after they have already sold hundreds, and the changes they made are worse than the original. You have been warned, stay away from travis, all your doing is buying a very over priced headache, you wont soon forget.

Iowa homeowner., , is the unit cooling down when the blower operates thus making the sensor turn off and then heats up and blower turns back on? That's what it sounds like from your description, which means everything is working fine. Turn up gas volume and born hotter and the sensor will stay on. Hope this helps ya

I have a Travis Industries Avalon Rosario fireplace insert. It has been a complete waste of money, and it was not cheap to buy! The "greensmart" technology is a load of BS. The blower comes on sometimes, but usually not. Most of the heat goes up the stack. We are on a first name basis with the repairman, he comes to the house at least every year to fix the unit. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM TRAVIS INDUSTRIES!

I have two Travis fireplace inserts with "Greensmart" technology. The receivers have failed on both units, multiple times, as well as multiple issues with the pilot on one of the units. I have had over a dozen service calls since they were installed 3 1/2 years ago--six of them in the first four months alone. I was recently told that leaving the pilot in "continuous" mode, rather than the Greensmart mode, would keep the unit from having problems. Wrong! Both receivers and one of the pilots just failed again today. And, excuse me, but leaving the pilot in continuous mode defeats the purpose of paying extra cost for the Greensmart technology, doesn't it? If I knew 3/12 years ago what I know now, I most certainly would not have purchased a Travis product.

Has anyone had a problem with the Fireplace Xtrodinair Elite 36" producing CREOSOTE IN THE FIREBOX BUT NOT IN THE CHIMNEY? We are burning according to directions and are only burning dry seasoned oak wood.

We are on our second pellet stove from Travis Industries. We purchased a Lopi-Yankee Model to begin with, replaced cleaning rod for heat exchange tubes twice, replaced burn pot, top plates. Hole for cleaning rod was starting to wear into one of heat chamber rods. Stove was still under warranty, Company replaced stove with AGP which is a complete piece of junk. We have to clean stove 2-3 times a day, due to ash pan getting full. They try to say it is the pellets, which is not true...we use the same pellets we used in the first stove. This stove blows black soot all over mantel, tables and living room. We purchased the stove to heat with not to lite on holidays. Very unsatisfied with product. We go through 2 bags of pellets a day, costing around $1, 000.00 a year to use. Would not purchase this stove ever again. Company wanted the Dealer to pay them extra money for replacing our old stove, (which was a much better stove). I don't think first stove would have had issues with cleaning rod, if they would have had it protected from the flame and supported the rod with a bushing of some sort to have begin. I am by no means a engineer, but common sense tells me if direct flame is hitting a rod no bigger around then my finger it will soon burn into. The stove we have now is nothing in comparison to old one. Stove is less then 3 months old, I am pretty sure if you tried to get the company to stand behind it, it would be a lost cause. Very unsatisfied customer. K Lahey in Missouri

I have an FPX 44DVXXL and I too have issues with the quality. It works just fine for heating a large area when the fans are working. This is the big issue...The bearings are a junk design and do not retain lubrication well at all.They need service every year. The prices these fellas get for this job are pretty high and so I have done the service. This year I have had to service the fans twice. The reheostat for the blower control did not work from day one. The piezo ignihter was faulty after the first year due to the improper assembly at the factory. The snap switch well it to is a joke has not worked since day one. The problem as I see it is Travis. The warranty begins the day it is installed not the day it is placed into service, lit off. If you are the one building the house and in this case I was. It was three years before I lit it and the warranty was null and void and no help came from the SPA Brokers from whom I bought this unit from. I will admit it is a great looking stove. Would I buy another...not if it was made by Travis industries. their willingness to communicate is terrible. B Edwards in Evergreen, Colorado

I concur if your looking for a fireplace look else were. On initial install the Circuit board failed and was replaced. The next season the same thing. Circuit board failed a gain and was replaced at my cost. Now after a month of use the 3rd circuit board has gone up. This green smart technology is great if it would work. This starts with the accent lights not working. Than the blower stops and then the fireplace stops working all together. Each time its been the circuit board that had to be replaced. The circuit board is 340.00 including labor. R. Bledose Bel Air, MD.

I have a Travis Greensmart gas fireplace that has not worked right since the day it was installed. The sensors go out continually; I have had at least 3 service calls per heating season. To make things worse, on windy summer days it also breaks! Repair guy says it a voltage issue. I also tried to contact Travis Industries with out success. Would not recommend this company's product; I will be purchasing a different gas fireplace insert because I am tired of putting band-aid after band-aid on it only to have it fail repeatedly.

Have the 864 High Output FPX and have had it since we renovated our house & expanded mit from 1200 sq ft to 3200 sq ft. We use FPX as 2nd source of Heat in our home and with GENSET in case of power outages to keep us safe and warm. We have had NONE of the problems you guys have. We bought our unit from Acme Stoves of Charlottesville & we burn LP Gas in it. It has performed hassle free although we have had some minor problems with the Acumen IJ remote control that came with unit. To this unit my wife and I purchased a ceramic stone mantel and put it on a raised hearth in the corner of our family room.
The FPX and mantel commands the center of attention in that room; as we like to READ and have no TV in that room on purpose ! Sometimes you like to sit back with a good book and enjoy the peace and quiet of our tranquil location in the Countryside. Thank You Travis Industries for making a fireplace that can heat 2000 sq ft of our home with no problem. When running this unit we normally run it for 1 hour with a ceiling fan ( Cathedral ceiling 12 ft high and the room with the blowers will have that room 35ft x25ft at a toasty 80 degrees inside when the outside temps are in the 40's . If we ran it for another 2 -3 hours and open the doors to the other sections of the house we can achieve 84 degrees in 3 hours time to the additional sq footage of the home. This unit is truly High output.

We purchased a model 564SS gas fireplace several years ago. When we first used it the chemical smell was terrible. After airing out the house we contacted the dealer who sent someone out to check it. His only suggestion was to run it for several days to burn off manufacturing oils and allow the paint to cure. We let it run for several days. It's now been several years and we still can't use it for more than 30 minutes before the irrating smell fills the house. This unit replaced an old Heatilator that would quickly warm the first floor. This model is pretty, like the remote control but heat output is terrible even with the blower on high. There are other manufacturers out there and I would definitely consider them first. The model I bought is pretty but not functional. I am going to replace it with something that works the way it is supposed to.

Safety Note: I purchased a Berkshire GS2 (natural gas) and had it installed by a professional. It seems to be working just fine. Recently I had an energy audit by MASS SAVE and the inspector discovered that the exhaust contained 148ppm of CO, which is way above what the state allows (100-400 ppm fails). It failed the inspection. The Air Shutter had been set to produce the flame described as correct on Page 24 of the Owners Manual . The installer came out and set the air shutter to maximum air and that reduced the CO to 18 ppm and it passed inspection this time. The flame looks pretty much what is described in the picture, but missing the orange component. I think you should not encourage setting the orange component because it indicates incomplete burning thereby capable of producing CO. Please see the attached report.

We just had an 864 TRV installed and the pilot light sound like a blow torch. It is extremely loud. The technician couldn't do anything to quiet it. Also the blower doesn't blow air out. If we hold a tissue in front of the unit with the blower on high it barely moves. It takes hours to raise the temperature 3 degrees in a 12 by 20 room. Has anyone had these same problems and if so how did you fix them.

The 864 TRV is built first for esthetics and offers a small amount of heat. The 864HO is the furnace rated unit and meant for heat for and esthetics next. The 864HO is quite a bit more money than the TRV. Your sales person should have explained this to you. In fact, as I read thru these complaints I believe that 95% of them are user errors. Its not the users fault. Its the salesperson or hearth company's fault. They should have taken the time and instructed you on how to use the product. And like a General Motors vehicle, when you have a problem with it you take it to the dealer, not Detroit. I would guess that Travis knows very little about the issues most of these users are having. We have been Travis dealers (among numerous other brands), for many years and have had great success and service from them. I currently have a Travis in my home and have never had service. My new house should be completed in less than 3 months and it has 3 Travis products in it. I am that confident. I would call the manufacturer if I were you folks and skip the dealer all together.

If the dealer misrepresents the product and the product is dysfunctional - what are our chances of the company replacing the unit ?
We didn't want the 564 because we didn't want to risk it not heating enough. This is our "furnace", so we wanted the 864. But the dealer sold us the clean face unit. Telling us it would be more than enough. ( we found out this week it has the same BTU as the 564, we bought it in July) our home is 1080 square feet and it still has trouble heating, it will NOT heat up to 72 degrees. Now after several months of calling them out because - it seemed like it was going to explode when it lit, or the unit would shut off( back lights, flame everything, just like we hit the power button, and it was still several degrees below set temp), it doesn't heat to set temp, the flame would be lit than shut down and come right back on (total time span of about 10 to 15 seconds) it took them over 2 months to get a part (the mother board was replaced) we burned our "back-up" heat unit out which is also our A/C unit while waiting for the part(additional $2000.oo to replace that - it was a pump unit, we bought the fireplace because we new the pump unit couldn't handle It, than had to use it any way ...). Replacing the part "sort of helped". Still doesn't heat ( we got stuck with the wrong unit and that unit won't meet specs) Then I had tall flames and sparks going up the duct, and the %$@ thing wouldn't power off. Yes I did give it time to "respond" and was standing at the unit holding the remote about a foot away from the sensor - it took about a total of 10 minutes ( I pushed power - nothing, so I turned temp down below room temp- nothing - it finally responded after the 3rd or 4th time I pushed power. When they came out they adjusted the flame but couldn't guarantee us the power wouldn't do that again. And showed me where the shut off valve is inside then unit. And told us we can't use the smart mode. UMMM - maybe I'm wrong but I believe I should be able to use my manual for the unit...And if the unit doesn't "match" my manual than wouldn't that mean it is a dysfunctional unit ?
Keep in mind - the total usage time has been maybe 4 to 5 weeks( calculating time from before we made first call till now) We obviously didn't need to run it in July, but did need it in Nov. It ran for 2 wks., wasn't in use for 2 months(waiting for part) and it still doesn't work and personally it makes me feel unsafe at this point. Last we heard the area sales rep took our info back to his office and we have to wait for him to contact us - that was only 2 days ago, so we are hoping he will not put this on the shelf and let it get dusty.
And -- my hubby is sleeping, I might have left some things out.

Do you have the phone number, we can only find the email address - we emailed 2 weeks ago and haven't received a reply. Ours has been adjusted and tweaked, God knows how many times, it doesn't "match" the manual - personally if I can't use my manual it proves the unit is dysfunctional !

I forgot to add : the DEALER has adjusted and tweaked...

http://www.whitepages.com/business/travis-industries-inc-mukilteo-wa

PHONE NUMBER----------http://www.whitepages.com/business/travis-industries-inc-mukilteo-wa

This company runs without any ethics and they operate with complete dishonesty. From false advertising to how poorly they treat their employee's. Do yourself a favor; don't buy Travis products

I purchased a pellet stove and had it professionally installed by Stoves and stuff in north eastern pa.
It doesn't even make my living room which is not even half the size the specs say the stove can handle warm.
If I run it in medium I'm literally at around 64 degrees and if I want to get it a little higher I have to run it full blast and burn thru pellets at a ridiculous rate.
Besides this the air control had to be replaced the first week of the installation.
I basically gave up this thing is a piece of #### and I should have bought a cheap Home Depot stove. I am willing to bet it would put perform the garbage can I paid thousands for.
What a waste of money this thing is.
I would not recommend dealing with this company.

We purchased a 564 HO in 2014 and it doesn't produce the type of heat that was advertised. Our friends have a gas nsert from Travis purchased in 2004 and it will run you out of the room very quickly and it has less BTU output than ours. Our houses are the same plan so the rooms with the fireplaces are identical. Our fireplace was installed with 8" pipe. Travis Industries suggests 6" but says 8" should work. Our flame is a larger, yellow aesthetic type flame; whereas, our friends fireplace is a very small, blue flame. I know enough about flame to know that a yellow flame has less oxygen, thus, less heat. We paid to have a dealer technician come out and look at the unit and he was not able to find anything. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I recently purchased the 564SS model as it was the only one that would fit my opening as a replacement. I was limited as to what I could purchase to fit the opening of my 1980's pre fab fireplace, so I looked and looked for something that I would like to look at and enjoy and also heat my main floor should the power go out. I haven't been able to actively use the stove yet as I'm still under construction but in just the first 10 minutes when the installer was explaining the remote to me and how to use it...The remote looks like it's from the 80's...so big and bulky. Also, you can not just choose the mode you want to turn on or adjust...you need to scroll through the options every time til you get to the one you want. When it comes to the settings of the flame, it makes absolutely no sense to me as to why the large back flame only has a low or high setting, and the tiny flame in the front has 5 different settings to make it from a glow to a small flame. I would think that the small flame would have like 3 settings, and the larger flame should have at least 3 settings or 4 for the varied heights of it since it is the bigger of the two. Just does not make sense who designed this unit. And the flame pattern is lacking as well. I like a fire that "dances" but this one just shoots up through the gaping hole in the middle since the log formation is not tight enough and leaves a large hole in the center. I haven't tried to see if it heats a room yet because that room was not useable during the winter months when it ws under construction. I had planned on purchasing a Bed and Breakfast unit for the bedroom but now I'm rethinking the whole thing since it will have the same old outdated looking chunky "johnny-one-note" kind of technology. I certainly hope the President of this company reads these complaints on here so he knows what his reputation is defending.

Please let me know what other information you need.

I have had my Travis industries 564 HO GSR2 natural gas fire place, is 4 years old and have had to replace the burner 3 times because of small cracks in the burner. Is this normal?
If yes, do you have a more robust burner I can put in next time that will last 5+ years?

I have a 5 year old 564ss green smart propane fireplace which just exploded! Luckily no one was in the room. It blew the glass off and broke the upper glass retainer clips. My propane service guy said this is a design fault and should have been corrected years ago. If you have one of these with the pilot that is not on constantly make sure it lights within a short period of time. If it doesn't shut off the unit and call the service people. two years ago the fan failed. It took two service visits to find the loose connection. I'm considering calling a lawyer!

I bought a Travis Bed and Breakfast fireplace insert in 2003. I'm getting it serviced for the first time this year. I've uses it every winter since I bought it. I'd say it was worth the purchase price.

Don Mallik