Complaint Review: Lochinvar - Lebanon Tennessee

Filed against :
Lochinvar Corporation                           (Complaint to BBB)
300 Maddox Simpson Parkway
Lebanon TN 37090

Complaint Description:
Problem date-10-14-2005 through 2-12-2010 Model # KBN 2000, 2 stage natural gas boiler Installed by Andrew's Heating and Cooling Price- $7697.00 After the installation of the Knight Boiler we were disappointed to say the least. We contacted Andrew's numerous times, so many in fact they have ignored our calls completely. I contacted Lochinvar Company and was referred to Tony McWillians, Lochinvar's representative.. He came out to inspect the unit and could not determine what the problem was either. He eventually also decided to ignore our emails and calls asking for help in resolving this problem. The system constantly would shut off and not work. It was also a constant battle with the temperature. It would never heat the house to the temp we had the thermostat on. When we asked why our house was still cold they said it was probably a glitch with the thermostat. They installed it when they installed the new boiler. I purchased separate temperature readers and set them above the thermostats. The thermostat was exactly the same reading as the temperature reader. Over the past 5 years this unit never worked consistently and when it did work it did not heat our home. I have a plethora of emails and call notes that have been saved over the past 5 years from Andrews, Tony Mc Williams and Lochinvar. I feel we have been award winningly patient with this. This January the boiler was making a funny noise and again it was not heating the house. We felt that we had exhausted the knowledge of Andrew's, Tony Mc Williams and Lochinvar so we called an Indianapolis company that specializes in boiler systems, Baker Mechanical Services. The technician immediately noticed that our PRV was bad. Another PRV needed to be ordered but he fixed the problem temporarily so we would have heat until the new one could be put in. After the temporary fix we noticed that we still were not heating properly. When the tech returned he checked out the reason for our lack of heat and noticed immediately that Andrews did not set the temp up on the boiler itself. It has been working at 60 degrees below where it should have been for 5 years. This caused the unit to never shut off except to shut down. Since the unit was serviced by Baker Mechanical and the temp was set at the right number the boiler has worked without fail. One of the Andrew's tech's told us that the Knight Boiler was a piece of crap. Of course, after our expense and frustration we were leaning to believe him. Even the Lochinvar rep was not capable in finding the temp problem on the occasions he came out. There have been parts replaced on the furnace but none were parts that we needed to fix the problem. I contacted Lochinvar several times. I feel it is only fair that Lochinvar pay for the actual repair of the boiler unit. Since the unit has never worked correctly in the five years we have had it and no one could find this problem. We have not only had a malfunctioning boiler we have higher heating bill due to the fact we kept the heat on constantly trying to get warm. I have contacted Lochinvar several times through emails and at first they said they felt they had done enough for us. I pointed out that what they did for us did not fix the problem. If we had purchased a car, (and we could have bought a used one for that amount of money )we could sue the company under the lemon law. There is protection for consumers. Now Lochinvar is completely ignoring communication with me. I believe that in the interest of the consumer they would make sure that we would have at least one winter with no problems with the boiler. We are only asking for the amount of the repair bill that finally fixed the problem. This is something that Lochinvar should have fixed 5 years ago or any of the years previous to this year. It seems that Lochinvar is now completely ignoring the obligation that should have been resolved 5 years ago.  I have filed a complaint with the BBB. Since filing the report the boiler has failed twice and has cost us another $1500 to get a repair person to fix it.  Lochinvar is avoiding all calls from us.  We cannot afford to keep this boiled but we can't afford to replace it either. So far we have $9,500 invested in this product and still no reliable heat.  Help!!!