Travis Industries
Reviews and Complaints

I have two units in my home, and have had nothing but trouble. The larger unit, Fireplace Xtrordinair 44 DV XXL has burned out a blower every year, apparently from poor design of the two blowers in back of the heat box overheating. Each time it has cost about $700-$800 for the "dealer" to replace them. For the past year the unit has been periodically turning off spontaneously while burning, which requires me to relight the pilot 6-10 times before the unit will stay on for awhile. The local "dealer" has come out many times, first to "realign the pilot flame" twice, then to replace the thermocouple, then to replace the gas valve...to the tune of about $2500 in parts and labor, and it still doesn't work. I have tried to contact Travis to talk to an engineer who might know what they are doing, but the dealer tells me Travis will not talk to me, will just refer me to him, and that is proving true. I am about to give up and junk this system, which is the key component to heating my house, and go to some sort of central heating. The product is clearly defective, and neither the company nor the dealer knows how to fix it.

I wish I had done my research I purchased this! I trusted the folks at Rich's for the Home to guide me to a quality insert. I paid $3, 203 for this, plus another large figure for the installation. It died 5 years later. I called for service and that was unaffordable and they couldn't come out for a month and a half. So I hired a "Jack of all trades" to handle it. That cost me $250 I had to drive to another city to buy two new blowers for $160+. I never would have bought this if I knew that it was built to only last 5 years.

We purchased a Travis DVL GSR2 NB insert and enjoyed it with no problems. The next fall we turned it on and it did not work. We were unable to get the initial authorized Travis installer/dealer out fix the insert so we called another authorized dealer on Travis's list. The insert had a faulty circuit board that was replaced. The new authorized dealer charged us $180 for the repair even-though we had only purchased the unit 11 months ago.

I'm looking at the paperwork I received when the insert was installed, it clearly states there is a 12 month warranty for parts and repair. I contacted Travis Industries and they said: "Many dealers have a service fee to perform warranty service, which is not covered by the appliance warranty. The warranty covers the labor once they are on site. "

So it appears they can call a fee by another name and charge you anyway.

We purchased this insert approximately 18 months ago and have already replaced the thermocouple 3 times due to its failure to ignite/allow the pilot light to remain on. It obviously seems to be a manufacturing problem and we would appreciate a resolution to this problem asap.
Thank you-
Carol Benecick

I have worked for these vermin for 17 years now. They have always played favorites and discriminated. But until this past year I have been treated ok. though out my history here they always told me what a great job I do. After changing jobs at their request they tried to take a week of my vacation pay away from me. They were not able to but the fact that they tried really hurt. This Co buys junk in china for pennies and then sells it for thousands(wonder why it doesn't work) They did strip away my Xmas bonus after finding out they could not take away my vacation pay. The nepotism here is sickening as well as how they treat hard working people. This place is all about crappy products and who you blow. Most of the managers would be flipping burgers if they didn't work here.

My wife and I purchased a Travis Industries Avalon wood pellet stove from Stoves and Stuff, in Emmaus PA, 5 years ago. We have done nothing but repair it for all 5 years. We have replaced numerous gaskets, a convection blower moter (less than a year ago), now it needs another convection blower motor and a new control panel. Once again numerous parts are failing. I have contacted the manufacturer, and as numerous other complaints by numerous other individuals state, the the service representatives (specifically one named Scott) are rude and not helpful. The store at which the product was purchased has been totally uncooperative in resolving the matter. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON A TRAVIS INDUSTRIES PRODUCT OR BUY ANYTHING FROM STOVES AND STUFF!

We bought a new house which had a gas fireplace installed 10 years ago. It looked great but after spending time going through the burn-in procedures recommended by the manual, the fireplace gave off a metallic odor that made it impossible to run the fireplace for more than a few minutes. Everyone in the house got head aches. We have 2 or 3 different local service technicians come look at the fireplace and none could figure out how to resolve the odor. We had it tested for gas leaks and carbon monoxide or other gases and all came back negative. The odor shows up almost immediately after the fireplace starts up. We carefully looked at all the materials installed around the fireplace and nothing was found that would resolve the problem.

Contacting the company did not solve the problem and having many (6 or more) technicians from multiple companies the fireplace is still unusable. I would not recommend buying any of their fireplaces or you may get burned!

This is an attractive gas fireplace. However, before purchasing one I urge the customer to open the door at the bottom of the fireplace, remove the panel and examine the mess behind. The rat's nest of wires is something not worthy of a high school science project. Also remove the battery tray on the right side. This should convince the customer to look for another unit.

I purchased and installed the blower after installing the fireplace. It is not an easy job, in large part because the instructions are so poor. I had to call customer service at least three times to get information not provided in the instructions.

The blower is controlled by a thermostat. After the fireplace has been producing hot air for at least 30 minutes, the blower is activated. It remains on blowing cold air long after the fireplace flame has been turned off. Replacing the thermostat with different settings made it activate sooner, but the blower still remains on longer than it should.

All this and more I sent in a letter to the president of Travis Industries. He didn't even acknowledge receipt of my letter.