I’m hoping this post finds at least one person who is looking into purchasing a Biomass Direct or Fisher Stoves wood boiler. If that person is you, please for your financial well-being read on. Biomass Direct as well as Fisher Stoves up until a year or two ago operated under the name Timber Ridge and sold the Free Heat Machine. I purchased a Timber Ridge outdoor boiler in 2008. I won’t get into all my issues with water leaks and repairs and ultimately the fact that I will need to purchase a new boiler after only 4 years of use, that would just take way too long.
So why should you BEWARE of Biomass Direct LLC ? Well,….. as they operated Timber Ridge they promised you a 20 year warranty. That’s what attracted me to their company in the first place. What I didn’t know was that they do this on a regular basis. It seems anyone in Tennessee can start a company, promise the world and then declare bankruptcy to avoid any responsibility for the products they sell and then turn right around under a new name and sell the exact same product. I’m out over $10,000.00 on a boiler because they continually produce and sell a substandard product under multiple business names all with the protection of the Tennessee Consumer Affairs Bureau. Why with their protection? Well after alerting them to this issue they said there is nothing they can do. Imagine that, they can’t do anything about a company that scams consumers, declares bankruptcy to void their warranties, starts a new business and sells the same product in a different package. What are they there for? Believe me when the warranty issues start to arise in a few more years with the Biomass Direct or Fisher Stoves outdoor boilers, they will close up shop again and be protected from any responsibility and just start another company. You WILL have issues with any stove they sell you, it’s just a matter of when, not if!
Of course they will dispute this claim, they want your money after all…. this is what they do, they swindle people like you and me. They’ll say I didn’t take care of it properly or burnt things other than wood, they’ll need to discredit this post. Don’t believe them!!
Save yourself a small fortune on a bad investment and look elsewhere. Make sure you check into any company that sells outdoor boilers and see how long they have been in business. If it’s only a few years stay away. If they say they have sold units for years, ask to see a copy of their licence of incorporation or proof of DBA from a government office. Contact that states Consumer Affairs Bureau to see if they have had any complaints.
You can find a lot of interesting reading on the former Timber Ridge now Biomass Direct LLC with a simple Google search. Here are a few links to some.
http://fahrner.us/blog-mind-of-alan/44-alan-reviews/138-free-heat-machine-29-gallons-5-moose scroll down to the complaints
More complaints http://www.topix.com/forum/city/portage-wi/T52H4OD6QJ51B5HBK
Yet another http://outdoorwoodfurnaceinfo.com/forum/index.php?topic=2052.0
There are more site to read and videos on Youtube to watch but I think you get the picture.
Above all else notice the guy in the video…. he is the same one in all the videos of Timber Ridge, Fisher Stoves and Biomass Direct, Larry’s his name. Ask yourself this one question if your still thinking of purchasing one of their boilers. Why would the same guy be in the videos of three different companies and one no longer exists? If I can stop one person from giving Larry another dime on his crooked business practice with Biomass Direct and Fisher Stoves then I have accomplished way more than the Tennessee Consumer Affair Bureau has done or is willing to do.
And Larry if your reading this…… justice will find one one day, bank on it!!
If you were scammed by Larry Boyd dba Timber Ridge please leave a comment we would love to hear from you as I’m sure a possible future customer of Biomass Direct would also.
Post Note: 2/24/2013
I have been getting quite a bit of feedback both here and on other forums on the net about Larry Boyd and his business practices. I would roughly estimate that this post has stopped at least 5 sales of his outdoor boilers. Those 5 are only the ones I know of directly, hopefully we have stopped others as well that did not leave a comment or email me. The fact that he is posting on other forums about what a great product he has means we are making a dent in his business and I couldn’t be happier. It’s to bad Tennessee Consumer Affairs won’t step up to the plate and put him out of business. If your still in doubt of buying one of these units please read the comments section below. If you have any information on another company name change Larry Boyd is operating please let me know so I can adjust the blog and search engine key words. Good luck to all of you and thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment.
I was not a customer of Timber Ridge, Inc. but I was an employee. I worked with this man for over 10 years. When Timber Ridge closed down, I was amazed. Tim Arrowood has been touted as the bad guy. This is not TRUE, Tim lost his home and everything he had because of Larry Boyd. I will try to explain why I was a part of Biomass Direct and did not find out how bad Larry treated Tim, because he did the same to me and my friend. I was the bookkeeper for Timber Ridge (FREE HEAT MACHINE). Not long after Timber Ridge closed, Larry came to me and my friend and said that he wanted to open a new outdoor wood furnace company. He had no money and could not get a loan. My friend and I decided to do this with the verbal agreement that we would be partners and as soon as the new company got on its feet, we would begin to help the people that lost money at Timber Ridge. Larry agreed to this. NEVER DO ANYTHING WITHOUT IT BEING IN WRITING! I know this but I trusted this “Christian” man. We started Biomass Direct, LLC with Larry. My friend and I put over $75,000 into this new company. Everything went fine the first year. We had started making a little money and we were starting to pay ourselves back. We did not take any type of salary or compensation other than the payments on our credit cards and some payments against the cash that we had loaned the company. This is what we lived on. This past May, Larry decided that he owned the company and that we were not partners and had no say in Biomass Direct. He would not pay anything on what we were owed. We were devastated. We could not believe that this man that we prayed with every morning could do this. Now, again, if we had been smart we would have stayed with the company until all of our money had been paid back. On the advice of our attorney (we went to him to find out what we could do to get our money back,) we resigned from the company. We attempted to sue him but our attorney wanted a huge retainer and could not guarantee that we would even get a penny because he could hide any money that he made. We did not have the money (we had put everything in Biomass Direct) so we could not pursue the suit. Larry Boyd has no conscience, he will say anything to get what he wants and once he gets it, will dump you like a hot potato. He still owes us over $35,000. We are dead in the water and will never see it. I know that eventually he will get what he deserves but it is really hard to wait. Better Business Bureau,, Tennessee Consumer Affairs and other TN agencies will not help you. Do your research. There is plenty of information on the web that will tell you what kind of man you are dealing with. When Timber Ridge closed, there was over $55,000 in deposits from people like you that never received their merchandise. That was one of the requirements for us to start the new business, my friend and I wanted to make sure that these people either got a furnace or their deposits returned. Obviously, that did not happen.
Sharon I so appreciate your post on the blog, I’m sure it will help at least one person with their decision not to purchase anything from Larry Boyd of Biomass Direct. I feel for you being out so much cash and knowing the likelyhood of having it returned isn’t looking good. It’s a shame the government agencies in Tennessee as well as other states protect people like him and don’t look out for the consumers and the honest people in this world. Good luck in the future and thank you for stopping by. Jeff
I bet Larry is going to have a response to this soon he is doing it on other sites WORD IS GETTING OUT ON GOOD OLE LARRY BOYD!!!!!!
Ya gotta love it!!
Jeff
Thank you so much for starting this blog. I like you and many had a leaks within the first few years and never got repairs or straight answers from Larry Boyd.
Did you read the Biomass Direct 2012 Official Statement–it states Larry Boyd was only an unknowing employee. NO WAY!!!!
You need to look at the Timber Ridge, Inc.’s Voluntary Petition in the United States Bankruptcy Court Eastern District of Tennessee filed in 2007 under Section 21 “Current Partners, Officers, Directors and Shareholders” Mr. Boyd is listed as Secretary of the Corporation owning 49% of the stock in the corporation. Did Mr. Boyd make false claims on this federal document or false claims in the official statement? The link to view the document and verify this information is:
http://bankrupt.com/misc/tneb07-51472.pdf
Jeff
I also checked with the state of Tennessee and the 2007 bankruptcy for Timber Ridge was Chapter 11 (reorganization for their debt). Larry and Timber Ridge continued to sell to me and you in 2008 and many more until by the end of 2010 the many warranty problems not addressed, they closed for good voiding all warranties and freeing up Larry to start the new companies Biomass Direct/Fisher Stoves.
John did you read the comment on this blog from his former employee. She really fills in the blanks on what kind of person he really is.
Jeff I did read the comments from Sharon Davenport. I had talked with her when she was at Timber Ridge and always she tried to help me. The last years she was at Timber Ridge her husband had cancer was on hospice before he died. I was sorry to learn she was treated so badly by Larry
Jeff,
Here is the latest on Larry Boyd. I just left the Elizabethton Police Department. It seems that Larry Boyd filed a police report on September 26, 2012 saying that I sent an email to a prospective customer with a link to the websites that provide negative information on Timber Ridge and Larry Boyd and am ruining his future business. What more can this man do to me? The email was from J Grant. Mr. Grant, would you please come forward and tell me who you are. The emails were sent by you from my ip address. I don’t know how this is possible but maybe you do. Thank you.
Jeff you are right about one thing. Where are the laws in this country going when someone can steal your money and then file a police report against you?
Sharon, I certainly hope I’m not causing you any grief. I don’t know J. Grant I hope he contacts you on this. As far as Mr. Boyd aka Scumbag it’s certainly nice to know people are finding out what he’s like before they get ripped off. Let me know how things go with you and if you need a statement against Boyd for the police you know where to ask.
Thank you so much. We know that he will get what he rightfully deserves eventually. I appreciate all of your support. I will keep you and your family in my prayers.
I have one of the free heat machine mistakes it is cracked and leaking. I live in indiana and i called the tennessee consumer affairs division this morning. they said they have no complaints for larry,free heat machine,biomass direct or fisher stoves. thank you for coming foward Sharon somebody has to stop this from happening to hard working people like us. Somehow pressure needs to be applied to consumer affairs and other divisions in tennessee to stop him. anybody have any ideas? Thanks
Obviously Tennessee Consumer Affairs isn’t any better at treating people than Larry Boyd is. I know for a fact they have complaints because I was one of them. I would push them harder. Give them my name. If I can find the response they sent me I’ll post it. I don’t believe I saved it since it was a worthless response. Good luck!
Good Lord!! I was looking into maybe buying one of these stoves. After reading about wonderful Mr. Larry I doubt there is a snowballs chance in Hell that I will buy a stove from him. Thankyou everyone for saving me thousands of dollars and extra large headaches. This sounds like fraud to me. If he was in this my state and pulling this crap he would be in jail!! Well you know what they say, what goes around comes around. Hopefully he gets his in the end!
Jeff,
Very glad we could of helped and saved you a bad headache, definitely look elsewhere. Jeff
Thanks for these posts. I was also looking to buy not one but two of these furnace’s. When looking at their web page I thought these look like the greatest wood furnace’s made. It’s a shame. Anyone have advice for a great wood furnace.
John thanks for stopping by. Looks can be deceiving and some salesman can make you believe anything. He’s really a top notch scam artist, I hope you read the other responses on here, especially the one from his book keeper which really paints a picture of who he really is. Bottom line…… I’m glad I saved you a future headache. I don’t know which stoves are good as I haven’t researched any. I would look for a company that has been around for at least 10 years and then thouroughly check them out with the BBB and their local government agencies to see how long they have been registered as a legit business. Good luck!!
Thank you for the info, service and saving some of us problems down the road. I did read what Sharon said about Larry Boyd. I feel for her. Its a shame
Here is Biomass Direct phone # 1-866-375-9535
Man I wish I could have read this before I bought one. O well I am a welder and I could fix a leek If needed to. I been having good luck with mine so far. I just hope it stays like that. But I promise I would not have bought one if I had knew anything about the man.
Lee I wish you had read this first as well, he’s not a man of any of good character. It will probably be year three or four that you start having issues. What I would do is clean it out spotless this summer and weld another skin on the inside over what’s there. I would also cut off those three pipes going across the ceiling and patch over those. You don’t need those for water circulation and that will be the first place a leeak starts. I’ll bet on that. I had them removed in mine (had to as they fell apart) and patched and the unit works fine so far. More than likely I’ll be cleaning mine before next heating season and having the rest of the inside sheeted with 1/4 inch steel. Good luck!!
We also are on our second freeheat machine here in Ohio. The first one had internal leak from the fabricated crossover tubes. Now the second one has external leaks. The thing that find interesting is the material was to be Stainless Steel, but I have encountered RED rust. Stainless steel produces white corrosion, NOT RED RUST.I plan on tearing my free heat machine down this summer and building it the way he should have. No wonder he wouldn’t give us a tour of the plant when we were there to pick up our second stove.
If Biomass/Fisher stove is stating EPA compliance and its not maybe I will call the US EPA
This guy needs to be stopped if not by the state maybe by the federal goverment. I would think that all assets could be divided amoung all of us if we all get together, before he crawls under another rock.
Joe,
From what I’ve learned through this whole ordeal is stainless is even more of a headache than steel. Check into that before you do any replacement. I read quite a bit and if I’m understanding it correctly stainless doesn’t expand and contract as well as steel. The expansion and contraction causes very fine cracks in the material which from what I’ve heard is a total pain to patch. My first leak was at the same crossover tube you mentioned. I eliminated those and patched the spot over I also put a whole new layer of 1/4 inch steel halfway up the sides and back. Knock wood…………. its been working fine since and actually seems more effiecient. I spent quite a bit getting it back in working order and plan to have the guy come back next Fall to weld another skin of 1/4 inch in the top half of the firebox. If you have the time it certainly wouldn’t hurt going to the EPA. I would love to hear how you make out as I’m sure would everyone else who seems to be finding this blog. I would like to think that some agency somewhere will eventually close his business down and press charges for fraud. Good luck and thanks for stopping by.