A Better Chimney

John Conway

2023-12

3 season old pellet stove was shutting down prematurely. According to manufacturer, an exhaust system blockage was likely. Called A Better Chimney to discuss options. While root cause of problem could not be diagnosed without fixing downstream insufficiencies first, appointment was made reasonably quickly for start of heating season. Exhaust piping was corrected (see before and after photos). Before going right to blower motor(s), a control sensor was removed, cleaned and put back in. Same premature shutdown. Control sensor replaced with new one, everything works as it should. Got to root cause without replacing expensive parts willy nilly. Inadequate old exhaust system highly likely contributed to sensor failure. Final cost was in line with estimate. No one likes spending money without some assurance it will prevent hassles into the future. With luck, we should be good for another decade! Thank you to the A Better Chimney crew (Tami, Derek and Trevor) who did beautiful work and got everything working together!

Elliott Alexivitch

2024-01

I rate this place zero stars. I went there when my family was cold. I needed a 6-in chimney elbow single wall. I have to take it out of the garbage pile in the backyard and they charge me $90 for it. It was disgusting. They took advantage of me and my family because we were cold. I will never go here again and I will recommend anyone to go to home Depot

Vandy Starkweather

2023-05

Shawn and Joey came to clean my 7 year old fireplace insert chimney, and to my surprise, it didn’t need it. They explained that my gas stove chimney was never going to need cleaning, but the burner would need inspection next spring. So I scheduled an inspection for next April. They were so nice, and very knowledgeable. I recommend them highly. I feel confident that A Better Chimney can make my stove/fireplace last for many years. Thanks A Better Chimney!

Ruth West

2023-05

Shawn and Joey of A Better Chimney are the best!! I am new to pellet stoves, and was way out of my league in trying to figure out why I was getting low flame, and basically no heat. Shawn gave me a good course on how my stove works, and how to keep it running efficiently. The fix was easy, and they were finished within half an hour!!For all of your pellet stove needs, or any other heating stove, I highly recommend A Better Chimney, you will be glad you did.

Rod Wagley

2023-05

Tami and Derek came and cleaned our stove and chimney efficiently without a bit of dirt or soot hitting the floor!! They re-educated us on how to use the stove to achieve more efficient heat thus saving money on pellets. We appreciate this as much as the outstanding service they provided! Grateful for this kind of customer service!!!!!

C Wood

2021-05

This is a great local business that is able to do many types of jobs. I have had 8 jobs done by this business. I am very happy with the results. I have had pellet stoves put in. I have had my dryer re-vented. I have had an air conditioner installed. I have had roofing and gutters fixed. I have had them repair damage done in my attic from past leaks. I also have my services done for my pellet stove and for my dryer cleaning yearly. If something is not safe, they will tell you. If they feel you are going to end up fixing and re- fixing an old stove, they will tell you it may be in your best interest to buy a new stove. This paid off big time for me. I have a MAX pellet stove now and am SO happy. I wanted the pretty ones but they just were not efficient or did not heat enough. Finally, I took James advice and got the MAX. Heats awesome. Holds more than one bag at a time, and they put it on a remote thermostat ( it is so worth it)!! I like to sip on my tea and just press the button when I want extra heat or a fire. They are patient with customers and friendly. The pellets they sell are sometimes a little bit more expensive but less waste in my stove to clean and they burn better to create much more heat. They also deliver pellets and will even stack them exactly as you would like in any place inside or out of home!I have also enjoyed a couple pellet barbecue grills that they sell. But my favorite is my fire pit that I can set up or fold up and take camping. Runs off propane, and is so pretty.

Donna Martin

2023-05

A better Chimney has been excellent to me. From buying the stove, to cleaning and maintaining it as well as purchasing my pellets. They even offer delivery. We've done business for 25 years with them.

Kathleen Gilmore

2021-05

We are new to Silver City and of course this is our first winter here. Coming from a warm city like Tucson, AZ, seeing a pellet stove was very new to us. We had run it a few times but it just did not warm the house the way it should. I called in and made an appointment for a good cleaning on the stove and pipes. Tammy came out and wow what an amazing tech!! She new as soon as she drove up our system was bad news. She cleaned the stove and it looked brand new. While checking over the pipe stack she noticed quite a few things wrong and recommended we do not run the stove and get the pipe stack and some of the venting pipes replaced. They called me the next day and scheduled me right away for the much needed repairs. The crew was amazing and did such a wonderful job. The stove is working so well now. You don't find many family run small businesses much anymore but these folks are top notch and I would not think to go anywhere else. Thank You for such great customer service.

charlyhors

2023-05

We were new to Silver City, fixing up a single wide mobile home. We wanted to replace our wood stove with a pellet as it was old and messy. Having lived in small towns before, we always try to support local merchants when possible. So we went to Better Chimney.Unlike you, wise reader of Google reviews, I did not read their online reviews. As of todays date, there are 9 reviews of 1, the lowest score, out of 20 total reviews. After today, that will be 10 lowest possible reviews. That should tell you everything you need to know about them.They sold us one of their most upscale stoves for our small home. $5900 for the stove and new chimney piping. I thought it was a high price, but went ahead with it. Didnt want to fiddle with a job that could be dangerous if done wrong, even though I'm a capable DIYer. Since we already had a through the roof jack for the old wood stove I told them to just connect the new piping through the existing roof jack.We had it installed in summer of 21 so we'd be ready for the winter heating season. I began using the stove in September of 21. Almost every time we used the stove, a red warning light would come on saying High Temperature Flue. Once the red light came on, the stove blowers would not function correctly. I would have to unplug the entire stove to reset it to make it work again. Then the red light would appear again and I'd have to unplug and replug to get it to go through another burn cycle.They came out several times to try to fix that, but were never successful. They would tell me nothing was wrong with it. By mid November, and I was still heating by house with our gas furnace. They became surly and told me that the warranty was void, so I began contacting the stove manufacturer, Thelin. At that point, they offerred to take back and refund the stove, but leave the existing pipe for which we had paid $1100. I took that offer to be done with the rude and incompetent service we had received there.By then I had read the Many negative google reviews of their company, and decided to buy and install a new stove myself. I purchased a new pellet stove elsewhere and consulted their instructions. The first thing I noticed was that the manual said that 4" pipe was needed for high altitudes, as the air is thinner and you need more air flow or you would have a dangerously hot flue. That was when I noticed that Better Chimney had installed 3" pipe on our stove, as well as putting in two 45 degree bends to make the stove fit to the existing roof jack. All of a sudden I understood why their stove installation flashed a red high temp flue warning. They had used inadequate sized pipe for this 6000' elevation.I had to rip out their entire pipe installation and put in 4" stove pipe to the tune of $800 and my own labor. By moving the stove about 4 inches off center on the hearth, I was able to run the new pipe straight up to the roof jack. I placed a container of pellets on the wider side of the hearth, and it looks perfectly centered now.I also learned from the stove instructions that a cleanout T should have been placed at the rear of the stove to make chimney cleaning easy. Just screw off the bottom of the T and run a brush up and down and the pipe cleaning was a snap. Better Chimney simply installed a right angle pipe with no cleanout T, which makes cleaning harder. Cleanout Ts are a standard of any pellet stove installation.I installed my new $1700 stove and $800 4" chimney pipe, and heated my house from January on with no problems of any sort. After heating season was over, I completed my own pipe and stove cleaning to the manual instructions, which required some disassembly and cleaning of the blower, burn pots, and pipes. Not a pleasant job, but it is now clean and waiting to once again work flawlessly for another season.This is a job you can do yourself if you're fairly handy. If not, most handymen or carpenters could do this job better and cheaper than Better Chimney. Rude and incompetent is my experience with them.

Barry McCokinner

2023-11

I'll not go into details lest one of these individuals decide to threaten me for leaving an honest review.Call folks in Las Cruces, stay away from ABC.Edit to add:Of course you have no record of doing business with me. I purposely used this account to leave a review because you have no record of it, thus you cannot dox, threaten, or harass me.You folks are some real pieces of work.

molly swan

2022-05

I went to A Better Chimney because I wanted advice from pros about installing vent pipes for a pellet stove I bought somewhere else. The employee was rude and seemed hostile towards me. They looked up my stove and sold me 3 inch pipes. When I looked at the installation video online it said that 4 inch pipes were required. I called a Better Chimney and told them about this and asked if that was true. The worker checked with the owner who told him to tell me 4 inch pipes were preferable. When I came to return the 3 inch pipes they insisted on charging me a 15% restocking fee. I asked the owner to waive this fee since I had gone to them as the experts to tell me what pipes I needed and they had mislead me. He offered to waive the fee if I could show him in writing that the stove required 4 inch pipes. The YouTube video on the website of the Pelpro stove company states clearly that 4 in exhaust pipes are required above 3000’ sea level, however the users manual does not say it. Therefore he would not return the 15% restocking fee which amounts to over $100. He also recalled that I had taken a picture of the installation diagram which they had in a book on their counter when I first bought the pipes. He was displeased about this. I simply wanted instructions for how to install the pipes. There were no other instructions offered.This company is very begrudging of sharing information. Part of his excuse for withholding the 15% restocking fee is that I had wasted his and his employees valuable time. There was no consideration for my valuable time that was also wasted.Their prices for vent parts are quite a lot higher than Ace or Tractor Supply.

Elizabeth Evangel

2023-05

Tammy and her crew were professional and on time. It was great to get my fire insert going and they were great about showing me how to operate the insert. Thanks for the great job.

Peter Gutierrez

2021-05

Awesome service, took a ride in my Motorcycle from Canutillo to get pricing on supplies need for my wood insert stove, quote was done quick, sent the quote to my contractor to confirm all parts were in the quote and they were. Picked up the parts a week after and they were seperated ready to go, also they helped me load up my supplies to my SUV. Veteran Discounts included, don"t buy anywhere else unless you talk them first, great customer service and very knowledgeable .

Kimberly Madrid

2023-05

Tami was seriously amazing, I am truly grateful for her positive attitude and the great work she did for me on our pellet stove. Thanks again Tami you deserve a raise.

Valerie Berry

2021-05

The team at A Better Chimney got our 20 year old pellet stove running again. The process wasn't without its challenges. Our stove needed a new ignitor and due to the age it had to be ordered. Before ordering the ignitor, Shawn informed us of the price and confirmed with us before moving forward. It was also discovered our stove was piped incorrectly (NOT by A Better Chimney) so that also needed fixing. The team said our stove was in good shape and didn't attempt to sell us a new one which we appreciated. Everyone was very knowledgeable, answered our questions, and kept us in the loop during the entire process.

Bobby Houston

2021-05

Called and no answer. So I went down there and the man told me that the product I was after was only available immediately in used form and was out back in the snow and could I come back another time. Fine I’m good. But customer service is not their forte. I am never going back there again. If you look in the response from the owner, I believe you will see the very attitude I was met with and understand why I bothered posting. I was in no way anything but polite to this man and even said "thank you" before leaving. Had he ever stopped to consider maybe I needed heat too and that's why I was wanting to do business with their shop? If the owner would have been decent in his response here, we could have easily worked this out. Name calling and lying is not going to get you anywhere in business. It's called CUSTOMER SERVICE. Hopefully, someday he'll learn about it.

Joe Sierra

2022-05

I use this place with all of my heating and outdoor cooking needs and they have never let me down. The friendliest most knowledgeable crew in town! Definitely recommend this place! The owner James is a great guy!

Camille Amador

2023-05

These people are great!!!! They come in and inspect my stove and chimney and do any NECESSARY maintenance!!!! Never feel taken for a ride. Only sell you what you NEED! So trustworthy ❤️Thank you.

Jim Kerstetter

2023-05

We've been dealing with A Better Chimney for many years, and they've always showed up on time and did a great job of cleaning the Chimney and cleaning up after themselves.

Karen Nakakihara

2018-05

My wife and I purchased a home in Silver City several months ago. The house had an old wood burning fireplace which we wanted to convert to a much more efficient gas insert. There are only two real choices for this sort of project in this area. A Better Chimney and a business in Las Cruces. I had heard mixed reviews of the local store (Better Chimney) so I checkout the establishment in Las Cruces. Let's keep it simple and just say that I was not impressed on many levels.I talked to James, the owner of the local concern and was treated with respect, given a number of options at a much better price, and found the Quadra brand that he handled to be of high quality.The sale and install were done promptly and to a high standard at a significantly lower price than the Las Cruces option. Buy local. It worked for us.

REBECCA S KELLER

2023-05

Better Chimney is always dependable and do a great job! I use them every year with no problems. Check them out!

Dortheia Lee

2023-05

They did great! Taught me so much about my stove. Highly recommend them, Tami and Derek are super!

Christine deBoer

2023-05

Thought our igniter was shot but Tammy & team revived our Lennox to life > gave it a thorough clean & we're in our comfort zone again! Thanks so much

Sb

2020-05

They looked at my cooler 7 minutes did nothing $75! Their ripoffs while they were looking at my moms their too stupid to replace a simple pipe now im going to contact the BBB and they used my ladder !

J D

2023-11

Tammy,was very professional and very knowledgeable. Customer serviceExcellent.Plan to replace my old stove with a new one through A Better Chimney .

Christopher Oneill

2023-05

The staff at A Better Chimney are amazing. They got our pellet stove up and running in no time.

stefaniej7781

2022-05

I’ve been dealing with James for a few years very professional and very good quality products I bought my pellet stove and pellet grill great products I buy all my pellets from them too thanks

Kendra Wolf

2020-05

Our pellet stove wasn't working right, they came right away and fixed the problem. They have always been a great business to work with. THANK YOU

Susan J McFeaters

2023-05

Tammy and Derek from A Better Chimney are awesome. I will continue to use their services annually.

Brian Edgin

2022-05

Sales lady was the rudest woman in the whole city. Their "quality" oak wood pellets were moldy and made out of pine. Everything in the store was a markup. Never again!