Triangle Tube Ceasing Operations

WOW. I guess that happens when you have a recall that big. Customer service is being handled online so far at techsupport@triangletube .com

All the stuff is online for now. How would like to go to work this morning and the doors are locked…. We are closed for business as of this morning!

1991. aren't there like regulations about this type of product that it has to be supported and such?

I work for a large-ish distributor of their product and we have no information on what happens next. The rep was informed this morning that they are closing effective immediately. reps are on for 30 days as is usual with rep agreements, some reps have stock and do not know if they are stuck with it or not!. Seems they are now in charge of playing PR as triangle tube hasn't made a public statement about it. not surprised, lack of accountability is a sign of poor leadership so it makes sense they are closing up.

Going to try to call the Ideal boiler number and see if they are still in business, Triangle tube is part of the same company as Ideal so if you need parts that would be a source!

Edit: Ideal phone number still active, they have distribution in the east coast and west coast, with the Triangle Tube brand name in the middle. Hopefully they are just transitioning everyone to the main brand name, any Instinct boilers you have installed should be very similar if not identical to the Ideal boilers.

i think it would be a liability that has to be covered in the bankruptcy case.

that stranded inventory might be better than money in the bank.

Tariffs bit them too hard? joining Oventrop and Adey out the door

man thats a bummer, I got a customer who has at least 5 boilers that are affected by the recall. They may be real sad tomorrow

If and when the parts run out, we'll be replacing boilers that could have gone on.

I'm sorry to see the company go like that. They've been with me my whole career.

Ideal and TT/ ACV are part of Group Atlantic a French company. I don't recognize any of their other brands? In the US.

What makes no sense to me is the boilers they were having problems with were the old "good design" (prestige) I haven't had issues with the "ideal built" instinct boilers with the exception of a board issue that caused slightly out of spec combustion on LP units, and that was during the first year they were being sold.

Im also curious about the fire tube design. I dont think I have it right, but for some reason I was told that TT designed and patented the fire tube design. Then they lost the patent. That sounds ridiculous anybody know the real story?

This is quite a surprise. I'm sad to see them go. Why couldn't it be Navien instead?

I really liked most of their boilers, the fire tube heat exchangers are easy enough to clean. Triangle Tubes controls were easy to use. I never had any problems with them.

The amount of stuff involved in correcting the recall was kinda ridiculous.

Tom, TT simply had an North America exclusive on the AIC firetube heat exchanger. TT did a couple stupid things and lost their exclusive. I heard this all from a higher up at AIC.

AIC manufactured it. Folks with IBC pre-intergas actually designed it and contracted AIC (though it may have been a different name at the time) to produce it. the manufacturer retolled machinery to make it and IBC sort of disappeared, the manufacturer decided to find a buyer since they had done all the retooling to make it. TT never manufactured their own, there was a corporate split with the heat exchanger manufacture and one of the offshoots greatly overstated their ability to weld stainless steel.

possibly parts like flame rods or ignition wire will be available from an aftermarket supp.ier. The control boards and burner parts, fan motor, gas valve, maybe not.

Look at Lochinvar also. The Knight has been around for 20 years now. Solid company, good rep network and distribution.

Ideal is a large brand in the UK, so maybe some parts could be sourced from there or other markets.

It sounds like TT branded boilers to the US is what is discountinued

That's what I thought at first also but after looking into it Ideal NA also shutdown at the same time. I also could not find the Instinct model on their UK website, that was probably the most common in-warranty Triangle Tube model here in the US. So it seems parts really just depend….. on what model you have, and how your local dealers/wholesalers are handling things. We still haven't made a firm choice on what to do with all the leftover units, but we are definitely going to hold inventory for warranty work on the boilers we sold up in Northern Michigan. Hopefully some other wholesalers are doing the same but I kind of doubt it, we are all out a ton of money from this….

"…Lochinvar, VIessmann Burnham, Weil Mclain. none of these brands can really skip out of the US as they are either based here or their parent company is based in the US (viessmann owned by carrier)…"

Oh ye of little faith in the ability/willingness of corporations to do whatever they conclude will benefit their bottom lines. 😊

The above companies are all 100 year old companies though. I suppose any company can go under, but what TT parent company did was pull out of NA entirely, leaving wholesalers to hold the debt while they skip town. Carrier can't do that without the entire company going under, AO smith can't do that without the entire company going under. They would both be liable to still provide warranty parts for the duration if they were to close Viessmann or Lochinvar in the US. Groupe Atlantic tried to pull a fast one by no longer doing business in NA, it's apples to oranges. It's very different than country of origin.