Vermont Castings Defiant Draft Issue

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mikefunaro

Member
Jun 21, 2010
7
SNY, NWCT, WNH
Hi Everyone,

I have a somewhat new to me old school Vermont Castings Defiant stove. It is pre-epa and is from the early 80s AFAIK.

Everything was going great, burnt well over a cord in it this winter. Then coincident with some warm weather something changed. The stove started to emit a puff of smoke when I would open the door. More than anything it seemed like the chimney was partially blocked. I took the stove pipe apart and found a bit of creosote but nothing more. The chimney is a fairly large flue without any screen up top or anything like that.

I cleaned everything else, cleaned out the stove and all of that but am still getting poor drafting and it seems like the smoke is not leaving the stove all that efficiently. Any time I open the door there's really a good amount that's emitted.

IS there anything in the stove that could have gone wrong or worn out? Internal gaskets etc?

Please advise...

Mike
 
What is the stove venting into? Describe how the stove is connected and the chimney system including height and inner dimensions.
 
The stove vents immediately into some 8" single wall stove pipe, has about 3' of rise, then 1.5 ft lateral into a ceramic chimney which has been relined...shared flue with a propane furnace which heats for a small range of radiant..rise from point of stove entry to chimney top is about 15'.

The thing is that it's cooled off again and the situation hasn't got any better so I think something basically happened. The change wasn't gradual, it was a pretty marked difference between everything going good and no smoke and then all of a sudden I started getting a good bit of smoke whenever I opened the door.

These stoves also have a feature where you can burn with the front doors open as kind of like a fireplace...i tried that just to verify and had WAY more smoke than I normally would.

So i figure something went wrong either with the chimney or with the stove...
 
also just to clarify the primary chimney doesn't have any sort of screen in it, and when the stove is burning I can still see smoke coming out. I cant rule out some kind of blockage but it seems unlikely...roof is standing seam so going out on it isnt my idea of fun.
 
I have had it happen, metalbestos chimney on a Defiant II, that a thin layer of creosote flaked off in large flakes, with drastic ambient temp changes, nearly blocking flue...if the propane furnace is using the same FLUE, and not simply the same CHIMNEY, you not only need to be concerned about smoke spill from stove but also CO spill from propane appliance! Don't want to wake up dead...best check it out ASAP if that's the case. If only the stove--well, you could wait for a little nicer weather for climbing the roof.
 
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mikefunaro said:
The stove vents immediately into some 8" single wall stove pipe, has about 3' of rise, then 1.5 ft lateral into a ceramic chimney which has been relined...shared flue with a propane furnace which heats for a small range of radiant..rise from point of stove entry to chimney top is about 15'.

The thing is that it's cooled off again and the situation hasn't got any better so I think something basically happened. The change wasn't gradual, it was a pretty marked difference between everything going good and no smoke and then all of a sudden I started getting a good bit of smoke whenever I opened the door.

These stoves also have a feature where you can burn with the front doors open as kind of like a fireplace...i tried that just to verify and had WAY more smoke than I normally would.

So i figure something went wrong either with the chimney or with the stove...
Click to expand...

I think the shared flue is the problem. This is illegal in most states for just this reason. The shared flue is spoiling your draft for this stove. It wants its own flue.
 
Sorry it turns out that the flue was previously shared but is no longer...the propane now has a separate means of venting...

Bottom line:

Is there any internal gasket or anything else in the stove that can go wrong to cause this or is it definitely a chimney issue?
 
Agreed. We need to know exactly what the stove is currently connected to. If not shared, how is the place where the furnace vent entered now sealed. What is the inner dimension of the tile liner for the chimney?
 
Did you clean out the baffles after the secondary burn? You may have a blockage in there. Just trying to think of everything.
 
My Intrepid lost its draft after ten years of good service. Couldn't figure it out. Couldn't get the temp over 400. Cleaned the stove pipes, replaced the gaskets on the doors and top plate. The problem turned out to be a worn gasket around the "Flue collar" (#2 on manual diagram). Burns like new again-temp went right up to 700. The manual does not make it clear that this gasket needs to be changed, or even that it exists. Two screws holding the collar--very easy. Use 5/16 gasket.
 
it's probably about 1 foot above where your 8 inch connector pipe goes into the chimney. mine used to do this in the later weeks before the last burn of the season. creosote. careful with a hot fire. how big is the flue that the stove feeds into? and is it a outside chimney or runs thru the house? how hot are you running this stove? are you using dry wood? and are you running this as a updraft stove or flipping the damper and running downdraft?

frank
 
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