2013 VC Burning Thread

Diabel said:

Hello folks,

It has been a while since I posted here but I have been following this thread (the rebuild part) since I am getting ready to totally rebuild my 2550 and put it to use for the next heating season.

When you talk about dirty glass do you mean black soot or hazy grayish film? I get the haze but never the black soot. On ocassion as BBar mentiond a split will shift and touch the glass, a black spot will develop but it is always gone once the stove is ready for a reload. Keep in mind the 0028 has double glass and i think that is the main reason for the clean glass. When I had the 1450NC the glass would sometimes get the black soot but it was surly due to questionable wood and me trying to close down the air too soon.

Btw jharkin thanks for posting the rebuild details! I will follow it as I work on the 2550 starting in Jan.

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grobinson2 said:

So I lit the stove this evening got it up to 450 and put it in CAT mode. I can see a few flames in there but for the most part it black smoked the glass all up. The stove is burning very well though. My wood is supper dry (four or five years dry) and oak so I am not sure why I am getting the black soot. As far as burn times I cannot complain about them. I put three small logs in there and it will burn all night long. Again I do run the stove on the low side. I can say that after closing the EPA holes and the secondary air inlet I have amazing control over the stove, amazing control.

Thanks again,
Glenn

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Reckless said:

I no longer get black soot either just grey haze since I adjusted my airwash.


You need a probe. Black soot means you are burning way too low and the wood is just smoldering. Do you have a therm on the griddle? What does it read?

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grobinson2 said:

I can't disagree with that. I am just saying that as long as I am not heating up the cast iron to temps that could warp or damage it I shouldn't be hurting the stove. I am looking at it this way. If I want a nice efficient burn then of course I go CAT mode. If I want a nice fire where my glass looks nice and clean I run in bypass mode. What I need is one of the newer model stoves so that when I run in non-cat mode I am still running somewhat efficiently.

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grobinson2 said:

Browning, So just to clarify your standing you feel they are about the same in air wash quality but that with the Defiant you get splits closer to the glass which will soot it up faster then the Encore. Does anyone know if the newer 2-1 stoves are better then these older CAT stoves in the air wash department. Please keep in mind I am not using my stove as a primary heater (that's was our coal boiler is for) and while I want to option to use the CAT and burn the wood efficiently I am mainly going for looks. On another note Browning our current weather blows! I thought it was winter time!

Glenn

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Reckless said:

I can run my stove in cat mode and get very good flame visuals. All I have to do is dial in the primary to a point where flames are going up to the griddle and not back towards the cat. Also you mention puffing, when is that happening? Primary all the way open or near closed? If its with primary all the way open you dont have enough draft and should probably unblock one of the openings you closed. If its happening with the primary near closed then youre just closing it too much.

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grobinson2 said:

Hey guys,
I am getting some back puffing when I have my primary closed so obviously I need to open that up a little (just did that a second ago). Also sounds like I am just running the stove a little too low. I was getting the puff backs this evening when the griddle temp was 325-350. I have the griddle at 435 now and I am not getting any puff backs. I have not had a time where the flames are going toward the cat just dancing around the stove or out all together of course before the puff-back. I wish I could adjust my air wash. It would seem from my end that the Encore's do have a better air wash system then the defiant.

Thanks,
Glenn

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grobinson2 said:

So at 450 griddle temp I was still getting some smoke smell in the house so I opened the primary just a bit more then I had it before and the stove started to climb fast. I ended up opening the bypass and opening the front doors to bring down the temp. I am thinking my wood may be too dry but I don't know. I just need to keep playing with the stove. Browning you run the stove stock except for tuning your secondary air, correct?

Thanks again,
Glenn

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grobinson2 said:

Is that the case for the Encore as well?

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BrowningBAR said:

Stock it is. The issue I have is that it does not like to run low. Doesn't matter when I close the air down, at some point it will catch and climb to 650.

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Burner said:

Just my two cents....When I was running my 2550, my glass was never clean. It always had a dark coating on it, presumably creosote. But in all fairness, I burned the stove really low at 250 consistently. I didn't see flames unless it was to get the CAT up to temp. In fact, I didn't even know that these encores were capable of running with clean glass. The same goes for my Defiant 1945, except I run it at around 350 unless it's really cold then I crank it to 550. By the way, I have gotten incredible burn times from both of my VC's. The Defiant's stack is marginal but it must be ideal since it just went 16 hrs with plenty of coals left over to ignite rather large splits. The encore regularly got 10 hrs running at 200-250. Also, in my experience, these stoves aren't nearly as finicky as my new Oslo when it comes to wood moisture content. I can easily load 20%-25% splits without blinking into the VC's. However, the Oslo really wants 10%-15% or even lower to operate efficiently. Despite the VC reputation on these forums, that am sure isn't without merit, I feel these are great Cat stoves. The 1945 is completely controllable and the 2550 was after I tweaked the primary air intake by surrounding it with tin foil and magnets, essentially making the opening smaller. After I did that the stove was amazing. (I left the EPA holes open on both stoves).

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Burner said:

Just my two cents....When I was running my 2550, my glass was never clean. It always had a dark coating on it, presumably creosote. But in all fairness, I burned the stove really low at 250 consistently. I didn't see flames unless it was to get the CAT up to temp. In fact, I didn't even know that these encores were capable of running with clean glass. The same goes for my Defiant 1945, except I run it at around 350 unless it's really cold then I crank it to 550. By the way, I have gotten incredible burn times from both of my VC's. The Defiant's stack is marginal but it must be ideal since it just went 16 hrs with plenty of coals left over to ignite rather large splits. The encore regularly got 10 hrs running at 200-250. Also, in my experience, these stoves aren't nearly as finicky as my new Oslo when it comes to wood moisture content. I can easily load 20%-25% splits without blinking into the VC's. However, the Oslo really wants 10%-15% or even lower to operate efficiently. Despite the VC reputation on these forums, that am sure isn't without merit, I feel these are great Cat stoves. The 1945 is completely controllable and the 2550 was after I tweaked the primary air intake by surrounding it with tin foil and magnets, essentially making the opening smaller. After I did that the stove was amazing. (I left the EPA holes open on both stoves).

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Diabel said:

Burner,
When you say you run the encore 200-250 is this griddle? What is your flue temp at such point? Is the cat active at such low temp?

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Burner said:

That's griddle temp. To be honest I don't measure the flue with my Cat stoves, just with my Oslo (to see how much heat is being lost). For me, the Cats stay ignited at the low temps by using the smouldering smoke as fuel.

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Diabel said:

And there is no smoke out the chimney? My cat would stall 100% at such low griddle temp.

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Burner said:

My Defiant runs really clean which does surprise me and the 2550 has some smoke. Both Cats run at about 1300 deg for most of the burn.

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BrowningBAR said:

Both stoves like to smoke for me. I can have the Defiant's cat glowing with think rolling secondaries and will still have smoke far too often. Pipe is way too dirty, also.

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grobinson2 said:

Wow, that just seems so hot to me. I am used to coal stoves where I would run them around the 300 to 450 range for of course days with out touching them. I am well aware that wood stoves are a different beast so we shall see. I do wish I did not have to run the thing so hot though. Thinking my best bet might be to move this one out and put in an Encore that is the 2-1 or get one of the non-cat models and convert it over to the 2-1.

Thanks again,
Glenn

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