vc encore stove top Temps and secondary burn

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jamesm14000

New Member
Dec 1, 2014
24
canal Fulton ohio
Hello again. Thanks for the response on the last post. I'm struggling with this stove and dealer is not much help. When I reload in the morning with a nice bed of coals I put a few small splits in and top temp is around 300 fire takes off in about a minute. Air is wide open and the temp shoots to 700 in no time I then back off the air and start adding more wood and the temp stay at 700. I usually have the air completely closed when the box is full and the wood is on fire then close the damper. The fire does not really die out its slows some. I have had my insert glowing where it comes down from the chimney it's very scary and everything is roaring I believe a chimney fire. So should the top Temps reach 700 that fast and the fire not die down much when I close the damper. And when do I know the secondary burn has lit off. Looking outside there is usually white smoke coming from chimney but not always
 
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Which model number Encore is this?
 
Is this a free standing stove or an insert?
 
Do a search in this forum on procedures, how to run VC Encore cat stove. Tons of helpful info here.
 
jamesm14000 said:
Hello again. Thanks for the response on the last post. I'm struggling with this stove and dealer is not much help. When I reload in the morning with a nice bed of coals I put a few small splits in and top temp is around 300 fire takes off in about a minute. Air is wide open and the temp shoots to 700 in no time I then back off the air and start adding more wood and the temp stay at 700. I usually have the air completely closed when the box is full and the wood is on fire then close the damper. The fire does not really die out its slows some. I have had my insert glowing where it comes down from the chimney it's very scary and everything is roaring I believe a chimney fire. So should the top Temps reach 700 that fast and the fire not die down much when I close the damper. And when do I know the secondary burn has lit off. Looking outside there is usually white smoke coming from chimney but not always
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Why not try loading the stove fully on your coals as this might bring the temperature up a little more slowly, then when the stove top reaches 500 close the damper and if the temp continues to climb start reducing the air. If you have a really good draught the stove might still run hot but shutting it down sooner will help, just make sure your cat lights up before you reduce the air too much.
 
You can find several forum posts by me on here. I used to own a VC Encore 2N1 freestanding. I had it for 3 seasons so I understand your frustration. It was scary to burn that thing because you simply could not control the temps. Here's a few things you can try to keep temps down.
  1. Questionable practice because of all the inherent repercussions, but I found that burning greener (relatively speaking) wood would buy me some time with lower temperatures. Takes a lot of heat away when you're having to boil out all that moisture from the wood. Word of caution however, you will undoubtedly deal with more creosote with this repeated practice.
  2. Use bigger splits. The smaller the split, the more heat capability that firebox has access to...
  3. Plug some secondary inlet holes. I never did this, but if you get a flashlight and get down on your knees behind the stove, evidently there's a secondary air inlet to the firebox above the primary air inlet. I've read here people have stuffed this hole with steel wool, etc...not sure of the outcome. Evidently, there are holes to the firebox up from the ash tray pan too. You can provide some protection from the air these holes provide by just letting the ash build up in the firebox. I feel like there are pictures on here of someone plugging these too with screws?
  4. VC told me in an email one time that I may need to consider putting in a key damper in my chimney pipe. I was always questioning this practice as the thing was funny about draft anyway. When burning in the shoulder season, I'd be afraid the key would cause me to lose draft and that VC would backpuff like crazy if it did! I never did it but evidently they approve of the practice...
White smoke from chimney is probably just steam from the moisture in your wood. What's the MC? Is the chimney smoking when you come home from work or after 5 hours or so after loading?

Good luck and keep that chimney clean! My brother has one and doesn't deal with these problems. However, he's had at least one chimney fire and his single wall pipe inside the house was glowing red for hours. ;ex
 
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If the damper is closed (left handle) and the right air control handle is closed as much as it will go (pushed away from you) and the fire and flames are still roaring there is a problem and likely an air leak or the air intake isn't closing (under the stove towards the back). You should be able to move the right air control handle and see the air intake open and close.

If it is opening and closing properly and completely then it sounds like air is entering the stove elsewhere (bad gasket somewhere?)

If I shut the primary air control down I usually go to almost zero flame and just a glowing coal bed and the catalyst can be seen glowing behind the refractory plate...and the flames respond quickly. Damper closed, air intake fully open significant flame show. Damper close, air intake closed the fire starts to snuff out and slow down and disappear over 2-5 minutes.
 
Toploader said:
Why not try loading the stove fully on your coals as this might bring the temperature up a little more slowly, then when the stove top reaches 500 close the damper and if the temp continues to climb start reducing the air. If you have a really good draught the stove might still run hot but shutting it down sooner will help, just make sure your cat lights up before you reduce the air too much.
Click to expand...
I agree. Shut her down sooner. See what you can get away with. Generally, I remember that if I saw at least one little stream of flame I was ok. If the cat hadn't lit off, flames would disappear and then I was in trouble. About to get upset and backpuff...
 
Thanks for the replies. I have loaded the stove full let the wood catch then closed the air off and get dancing flames but have a box full of fire. A few times when I close the damper everything roars and the small piece of stove pipe coming out of the back to my liner tee is glowing. Am I possibly not adding enough wood soon enough to keep the temp down? I also no longer see the glow in the back of the box from the refractory. I pulled the "plate" off tonight to look at the cat and it looked clean, however I couldn't remove it because it was still pretty hot from this morning. This thing is making me mental!!!
 
Oh, I also checked chimney after work and it is clean , some creosote in the top 6 inches and grey dust the rest of the way down. I also chalked my gaskets and the look pretty good. I never use the front doors but am a little suspicious of an air leak at my glass gaskets. Some of the wood I have checked is 16-24% moisture. That is splitting it and checking in the middle of the piece. How else can I check for an air leak?
 
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Another way to check for leakage is with smoke, light a piece of incense and hold it up to the doors, and other areas that might be leaking, while the stove is burning and if the smoke is being drawn into the stove you've found your leak. I really think you should be closing the damper when the griddle is around 500, on a full load, and then after the cat kicks in you can start reducing the air. The roaring is normal from what I've heard and will stop after the damper has been closed for a while.
 
Toploader said:
Another way to check for leakage is with smoke, light a piece of incense and hold it up to the doors, and other areas that might be leaking, while the stove is burning and if the smoke is being drawn into the stove you've found your leak. I really think you should be closing the damper when the griddle is around 500, on a full load, and then after the cat kicks in you can start reducing the air. The roaring is normal from what I've heard and will stop after the damper has been closed for a while.
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Sorry didn't mean to repost that. The roar is not like when the cat was going this is a vibrating roar a scary screaming roar. Any guess why I can't see the cat glowing anymore. This has happened in the past few days. Thanks for the help!!
 
jamesm14000 said:
Sorry didn't mean to repost that. The roar is not like when the cat was going this is a vibrating roar a scary screaming roar. Any guess why I can't see the cat glowing anymore. This has happened in the past few days. Thanks for the help!!
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Do you mean that you can't even see it glow when the stove is hot with a good load and the damper is closed?
 
jamesm14000 said:
Yes. The past few weeks I could but not this week. I could see it glowing in the crack in the back of the stove where the cat is placed. Sorry for my lack of terminology.
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Well this isn't something I know a lot about, if it's a new cat, the damper is closed, the wood is dry, and the stovetop is 500 or more it should be glowing.
If you had a cat probe you'd know for sure because there is a chance it is glowing but the cover plate might have settle and be blocking the glow. Maybe someone with more knowledge of cats will chime in. You could always try burning without the cat and see if that makes a difference.
 
Ok I threw a few small splits on some hot coals with top temp a 650 and let them catch then closed damper and saw activity at the cat. The air was open for about 5 min. Then started closing the air and things seem to be going good with hardly anything in there. I'll try filling it in the morning and let the temp get to 500 and close the damper. Thanks again for all the help. It's really bad that vermont doesn't make a video for struggles to watch.
 
jamesm14000 said:
Ok I threw a few small splits on some hot coals with top temp a 650.
Click to expand...

Was the room getting cold? Why not just let it be for few hours, reload at say 350?
 
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OK, good luck it's a more complicated design that require more attention and it can be finicky but give it time and you'll whether or not it's for you. If in the end it doesn't work out there are more simple stoves out there.
 
James
This place has a wealth of information, tons of post on VC burning experiences. I would spend some time going through few posts. Then try to follow the steps. You should be able to get this thing burning correctly, unless there is a real problem with the unit/wood/stack.
Cheers
 
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Diabel said:
James
This place has a wealth of information, tons of post on VC burning experiences. I would spend some time going through few posts. Then try to follow the steps. You should be able to get this thing burning correctly, unless there is a real problem with the unit/wood/stack.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Thanks for the input. I have searched maybe I'm not using the right words for the search. Is that a German Shepard in your avatar?
 
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