VC Cat Encore on Ebay

800camp said:

There is a used VC Encore on ebay now, in New Jersey. Current price is $570 with 2 days to go on the bidding. It would fit as a hearth mount in my smallish fireplace/hearth. It's a cat.

Anyone familiar with this stove?

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Had one. Offered it up for free this past spring, but no takers. Tossed it on the scrap heap.

Had two. Sold them for less than what I probably would have gotten for them as scrap.

There are lots of haters of this stove. They are complex. More of a wood burning machine, but it accomplishes that task quite efficiently. I heat 2000 sq ft. with mine. I picked it up used, and I have no regrets purchasing the thing. The new prices seem quite exorbitant however. The forum search has all manor of information about this stove.

lot of folks seem to have trouble with them but we love ours. it takes a few months to learn how to operate it properly but they burn great and no other stove looks as good as vc do. they are not pushbutton pellet type stoves.

I really like my Encore cat stove burns very efficient but its a complicated stove with all the moving parts I am thinking of selling this year and getting a Jotul f500 Oslo for next yr a friend of mine has one nice stove easy to operate ..... Parts a pricey to.

Have had my Encore cat for 18 months. They are beautiful stoves - handsome stoves - and very efficient. I achieved long, very steady burns with my set up. Wood pile lasts a long time! Had no problems getting stovetop up to temp, engaging the cat, and adjusting secondary air to "cruise" for hours.

BUT......here's my issue: the manual says 750 is max stovetop temp, so I ran mine consistently at 600-650....double-checked with two thermometers. And after one winter, one fall, the 'throat hood' warped ....and so did the upper fireback. Both problems have been reported here by a number of other users, and are an indication of overfiring the stove: temps too hot for the cast iron. I could see the dang throat hood glowing red while stovetop temp was only in the 600 range!!

Yet, many other users report years of satisfactory burning. with no warping of cast parts. How can that be?

Here's my unscientific guess about this Encore cat 2550 dichotomy: a) ignore the manual's 750 max temp guideline b) keep stovetop temps at 450-550 and enjoy the stove for years c) keep stovetop temps at 650+ and beware.

Mine is for sale, Central New Yorkers!

It's early days with my VC Encore cat, but so far I'm very happy with it. The top loading is a good feature and the double front doors are useful, too. I can get quite long logs inside, 50cm! The thermostat is clever and the ashpan that swings out with its slide-fit cover lid makes emptying the ash a piece of cake. The rear and bottom heat sheilds protect my hearth.

Yes, the VC Encore looks 'the biz'. I don't have the side racks, I think it looks splendid as it is, but who knows...

My model　is a new one and perhaps it is better than ones that have gone before it. Anyway, bid bid bid!

Im on my first year with a '99 encore cat that I inherited from the homes PO. They had cleaned it out thoroughly and I replaced the original cat & secondary probe and added a cat temp probe for good measure to help me learn the stove. All gaskets seem good and I have good control with the air lever.

Overall I like the stove, burns well and throws a lot of heat. I can cruise at 1/3 air, 550-650 on the stove top with 1100-1500 cat temps for hours and nothing glows or warped so far. My only concern is that no matter what I do I don't get the "zero smoke nothing but heat waves" out of the stack that I hear about. Until a new load has burned down quite a bit I always get some wisps of smoke, but its light grey and dissipates fast.

But I'm new to EPA stoves and my wood is not ideal (averaging 24% moisture) so Im giving it time.

jharkin said:

Im on my first year with a '99 encore cat that I inherited from the homes PO. They had cleaned it out thoroughly and I replaced the original cat & secondary probe and added a cat temp probe for good measure to help me learn the stove. All gaskets seem good and I have good control with the air lever.

Overall I like the stove, burns well and throws a lot of heat. I can cruise at 1/3 air, 550-650 on the stove top with 1100-1500 cat temps for hours and nothing glows or warped so far. My only concern is that no matter what I do I don't get the "zero smoke nothing but heat waves" out of the stack that I hear about. Until a new load has burned down quite a bit I always get some wisps of smoke, but its light grey and dissipates fast.

But I'm new to EPA stoves and my wood is not ideal (averaging 24% moisture) so Im giving it time.

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FWIW my NC burns exactly as you describe when damped down until the load burn down a ways. That said, I don't really care. I also have good control with the primary air, and now that I know how it behaves I'm perfectly happy with it.

I have to tell you that I love my VC Encore 2550 now.... but it certainly wasn't love at first sight (figuratively speaking). I bought it used and did a 100% complete teardown and rebuild. I didn't have any previous woodstove knowledge so I didn't realize how complicated this stove is. I thought that all stoves were engineered this way. I think that with good intention this stove was way over engineered. When I first started burning It took me about 3 months experiance to gain confidence with it. (By the way my girlfriend is an idiot!! Just had to throw that in. Has nothing to do with the stove.) Once I gained some confidence my frustration turned to the love I feel now. Alot of people seem to hate this stove and I believe it comes from the complexity of it. I recently finished a Jotul series 8 that also has a cat and, boy oh boy, was that stoved simple compared to the VC. I get similar performance and burn times out of the Jotul and didn't have the headaches getting used to it but I learned alot with the Encore so that might have helped.
If you like the look of the stove and it's ready to go I would bid. Oh I should mention that getting VC parts isn't allways the easiest anymore since VC has been bought and sold a couple times.

RichL35 said:

I have to tell you that I love my VC Encore 2550 now.... but it certainly wasn't love at first sight (figuratively speaking). I bought it used and did a 100% complete teardown and rebuild. I didn't have any previous woodstove knowledge so I didn't realize how complicated this stove is. I thought that all stoves were engineered this way. I think that with good intention this stove was way over engineered. When I first started burning It took me about 3 months experiance to gain confidence with it. (By the way my girlfriend is an idiot!! Just had to throw that in. Has nothing to do with the stove.) Once I gained some confidence my frustration turned to the love I feel now. Alot of people seem to hate this stove and I believe it comes from the complexity of it. I recently finished a Jotul series 8 that also has a cat and, boy oh boy, was that stoved simple compared to the VC. I get similar performance and burn times out of the Jotul and didn't have the headaches getting used to it but I learned alot with the Encore so that might have helped.
If you like the look of the stove and it's ready to go I would bid. Oh I should mention that getting VC parts isn't allways the easiest anymore since VC has been bought and sold a couple times.

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It's not just "complexity" that might bug some people. I'm an engineer, and can figure out how almost anything works, regardless of complexity. Based on my 23 years of experience with one, I believe that they are very picky about draft. In our home, we struggled with backpuffing for the life of the stove. Many days, there was no way to avoid it. No matter how slowly we turned down the primary air, it puffed. No matter what the stovetop temperature was, it puffed. No matter how hot we made the flue by running with the bypass open, it puffed. Many days, we had to run with the bypass open for extended periods, until basically all the flammable gases from the wood were gone (forming creosote in the chimney), fighting to keep the temperature down with the primary air.

Now, with the identical chimney, our new stove just runs like a dream. We're kicking ourselves for not tossing the VC 15 years earlier.

I'm sure that there are plenty of happy owners. They would have been out of business long ago if the product performed like ours did in every installation. But, given that our Jotul burns very happily and stable with the same chimney, it is my belief that the Encore was much more sensitive to exact draft condition. So, when others report problems, it's not just the fact that they're unable to figure out the "complexity" of the stove.

I still cant say Ive really figured mine out. First few times running it on mild (40) days I had to run it wide to get the thing hot. Then this weekend it finally got cold - 20s yesterday dipping to 15 overnight and the draft was super strong. First time filling it completely with wood. I though I had it running good around 600. We went out for a ride, come back an hour later its hitting 700 top/1600 cat at 1/2 air. So I shut it down to 1/3. Stovetop drops to 650 but the cat temp climbed ... 1700 1750.. 1800. When it hit 1800 I finally hear the roar Ive been told about and for the first time I could see the orange glow under the cat hood. So I cranked the air fully closed but it took close to 45 min to drop back down under 1700 cat. Then it slowly fell back to 1200 and I noted the wood was fully coaled.

I seem no notice that at times lowering the air to reduce the flames actually gets the cat hotter?? maybe the more it smolders the more smoke the cat is burning? hmmmm

I have a steel cat in it but the 1800 run had me nervous. I'm watching it closer now. I thought my ~16ft 6 in chimney was marginal but apparently not, have to check all the gaskets again. Or maybe I had too dry wood, my pile is a mix of old super dry wood leftover from the PO and a cord of oak I got thats around 24%.... didn't check carefully which pieces I was loading...

Stovetop drops to 650 but the cat temp climbed ... 1700 1750.. 1800. When it hit 1800 I finally hear the roar Ive been told about and for the first time I could see the orange glow under the cat hood.

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And that is why - I'm thinking - my 18 month old Encore has a warped throat hood and warped upper fireback: even though stovetop temps are well within manual's max of 750....glowing under cat hood includes glowing cast iron.

cmcramer said:

Stovetop drops to 650 but the cat temp climbed ... 1700 1750.. 1800. When it hit 1800 I finally hear the roar Ive been told about and for the first time I could see the orange glow under the cat hood.

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And that is why - I'm thinking - my 18 month old Encore has a warped throat hood and warped upper fireback: even though stovetop temps are well within manual's max of 750....glowing under cat hood includes glowing cast iron.

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Be very careful with that stove. Once they warp a little, they warp faster.

I'm gonna try to replace the upper fireback over Xmass.....then hang a new throat hood.......then sell it.

Check Craig's List Syracuse, NY after Xmass.......

cmcramer said:

Check Craig's List Syracuse, NY after Xmass.......

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Been down that road twice already. Still in counseling.

I seem no notice that at times lowering the air to reduce the flames actually gets the cat hotter?? maybe the more it smolders the more smoke the cat is burning? hmmmm

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I think that this is exactly the case. Both my cat stoves (VC and Jotul) cat temps climb when throttling them down. Eventully the cat temps fall but sometimes they take quite awhile.
Can anyone confirm this? I am not the most experianced wood burner and I was wondering this myself. Does throttling them down just create more fuel for the cat to burn causing temps to rise quickly?

Rich

SolarAndWood said:

cmcramer said:

Stovetop drops to 650 but the cat temp climbed ... 1700 1750.. 1800. When it hit 1800 I finally hear the roar Ive been told about and for the first time I could see the orange glow under the cat hood.

Click to expand...

And that is why - I'm thinking - my 18 month old Encore has a warped throat hood and warped upper fireback: even though stovetop temps are well within manual's max of 750....glowing under cat hood includes glowing cast iron.

Click to expand...

Be very careful with that stove. Once they warp a little, they warp faster.

Click to expand...

Luckily mine doesnt seem to have warped. I can still get the hood in an out no problem. I think also figured out why it ran so hot. My ash door gasket is leaky. The PO's had done the front door and I just did the griddle, but I didnt check the ash door thoroughly. It needed a new gasket.

Looks like the last time they did it they just slopped on the cement over the remnants of the previous layer... I had to use a dremel grinding bit to get all the old cement out cleanly - luckily its pretty simple to remove the door to take it down to the shop and do the job right.

Hopefully I should have better control now once I get it back together.. looking forward to a nice burn when it gets cold again this weekend.

Put me down on the dislike side of the equation... Purchased mine used from a supposedly reputable source (who also was very enthusiastic about pushing VC's at every opportunity)

When I took the fireback off the first time to clean the stove, the refractory doghouse fell apart... Glued it back together with stove cement and safety wire, and it sort of works, though it doesn't smoke a lot less than the pre-EPA smoke dragon it replaced... Not sure I've EVER heard that "cat roar" that I've heard talked about, and I do run it up at the recommended temperature range - 5-700°F in the center of the griddle. Interestingly though, I seldom get as much as 200°F out of the stack (as measured w/ a Condar probe thermometer 6" above the stove top)...

I love the top load (though it puts more smoke into the room than some claim)

I love the ash tray feature (Hot tip, get TWO trays, so you can just swap them out and not have to worry about rushing out the ash bucket right away...)

I do get plenty of heat from it, and reasonably long burns.

I DON'T like the smoke!

I Don't like the 3-4 GALLONS of creosote I get out of the stack when cleaning...

Would love to replace it with a Hearthstone Heritage (largest soapstone I can get w/ a rear exit)

Gooserider