Need information on an old Vermont Castings wood stove

Have you checked out the stove? If not have a professional check it out totally. I have the same stove but of the 1985 vintage and it seems like a great stove. Placing near a gas pipe? NOT a good idea. I needs to have air all around it for it to work corrrectly since it is a radiating heat and so you want the heat radiating from front and back and sides and top, a lesson I have learned the hard way, mine was installed inside the hearth walls so radiates heat but I only get the effect from top and front as evidenced by below picture.

check it over thouroughly before buying: parts for the oldest resolutes are starting to get longer and longer 2 come by...

pg351 said:

Hi,
I'm thinking about buying a used, Vermont Castings wood stove known as the Resolute. It is from 1979, so its one of the original versions (of which I understand there have been several). Is it possible to use this stove with an 'open door' and spark screen, as one appears to be able to use the newer versions? Also, the stove would be placed where there currently is very, very old gas stove (of the kind used to heat houses in the early 1900s). I plan to remove the gas stove and connect the wood stove with a pipe that would extend horizontally from the back flange to vertical pipe that would go up one of my chimney flues, which I still need to have lined. This would create an 'L' or elbow effect. Is this a viable way to connect the stove? I am going to have this done professionally, but I want to know what is possible before I hire a contractor.
Many thanks.

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I also have the same stove, it' s a beauty!! Make sure to check it out really well for crack, inside and out, especially the refractory walls inside. I use mine to heat our 960 sq. ft. ranch house in western NY., and even though the wood burns out in the middle of the night,(when we're sleeping and no one's tending), and the oil furnace kicks on for awhile, there's always plenty of coals left in the morning to get the fire going again. It has saved us SO much money over the 3 years on fuel oil that I would never go back!
Good luck,
Snyde

My father still burns the '79 resolute that he bought when I was in preschool. Followed us through 3 houses. Its a very good stove but as has been mentioned parts are tough to get. The sides of the damper plate on his broke last year but a guy he knows that runs a welding shop fabricated up some kind of replacement - as of last week I hear its back in action. (I think I gave him the bug to get it going again with all the talk about fixing up my new(old) encore).

It can be a pain to fully clean out though... Those horizontal burn passageways plug up with ash.

Yep, I put off taking mine apart last summer to clean behind the refractory inside. I don't really know if that's necessary, or if there's an easier way to do it, but I figured ash would build up behind there over time. I "hear 'ya" about getting parts. Lucky enough for me, mine hasn't needed anything major yet,(famous last words), just a door handle. I do need the front glass though, mine isn't cracked but one side isn't "clear" anymore and you can't see clearly inside. Not a big deal at all, just cosmetic.

To clean the horizontal tubes could you blow compressed air into the holes that lay along the back about 3" above the floor and in the slot on the right side inside? I just keep burning in mine, how would I know if the refractory horizontal tubes are clogged???

sandie said:

To clean the horizontal tubes could you blow compressed air into the holes that lay along the back about 3" above the floor and in the slot on the right side inside? I just keep burning in mine, how would I know if the refractory horizontal tubes are clogged???

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I could, but the stove is in my living room and I really don't want to blow whatever is in my stove out into my room. I just keep burning mine too, I just figured it's better to "service" the stove than to wait until there's a problem because ash has built up behind the refractory panels and THEN deal with it. Seems like it would be a bigger problem then.
Snyde

WEll I am not going to take anything apart that I do not know how to get together again so hope it is all working correctly. I do not think it has been apart ever.

sandie said:

WEll I am not going to take anything apart that I do not know how to get together again so hope it is all working correctly. I do not think it has been apart ever.

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My brother gave me this stove about 7 or 8yrs. ago. It sat out in my shed for 5yrs. after that until I decided to do something with it, at which point I took the insides apart and vacuumed everything out and put it back together. As I recall it was relatively easy to take apart and reassemble. I started at the chimney connection in the back and just started taking pieces apart. The stove was sitting on a hearth in a house he bought. He wanted to get rid of it so he could use his fireplace and asked me if I'd help him "take it to the curb, someone will surely pick it up". I said "hell no, but I'll help you put it in my van". I had no hearth at that time in my house, but decided maybe I could use it some day in the future. For 4 yrs. it sat out back in a shed of mine until I had a 28' x 40' barn built by the Amish.
I tried to heat it with this stove but it just wasn't big enough. The next year I built a hearth in the living room of my 960 sq. ft. ranch home. It's works well in this house, in fact a little too well at times. I remember the living room got to be 92* in the middle of December one day when we first started using it. I've learned to regulate the heat better since then. It's hard to keep it below 75* though. Love that wood heat
Snyde