1986 VC Defiant Encore 0028 - Help With Rebuild / Restoration

Ok, I believe I've made another mistake, but in typical male fashion, I am probably going to push on and make another one. I bought a small 860 sq. foot house which I intend to make into a rental. It had a really old and very large wood stove that seemed to be made out of tin it was so light, but it does have a perfectly good 8" chimney stove pipe that goes into a double walled pipe through the attic, so I thought if I could get another stove which took an 8" pipe I would be ok.

So, one Saturday morning I am looking at Craigslist and there's a guy selling one who lives just 3 miles down the road. I have not heard anything good or bad about Vermont Castings, but they obviously look very cool and I don't even know how much a person will use it if they're only renting, so I bought it. The guy that sold it to me knew a little about wood stoves and he pointed out that the damper had lost one of the pegs that allowed it to go up or down properly, meaning that the previous owner had probably left it burning wide open for awhile. I thought this would be easy to fix or else I would just do the same, let it burn at all out all the time.

Somewhere along the line the linkage to the damper came undone, so we took off the side cover and finally my son decided to just take out the plates along the back wall. There was a top and a bottom piece and once the top one was out I took the linkage piece into the hardware store to get a fastener so it would not come apart again. I could see that this styrofoam piece that the catalytic combuster sits in was very fragile, with the top of it already breaking off into pieces. As I was trying to get those two plates back in and screwed down I ended up damaging it further. Luckily (I thought) we have a very good Vermont Castings dealer within 25 miles so I would just add this to my order for a damper replacement. I had already purchased the oval to round adapter from them.

Then I found out from the dealer that this is the refractory assembly and it was going to be $210 + tax + shipping, which would bring it up to about a $250 part. I had saved all the pieces so I asked them if I could just put it back together with duct tape :lol: but they said that wouldn't work at all. Maybe, maybe they said it could be cemented back together, but that would be a poor substitute. The catalytic combuster looks pretty good - it has one little piece of the honeycomb broken near the corner, but it probably is original equipment. The refractory assembly is fine at the bottom, it's the top part that surrounds the catalytic combustor that is

Then I found this site and lots of people who say these stoves have some drawbacks. They are expensive (I'm beginning to see that now :ahhh: ) and they can be difficult to run if you're not familiar with wood burning. And then if you have air leaks they can be hard to fix and can run too hot and so on.

I paid $200 for the stove itself. I have invested about $100 in stove pipe and replacement parts so far. I am inclined to just go ahead and buy the refractory assembly rather than piece it back together. I am hoping that the catalytic combuster can be salvaged. One thing that is sort of disturbing though is that as I had it all apart and was shop vaccing the inside behind that wall I was finding something that looked like metal ingots. Not sure where they originally came from, but it looked like melted steel.

The real question I have is - is there any chance that after I buy all these parts and put it back together that it will work as it was originally intended? Or will I be fighting air leaks and so on. From my naive point of view, other than needing this refractory assembly and possibly a new cat, it looks to be in good shape. It doesn't "appear" to have any warpage, but maybe I don't know what to look for? I do expect it to be used very lightly as the house is super small and generally those who rent don't have the means to haul in firewood. I' feeling a little bit overwhelmed, but it seems like I'm committed now...what should I look for to help me decide if I should just back away from this one. The thing is so heavy it's probably worth $200 in scrap, but it's so cool looking I hate to just give up on it.

Thank you sir, for the quick reply.

There's maybe a 50/50 chance that my son will move into the house, so I'm going to treat this like my own house. I really want to restore this stove - it was only a couple hundred bucks, it's exterior is in good shape, it will look Great even when it's not being used, and if I can make it anywhere near as good as my old Avalon, then I want to give it a go.

I went to my local dealer and they can get the refractory assembly for $210 and he said that included the part that tucks in over the catalytic combuster. When I took it into the dealer he said my cat was ok and I guess that swayed my decision because I could at least run it for a couple more years with the new refractory and the old cat combuster.

I asked the dealership to look at the upper and lower fireback and he really didn't see any problem although he didn't run a laser across the edge or anything like that. He commented that the gaskets looked pretty good and I told him I had already replaced them ;-P.

Now I just hope that I can get it back together again and not have air leaks or other issues...

Thanks Brewz! The stove is painted (I should have the picture, sorry). It looks a lot like the newer models - bright and shiny black all over it and no signs of paint cracking. It has glass doors and they had just the faintest amount of smoke on them. The firebacks do look straight and are uncracked. It sounds like the parts are a long time coming though, so I will have to be patient.

However, if my son doesn't rent it from me, I am still strongly considering the possibility of just putting in maybe a fake electric fireplace :long: because I do see that a wood burner could be a big problem/headache/lawsuit etc. I can probably make my money back if I get it all fixed up again.

Thanks for the tip! I think your on to something especially if the unit is still repairable. In my case, I'm not so sure. I am not very well versed in wood stove technology, but it seems to me that a refractory assembly is a little bit like putting a big brick in your toilet - it displaces air is about all it does, but I went ahead and ordered the new unit, so I'll probably stick with it. At $20 a tube though, your idea sounds much more economical - then I could replace the cat too.

Still waiting on the refractory unit. Seems that it takes several weeks (3+) to get that unit delivered then I still have to drive to my local dealership to get it. In the meantime I wanted to post a few of the pics I took recently...

The refractory unit is in so I'm ready to put it all back together. Now a question about the Primary Air Supply. If I am reading the diagram right, the smaller handle on the right hand side as you face the stove (thermostat lever) should operate the primary air supply, but as I move it around and stick my finger into the primary air supply, I feel nothing moving. Does that mean I have to tear that apart too and see if it came unhooked?

Thx, that makes sense. I had no idea that there was so much inside a wood stove...

You know, in hindsight, I probably should have just turned it in for scrap metal and just cut my losses. Bill, it looks like you got your money's worth out of yours - probably is time to buy a new one If I were buying a new stove, I would got with another Avalon. I had the Ranier I think and I loved that thing. It almost made me cry to see it go because it had served me so well for so many years. Very low cost to maintain - put in new bricks once in awhile, that's it.

Today was a good day though. Despite being absolutely sure that the primary air vent was not being controlled by the knobby on the side, today when I look at it in good light, it's working fine. I was more than a little freaked about having to tear apart another spot inside the firebox, but not having to do so allowed me to *almost* have my first fire in it. I need to bring back the metal shears to shorten up the stove pipe and I think I'll be set. Bought a very cheap thermometer down at Ace and hoping that it will work fine.

The new refractory fit like a glove. My wife helped me cinch up the two backplates - I was trying to do it by myself last time and it was really an uphill battle. Got the new damper in there (I almost forgot that was supposed to be the "only thing wrong" with the stove according to the salesman) and somehow, by the grace of God, the linkage all seems to work. Although, I am wondering now how long that will last? The arm that brings it up and down seems to have the capacity to float a little bit and right now I've got it push up there as far as it would go. Could not get the old screw out of the one legged damper so had to buy a new one and was then able to tighten the bejesus out of it in the hope that it won't loosen up on that bar. I can see how having a bar or something to stop the damper from slamming the uber-expensive refractory unit every time you open it would be helpful.

The day wasn't all rosy though. The one other thing in addition to the damper and the refractory unit that I had to buy, it was also missing the ceramic pull out handle (might be called something else?) for the front door, so I ordered that up from the dealer too. The door didn't want to close so I sort of leaned into it and tugged at the end of the knob while turning it, so the tab would slide into the groove along the top. It finally did and given that the stove just received about 65 feet of new gaskets it seemed like a pretty normal thing, but as I'm putting the handle down I see it's just crumpled. Doesn't bode well for the quality of VC products, so maybe I just need to replace it with a wooden one or something? I feel cheated - broken on the very first use!

Want to put in a good word for the VC dealership in Woodinville, WA, Sutter Hearth. I went in with my broken handle, the guy at the desk smiled kinda sheepishly :roll: and said he could probably "fix me up". Came back with a big box full of ceramic handles that would fit my hardware. No cost, no wait, just Great Service.