Vermont Casting Defiant Stove

Welcome to the forum. I'm still fairly new here, but I'll add my 2 cents.

Is this the new Defiant 2in1 stove? It is rated at 2400sq feet, but it will depend on the layout of your house, and how well it is insulated.

Is this a new install or are you replacing a stove?

If you plan on burning this winter, you will need to buy some dry wood, which is usually difficult. Most sellers will tell you their wood is "seasoned", but it is not ready to burn yet. Wood needs to be cut/split/stacked (c/s/s) before proper drying can happen, generally takes a year or two. As you will quickly learn on this site, it is best to be a few years ahead with your wood.

I am not familiar with the older Defiants, but I am sure someone will chime in soon.

What is the layout like in your house? How is the insulation?

I had an old Defiant for a few years. The stove is a beast. It will easily heat the basement. Getting heat upstairs versus having a sauna in the basement will depend on the layout of the house. Assumming the basement is insulated, you will get some heat upstairs but again it depends on where the stairway is relative to the stove and many other factors.

Use small loads in that stove until you really get the hang of it. That is a large stove that can throw some serious heat.

Others will likely chime in, but from my reading here most people who try to heat from an uninsulated basement are not real happy with the results. A significant amount of heat will be lost to the concrete and ground. Im sure you will see some savings in heat with this setup. But, if your looking to heat your entire upstairs to 70* in the middle of winter using only a stove I'm afraid you might be disappointed.

Search the site for basement installs. You will find lots of good information.

bfmco7 said:

Can anyone reccomend me to a thread that has basement installs? I have searched and find some stuff but not exactly what I am looking for. I have a friend that heats his house with a stove in an unfinished basement and leaves the door to the basement shut. He tells me it heats through the floor. Anyone hear anything about this?

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If you remove the insulation from the floor joices then yes, the heat can radiate through the floor to provide warmth upstairs.

I currently heat approximately 2000 of my 2400 square feet from the basement. The walls are bare cement with insulation on the outside underground. I find it takes some time to begin heating , but once everything is warm, the heat pushes upstairs through the door I leave open. We do not see 75-80 degree temps, but the downstairs stays a comfortable 68-70 even in the dead of winter, the upstairs stays at 64-66 degrees, good for sleeping.

With the Defiant, and good insulationin the house, you should have no trouble heating most of your home from the basement. You may want to consider cutting a cold air return vent into the floor somewhere (with automatic shutters in the event of a fire).

Good luck with the stove!

The walls are bare cement with insulation on the outside underground.

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I would think this would make a substantial difference versus not having any insulation.

I'm not trying to discourage, and it very well may work OK. One thing to consider though, with that size house and trying to heat from an uninsulated basement with an 80's Defiant is going to take massive amounts of wood. :bug: It really just depends on what your expectations are.

Also, do some searches on here. There are lots of threads regarding floor grates and other methods for getting heat upstairs. I believe you need a fused damper in the grates that will automatically close in the event of a fire. There are also rules regarding how close floor penetrations can be to the stove.

I have a 2,200 sq ft basment. The stove sits in a 800 sq ft section of it. This being the only un-insulated and un-finshed part. Yes it does suck up some heat. But it can be done. I had it to 94* in the basement and had the upstairs at 75* . It was only about 40* last night, but I have the pellet stove upstairs. I installed the woodstove for a fes reasons.
1. This is where my Wife does laundry and she wanted it warm.
2. To help reduce my overall pellet consumption
3. We have Power outages in the Winter and with no electric, means no heat.. So the Woodstove in the basement on one side of the house, (under the bedrooms) and the pre-fab fireplace upstairs on the opposite end of the house.

Heating from the basement can be done. Can you reduce the size of the basement? So you are not heating as much of it? Less area downstairs = less heat loss = more heat upstairs.

Getting the air upstairs takes some creativity also. We have a laundry shoot in the hall with the 3 bedrooms. I have a small fan that blows cold air down the steps and heat rises through the laundry shoot. Be careful if you cut holes or put grates in the floor. As this may be a code violation. Ensure your families safety by using fusible link vents.

Been doing it for 21 years here. Insulated basement, hot as a sauna as BG describes it, 5 1/2 cord of wood/season..... yeah, it works, but it is wasteful. All I could do for all these years because of the floor plan and because it ain't my home. A stove in the living space will be a joy I soon hope to experience in my own place.

bfmco7 said:

Thank you for the reply!

Are you talking about a straight pass through from downstaris to upstairs with a grate inserted? Over the stove right?

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No, I was talking about a cold air return vent away from the stove.

Remkel said:

bfmco7 said:

Thank you for the reply!

Are you talking about a straight pass through from downstaris to upstairs with a grate inserted? Over the stove right?

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No, I was talking about a cold air return vent away from the stove.

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A cold air return worked much better for me than vents, even with vents with fans. I placed vents in the floor farthest away from the stove. The idea is to get the denser cold air to fall through the vents into the basement so that the less dense warm air coming up the stairs can move in to replace it. At the suggestion of a contractor, I used duct hose to run the air from the vent to about a foot from the basement floor where the air is cooler than at the ceiling. I boxed in the hose and concerned it with drywall in our family room where the stove is located. In the unfinished part of the basement, away from the stove, I did not enclose the tubing. This worked very well for a bedroom located above the basement room with the stove. We still had problems getting our living room up to 70 even when basement temps were 80. After we gave up on our oil guzzling furnace, I took the advice of someone on this site and placed a wood stove in our living room. Last winter, we didn't burn a drop of oil and our home was warmer than ever. Install a new, efficient stove upstairs, your wife will thank you.

bfmco7 said:

Take a look at this pig and tell me what you think!

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I think if you're looking for a place to throw a whole lot of wood away for little heat in your home, you've hit the jackpot. Rick

Bad copy of a Fisher. With no seal on the door, it shouldnt need draft caps. LOL..

But definitly have seen much worse. I am sure you could get along fine using it. But copious amounts of wood would be wasted. But not bad. Would make a heck of a shop heater or a small Cabin. Like those "Container" Cabins on Youtube.

bfmco7 said:

Secondary rack?

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That is why they had a step top design. Bob Fisher was a smart man when he designed his stoves. (Although this not a true Fisher, it design comes from it. Like many stoves of that era) If you ever get a chance. Go to the Pre-EPA and Classic stoves Forum (just under this Forum) and read the Bob Fisher story.

Great read. Great man. Way ahead of his time and was cheated by the very same people he helped.