Just bought a VC Defiant 1610 for $350 then found out it's going to cost me like $1000 to fix it!!!

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Wyld Bill

New Member
Feb 5, 2011
99
Maine
Ok so I have needed to replace my old piece of junk Defiant Encore for a while. Got a lead on a STEAL on a fairly new Defiant NC. So I checked it out & it looked great it just had a broekn leg & the owner said he wanted to regasket it & rplace some parts inside before he sold it. I told him I'd buy it as is. He said $400 then called me back & said $350. So I went to get it today & found a box of refractory parts setting on top of it. His wife said it needed new ceramic parts inside. THis kind of bummed me out because I thought it just needed one leg but for $350 I figured what the heck. Well in the process of transporting it we managed to snap off two other legs. Then I went on-line to price out the parts. The legs are $35 each. THat hurts but I broke them so I gotta fix it. THEN I priced out the refractory parts & they are $225 and $450!!!!!!!!!! WHAT THE HECK!!! Why are they so freakin expensive??!?!?! I'm madder than a nest of hornets now. My steal turned into a deal, then into not a deal at all. I guess I didn't get ripped off because the reat of the stove is in great shape but what the heck I have seen MINT stoves like this for $1000 all the time. Now I'm gonna have AT LEAST THAT into this one. ARGH!!!
 
Sorry to hear about your troubles. I bought my first stove for a deal(Surdiac Gotha 513.) It was $80 and in really good condition for a 1980 stove. On the way home, it fell over in the back of the mini van. I was so p!$$&d off!! It luckily didn't do any great damage. Live and learn, I should have tied it off. Well I got it home and it heated my house for almost an entire winter until I got a newer one. I guess my advice to anyone moving a stove is: take the legs off before you move it and tie it off if its going to be in a car ride. I've moved the stoves around a few times now and taking the legs off is the first thing I do if I have to move them far.

Good luck with the stove. Look up some parts on Ebay, you can find some good deals on refractory and other parts sometimes. Also, use the search bar on "casting refractory parts" I remember seeing a post by Tradergordo on the subject. I'm sure there are others. $34 each sounds like a lot for legs. I bought some short legs for my Dutchwest and found a vast array of prices. The cheapest price ended up being a local dealer. Take care,

Chris
 
Sorry to hear it ,man , but also realize that this kind of thing may very well constitute routine maintainence for this guy. So before you get in any deeper, know that depending on how much wood you burn, you may be right back at it again in a few years. Welcome to the club. Very sorry.
 
Sorry to hear about your stove troubles. On the plus side, if you can repair it, you ought to have a like new stove.

What puzzles me is that with the terrible track record with these refractory parts and their price for replacemt - why would VC continue to use them.

I never hear about refractory parts breaking in Jotul, Woodstock, Englander, etc. - so it is possible to make a quaility stove without the refractory stuff.

Good luck with your stove.

Bill
 
Clarks ACE Hardware said:
Bill,


PM me the parts you need. Hopefully we can lighten the blow a bit.
Click to expand...

Real nice of you to help a fellow wood burner Jay!

Ray
 
I'd put it all back together and resell it for about $100 profit then look into a different stove. I've just heard too many horror stories about these Everburn stoves.
 
I think if you searched or asked on this board first, you would have found out that such stoves are often very expensive to repair. In fact, a few years ago VC doubled and tripled a lot of their stove parts in an effort to keep their head above water (it didn't work). I assume they are now back to a relatively normal price, but it can still be costly in labor and material to rebuild these fairly complicated stoves.

Some people enjoy the challenge...and, can often end up with a perfect stove at 1/2 the price of a new one.
 
Webmaster said:
I think if you searched or asked on this board first, you would have found out that such stoves are often very expensive to repair. In fact, a few years ago VC doubled and tripled a lot of their stove parts in an effort to keep their head above water (it didn't work). I assume they are now back to a relatively normal price, but it can still be costly in labor and material to rebuild these fairly complicated stoves.

Some people enjoy the challenge...and, can often end up with a perfect stove at 1/2 the price of a new one.
Click to expand...
Yeah I thnk that will end up being the case with me. The stove I REALLY wanted was a Harman Oakwood but,...this will do.
 
Here are some pictures of the stove, the "Fountain Assembly", & trying to remove old busted refractory board from the Fountain Assembly.
 

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The Fountain Assembly all cleaned up & ready for a new piece of refractory board to be attached with furnace cement & some sheetroack screws.
I have the woodsove pretty much all torn apart now. I think I'm just going ot re-do the whole thing since it looks like th elast guy tried to rebuild it but didn't really do it right & broke some pieces.
Should I switch to stainless fasteners?
 

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I have the same stove. Just rebuilt wiith new fireback and fountain assembly. I have the service manual and a

list of the gaskets you will need to replace. Its not a big deal to fix . It took me 8 hours. The stove works better than

when I bought it new. What deteriorates these fountain assemblies is moisture. They can take the heat all day long.

E-mail me and I will send the service manual for the defiant model 1610.

Regards

Jeb
 
Oh hey that looks like where I was awhile back. I bought a defiant 1910 for $600 (cat). Compared to gramps smokedragon on the farm it's fantastic.

What I found - It's impossibly hard to "glue" the old refractory board to the new refractory (kiln) board. I did it, and I'm going to be doing it again at the end of this season. It looks great until it has a chance to heat and cool a few times and then it just goes to pot. If I was going to do it again - oh wait I am - I would have gone to the auto parts store and gotten a pile of cotter pins to jam in as struts between the old and new parts. I think it would have mitigated the damage a bit but I should have just freaking bought a ton of kiln board, taken measurements from the old one and built a new one. From the looks of yours it in it worse than mine was - I only have the front (towards the wood) separate and the catalyst cover crack a bit. I attempted to glue these back together and that's how I found out it will merely glue to the material enough to rip off the next layer. Also I never cut mine down to "good" material, I just built it up. I would be interested to see how yours goes.

Hardware wise I don't think it would matter stainless or not. If it concerns you just cover everything in refractory paste.

Also consider googling around a bit, steelcat makes after market cats, and Woodman's sometimes coughs up a deal - http://www.woodmanspartsplus.com/48...lacement-Wood-Stove-Catalytic-Combustors.html
 
Jeboyle said:
I have the same stove. Just rebuilt wiith new fireback and fountain assembly. I have the service manual and a

list of the gaskets you will need to replace. Its not a big deal to fix . It took me 8 hours. The stove works better than

when I bought it new. What deteriorates these fountain assemblies is moisture. They can take the heat all day long.

E-mail me and I will send the service manual for the defiant model 1610.

Regards

Jeb
Click to expand...
Should I unhook the stove from the chimney for the summer? (to prevent moisture from the chimney)
 
tiber said:
Oh hey that looks like where I was awhile back. I bought a defiant 1910 for $600 (cat). Compared to gramps smokedragon on the farm it's fantastic.

What I found - It's impossibly hard to "glue" the old refractory board to the new refractory (kiln) board. I did it, and I'm going to be doing it again at the end of this season. It looks great until it has a chance to heat and cool a few times and then it just goes to pot. If I was going to do it again - oh wait I am - I would have gone to the auto parts store and gotten a pile of cotter pins to jam in as struts between the old and new parts. I think it would have mitigated the damage a bit but I should have just freaking bought a ton of kiln board, taken measurements from the old one and built a new one. From the looks of yours it in it worse than mine was - I only have the front (towards the wood) separate and the catalyst cover crack a bit. I attempted to glue these back together and that's how I found out it will merely glue to the material enough to rip off the next layer. Also I never cut mine down to "good" material, I just built it up. I would be interested to see how yours goes.

Hardware wise I don't think it would matter stainless or not. If it concerns you just cover everything in refractory paste.

Also consider googling around a bit, steelcat makes after market cats, and Woodman's sometimes coughs up a deal - http://www.woodmanspartsplus.com/48...lacement-Wood-Stove-Catalytic-Combustors.html
Click to expand...

I don't need Cat parts as mine is not a catalytic stove. Thanks for the other advice though.
 
Vermont castings informed me to prevent any water or moisture from entering the stove during the off season.

Kitty litter works. Upon the start off of the burning season treat the stove with small break in fires to drive out

any moisture.
 
Jeboyle said:
Vermont castings informed me to prevent any water or moisture from entering the stove during the off season.

Kitty litter works. Upon the start off of the burning season treat the stove with small break in fires to drive out

any moisture.
Click to expand...
What do you do with said litter? Do you eat it? LOL! I'm assuming you dump it in the ashpan of the stove or something??
 
Use it on a frozen pathway in the winter. Or to absorb an oil drip stain in the garage.
 
I am on my 2nd fountain, as the first one lasted only one season (picture attached). I picked up the Defiant non-cat during the time the company was changing ownership. This ultimately meant no honoring of the lifetime warranty. New fountain cost about $400.00.
After 2 seasons, the wonderful "thunder" of the Everburn system is diminishing and heat output is not as it should be.

I have been researching ceramic fiber refractory board material and will be building a few spare fountains, since I can't afford to keep changing these out every 1-2 seasons. I am hoping the 2300F rating and water vapor resistance of the material will outperform the original fountain.

The stove does work great, with a new fountain. I did take some measurements of the replacement fountain, but a CAD or original drawing of same would be extremely useful. I am a skilled engineer and have no qualms building my own.

I'll let you know how it goes.
 

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Hi there, it's been forever since I posted.

Nice to see someone else trying the great experiment. Please do keep us posted. I would be interested in seeing drawings also.
 
Wyld Bill said:
Ok so I have needed to replace my old piece of junk Defiant Encore for a while. Got a lead on a STEAL on a fairly new Defiant NC. So I checked it out & it looked great it just had a broekn leg & the owner said he wanted to regasket it & rplace some parts inside before he sold it. I told him I'd buy it as is. He said $400 then called me back & said $350. So I went to get it today & found a box of refractory parts setting on top of it. His wife said it needed new ceramic parts inside. THis kind of bummed me out because I thought it just needed one leg but for $350 I figured what the heck. Well in the process of transporting it we managed to snap off two other legs. Then I went on-line to price out the parts. The legs are $35 each. THat hurts but I broke them so I gotta fix it. THEN I priced out the refractory parts & they are $225 and $450!!!!!!!!!! WHAT THE HECK!!! Why are they so freakin expensive??!?!?! I'm madder than a nest of hornets now. My steal turned into a deal, then into not a deal at all. I guess I didn't get ripped off because the reat of the stove is in great shape but what the heck I have seen MINT stoves like this for $1000 all the time. Now I'm gonna have AT LEAST THAT into this one. ARGH!!!
Click to expand...
Have you tried using the legs from your encore? They look the same!
 
One of the VC dealers provided an install guide to the rebuild kit for the Defiant & Encore N/C's.

I've posted it for your mutual enjoyment.
 

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Thanks Fohrman. It looks like my fountain assembly is in need of replacement in just 1 and a half years of burning (see VC NC Encore post 1/09).
What to do. Buy all the parts needed and repair, fix my 2550 out in the garage (have all the parts) or purchase a Jotul F 50 TL. Love top loading.
 
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