VC Vigilant vs Jotul Oslo or Firelight

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myselfnjit

Member
Dec 6, 2011
20
Central NY
Hi all
my first post is a big question.
I have a 2000sqft house that I heat primarily with wood. I have been heating this way for the 8 years of my living there with a VC Vigilant in the 700 sqft basement. I burn 4.5 - 5 cord of wood a year cut and split my myself. Two years ago, I had a raging chimney fire that required a replacement SS insulated flue to fix, the clay liner was pretty beat. The VC uses an 8" flue but because of curves in the flue, a 6" had to be put it. (the flue curves around the upstairs fireplace) Since the replacement, the VC does not run as well and forget about opening a the front doors for any amount of time.

I have been contenplating a new stove and need to heat the same house and hopefully more efficiently. Would the Oslo or Firelight be a good choice? any other good choices given my situation? I live in central NY to give you an idea of my temps.
thanks in advance.
 
Maybe.

After your mentioned "curve" in the flue, does it merge with the fireplace flue? (i.e., two appliances using one chimney?). If so, there may be a problem with that. If there are two separate chimneys in one chase, that's a different story.

I heat 2000 feet of my house with a firelight cb. Twelfth season. 'very good heater. We don't use our furnace at all. (We're very well insulated, and use about 3.5 cords of pine per season.) It has a 6 inch connector, but goes into 8" insulated which was already installed in the house. (The gas heaters listed in my sig. are "down hill" from the convective heat of the stove.)

Best Regards,
 
myselfnjit said:
Hi all
my first post is a big question.
I have a 2000sqft house that I heat primarily with wood. I have been heating this way for the 8 years of my living there with a VC Vigilant in the 700 sqft basement. I burn 4.5 - 5 cord of wood a year cut and split my myself. Two years ago, I had a raging chimney fire that required a replacement SS insulated flue to fix, the clay liner was pretty beat. The VC uses an 8" flue but because of curves in the flue, a 6" had to be put it. (the flue curves around the upstairs fireplace) Since the replacement, the VC does not run as well and forget about opening a the front doors for any amount of time.

I have been contenplating a new stove and need to heat the same house and hopefully more efficiently. Would the Oslo or Firelight be a good choice? any other good choices given my situation? I live in central NY to give you an idea of my temps.
thanks in advance.

I run a Vigilant. I actually run a Vigilant with a 6" liner and it runs pretty good for me, thankfully. I feel that the Vigilant is in between the Oslo and the Firelight in terms of heat output. One poster here went from a Vigilant to the F600 Firelight and is happy with the decision so far.

If this were me, I would go with the F600 Firelight.
 
Other choices to look at:

Quadrafire Isle Royal
Pacific Energy Summit
Pacific Energy T6
Vermont Castings Defiant
Englander 30NC
Lopi Liberty
BlazeKing Princess or Chinook
Woodstock Progress Hybrid (New stove, no idea how it compares to the Vigilant's heat output)
 
Dexter said:
Maybe.

After your mentioned "curve" in the flue, does it merge with the fireplace flue? (i.e., two appliances using one chimney?). If so, there may be a problem with that. If there are two separate chimneys in one chase, that's a different story.

I heat 2000 feet of my house with a firelight cb. Twelfth season. 'very good heater. We don't use our furnace at all. (We're very well insulated, and use about 3.5 cords of pine per season.) It has a 6 inch connector, but goes into 8" insulated which was already installed in the house. (The gas heaters listed in my sig. are "down hill" from the convective heat of the stove.)

Best Regards,

It is 2 seperate flues in one block then stone chimeny. the unused fireplace is still 8X12 clay but the new 6" SS is in its own, insulated well and down to the VC vigilant right now. I burn hardwood only and have had difficulty with smokey,dying fires since replacing the flue with a 6". If upgrading I want to be able to heat my 2000sqft AND burn less wood doing it!
 
Of the three choices listed . . . F-600 Firelight.
 
BrowningBAR said:
Other choices to look at:

Quadrafire Isle Royal
Pacific Energy Summit
Pacific Energy T6
Vermont Castings Defiant
Englander 30NC
Lopi Liberty
BlazeKing Princess or Chinook
Woodstock Progress Hybrid (New stove, no idea how it compares to the Vigilant's heat output)

I have a Lopi and Jotul dealer near me, I will check out the rest. thanks for all of the choices!
do any of them stand out as a value like burn efficiency and $ to purchase?
 
myselfnjit said:
BrowningBAR said:
Other choices to look at:

Quadrafire Isle Royal
Pacific Energy Summit
Pacific Energy T6
Vermont Castings Defiant
Englander 30NC
Lopi Liberty
BlazeKing Princess or Chinook
Woodstock Progress Hybrid (New stove, no idea how it compares to the Vigilant's heat output)

I have a Lopi and Jotul dealer near me, I will check out the rest. thanks for all of the choices!
do any of them stand out as a value like burn efficiency and $ to purchase?

For price it's hard to beat the Englander.

For length of burn the Blaze Kings and Woodstock line up rule the roost.

Personally I really like the look of the new PH . . . will be following reports on actual users this Winter fairly closely to hear how this new stove works out.
 
myselfnjit said:
BrowningBAR said:
Other choices to look at:

Quadrafire Isle Royal
Pacific Energy Summit
Pacific Energy T6
Vermont Castings Defiant Catalytic
Englander 30NC
Lopi Liberty
BlazeKing Princess or Chinook Catalytic
Woodstock Progress Hybrid (New stove, no idea how it compares to the Vigilant's heat output) Catalytic

I have a Lopi and Jotul dealer near me, I will check out the rest. thanks for all of the choices!
do any of them stand out as a value like burn efficiency and $ to purchase?

Well, measuring efficiency is tough. The catalytic stoves use different burn systems than the non-catalytic stoves. I highlighted which stoves were catalytic stoves in the above list. Some people love them, others do not. (I run both cat and non-cat stoves)

The best bang for your buck stove is the Englander 30NC. It will give you good burn times, pump out a lot of heat, and is affordable (under a grand).

The longest burns will come from the Blaze King and the Woodstock.
 
almost forgot... my VC vigilant flue comes off of the back of the stove because it is in a converted fireplace. it then goes into a tee and up. can all of these stove do a 90 right off of the top?
 
myselfnjit said:
almost forgot... my VC vigilant flue comes off of the back of the stove because it is in a converted fireplace. it then goes into a tee and up. can all of these stove do a 90 right off of the top?

Quadrafire Isle Royal - Yes
Pacific Energy Summit
Pacific Energy T6
Vermont Castings Defiant Catalytic - Yes
Englander 30NC
Lopi Liberty
BlazeKing Princess or Chinook Catalytic
Woodstock Progress Hybrid - Yes
Jotul Oslo - Yes
Jotul Firelight - Yes
 
Hey Myselfnjit:

You say the two flues run separately into a stone chimney; if they vent to a single chimney, how long is the run of "shared" chimney? If it's more than a few feet, that could cause an insufficient draft problem, I would think. Ther could be a big volume of relatively stagnant, cold air to displace if the area & volume of the stone chimney is too large. An insulated flue pipe through the middle of that might help a lot. Ask a stove/chimney professional (which I am NOT).

Regards
 
Dexter said:
Hey Myselfnjit:

You say the two flues run separately into a stone chimney; if they vent to a single chimney, how long is the run of "shared" chimney? If it's more than a few feet, that could cause an insufficient draft problem, I would think. Ther could be a big volume of relatively stagnant, cold air to displace if the area & volume of the stone chimney is too large. An insulated flue pipe through the middle of that might help a lot. Ask a stove/chimney professional (which I am NOT).

Regards

No shared space. they were two separate flues when clay and are still separate, now the stove flue is Stainless Steel 6" wrapped in insulation. It was installed by a chimney & stove place, pretty well thought of in the area. I think the main draft problem is that the Vigilant is made for an 8" flue and I am choking it down with a 6". There are some curves in the flue and a 90 right out the back of the stove but it was fine when the flue was bigger and I cant change the curves or 90 so maybe a stove designed for a 6" will do it! So I figure I might as well get a good 2000sqft heater that is more efficient than the Vigilant while I am at it. Just trying to get opinions on what is best given my situation.
 
BrowningBAR said:
myselfnjit said:
Hi all
my first post is a big question.
I have a 2000sqft house that I heat primarily with wood. I have been heating this way for the 8 years of my living there with a VC Vigilant in the 700 sqft basement. I burn 4.5 - 5 cord of wood a year cut and split my myself. Two years ago, I had a raging chimney fire that required a replacement SS insulated flue to fix, the clay liner was pretty beat. The VC uses an 8" flue but because of curves in the flue, a 6" had to be put it. (the flue curves around the upstairs fireplace) Since the replacement, the VC does not run as well and forget about opening a the front doors for any amount of time.

I have been contenplating a new stove and need to heat the same house and hopefully more efficiently. Would the Oslo or Firelight be a good choice? any other good choices given my situation? I live in central NY to give you an idea of my temps.
thanks in advance.

I run a Vigilant. I actually run a Vigilant with a 6" liner and it runs pretty good for me, thankfully. I feel that the Vigilant is in between the Oslo and the Firelight in terms of heat output. One poster here went from a Vigilant to the F600 Firelight and is happy with the decision so far.

If this were me, I would go with the F600 Firelight.

I would be that person (I think). I find the F600 throws MUCH more heat than the Vigilant. Great heater and easy to operate once you get used to it as this is the first stove built after 1978 that I have ever operated. I am heating from my basement and keeping the boiler from kicking on to heat 2300 sq feet (two story colonial, not an open floorplan at all) of a well insulated 6 year old home.

I would highly recommend this stove to anyone.
 
I'll weigh in briefly here with my own $.02, which may be all that it's worth.

I am a bit down on Vermont Castings. By all accounts, they used to be a great company... back in the days when they operated out of Vermont. Then, some years ago, they were bought out by a Canadian company, and I've read some posts from people who say their stoves have gone downhill. I personally can't testify that the quality of their stoves has suffered, although perhaps it has. I'll leave that to people who actually own their stoves.

But about 10 years ago I bought a VC outdoor grill. It looked very solid and well-built. It worked fine for perhaps 4 or 5 years, then the burner assembly had deteriorated to the point where it had to be replaced, as did its support brackets. I called the company in Canada and the customer service rep told me they had discontinued that model and did not have any spare parts, at least not the parts I needed. Nice!

Since the grill was no longer usable, I had to throw it out. Bye-bye $600 grill. I never forgot that, and swore never to buy another VC product, since I couldn't count on the company to support its products. Maybe you would disagree with me and say: "Hey, what does this guy expect? A company shouldn't be expected to stock spare parts for 5 years!" But if I knew I'd have to chuck my deluxe grill in less than 5 years, I would have bought a Weber. (Now I do have a Weber!).

About 4 years ago we got a Jotul Castine. I love it-- it's reliable, looks great, kicks out the heat... and I know if I need a spare part, I can get it from Jotul.

Hope this helps!
 
Im pretty sure their grills are actually made in China these days. Anyway, not sure how well VC's new stoves operate, but I heard enough customer service horror stories to steer me away from the company. I went with the Oslo 3 years ago and have no regrets or complaints.
 
I'd offer a strong 2nd on the Isle Royale! I've been a wood burner for over 20 years now and have owned/used at least 12-15 various stoves at our homes, cabins, etc. By far, we like the IR the best! Very easy breather that's super easy to light and relight, a very generous firebox that allows for cigar-style burns, and boy, does this sucker throw some heat!!!

I've had VC stoves in the past, and while they're very attractive and pretty good heaters, they're high-maintenance and part aren't cheap. We also had an Oslo that just never worked right for us and we just replaced it this year with the IR and couldn't be happier!


NP
 
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