Greetings fellow stove stokers and happy holidays as well. Just became a member although I discovered this site a couple of months ago and haven’t gone a day without it since . A great resource for folk like us. I have been burning an 89 VC Defiant Encore for 2 months now. I bought it used last year and did a rebuild on it this past fall and am presently in love with burning wood in my own stove in my living room. The stove saw regular use by the original owner but was well cared for and maintained. I received all his records when I picked it up. I replaced all the gaskets, the refractory box, the secondary probe and the andirons. I also purchased the rear heat shield to reduce the wall clearance and installed a new StoveCat combustor . Did lots of touch up to the porcelain with filler and paint. Stove looks great and works great most of the time. Here is my one concern. The other night I saw the combustor glowing more than usual and the stove was running a lot hotter even at a low setting. I looked at secondary plate and it was up. A close look revealed that the secondary probe Bi-metal spring was rotated 180 degrees which explained why it was now opening. Could over firing cause this scenario? The only other thing I noticed was that the door glass was totally smoked and I saw a lot of creosote inside the stove after I let it go out. I did burn some different wood that night and have held off on burning more of that particular wood. Does wood that burns more Smokey tend to generate a hotter secondary burn? The stove seems fine and is still running well with my original wood pile. Any thoughts anyone? I’m not looking for a lot of additional questions about my set up unless you have some theories that require them. Thanks and happy stoking.
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