Old Vermont Castings Stoves

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ICY99

New Member
Sep 29, 2008
86
CENTRAL, NY
Hello,

I'm new here so please forgive if this question has already been answered. I realize that most older wood stoves are polluting smoke dragons, but how are the comparisons made? Specifically, I have an 1984 VC Resolute and cannot find any info on its emissions. These stoves were made with secondary burn technology so how bad are they compared to newer stoves for example? Is there data anywhere?

thanks,

Icy99
 
ICY99 said:
Hello,

I'm new here so please forgive if this question has already been answered. I realize that most older wood stoves are polluting smoke dragons, but how are the comparisons made? Specifically, I have an 1984 VC Resolute and cannot find any info on its emissions. These stoves were made with secondary burn technology so how bad are they compared to newer stoves for example? Is there data anywhere?

thanks,

Icy99

Very Bad.......compared to newer stoves. This stove is probably 6x or so as dirty as a EPA stove.

That said, an older stove CAN be burned better by using proper chimneys, wood and techniques. Also, running a stove in the top end of it's range can help.
 
Webmaster said:
ICY99 said:
Hello,

I'm new here so please forgive if this question has already been answered. I realize that most older wood stoves are polluting smoke dragons, but how are the comparisons made? Specifically, I have an 1984 VC Resolute and cannot find any info on its emissions. These stoves were made with secondary burn technology so how bad are they compared to newer stoves for example? Is there data anywhere?

thanks,

Icy99

Very Bad.......compared to newer stoves. This stove is probably 6x or so as dirty as a EPA stove.

That said, an older stove CAN be burned better by using proper chimneys, wood and techniques. Also, running a stove in the top end of it's range can help.

On these older stoves, VC calls for 1.5 inches of sand or ash in the bottom. I decided to take this seriously and switched to sand recently, installed the recommended amount, and I think my firebox temps are up. Certainly, radiation through the bottom is way down, so it stands to reason that the firebox is hotter. Also, I installed a rear heatshield on my Defiant copy. These two things together made it notably easier to attain and maintain high stove temps. This in turn makes it quicker and easier to attain secondary combustion in these older VC stoves.

You might check your secondary air passage in the Resolute. Gaps or cracks in the caulking can make it impossible to get the air where it needs to be for complete combustion, with the added ill effect of also short circuiting your primary air control.
 
Do you mean that there is caulk/cement deep inside the stove ialong parts of the secondary path? I recently re-cemented all of the visible external seams but did not know how to get to the guts of the thing. I do notice that where the secondary path enters the bottom of smoke exit chamber (where the damper is), there is a 3/16 gap visible. The gap looks like it is supposed to be there though.
 
ICY99 said:
Do you mean that there is caulk/cement deep inside the stove ialong parts of the secondary path? I recently re-cemented all of the visible external seams but did not know how to get to the guts of the thing. I do notice that where the secondary path enters the bottom of smoke exit chamber (where the damper is), there is a 3/16 gap visible. The gap looks like it is supposed to be there though.

I am much more familiar with the Defiant, but if you look here http://www.vermontcastings.com/catalog/elements/files/2007/2003688_Fireback_Replace.pdf you will see that the secondary air in the Resolute follows a passage which is formed in the space between the fireback and the stove back, very similar in concept to the Defiant. Cement bridges the gaps between these two castings thus forming the passage, so the passage will not work properly if the cement has failed.

My stove works much better now that I rebuilt that passage and totally isolated it with stove cement from the smoke chamber and the primary air intake. Before I did this, I could stick a pencil in the secondary air port and pass it out the primary air port. That's too big a gap, and if you think about it, it cannot be right. These stoves are controlled by limiting primary air with the flapper door. But the secondary air port is always open, as it should be. If these two passages communicate, then when the primary air door is shut down, primary air will simply enter via the secondary air port -- not good!

I used plenty of stove cement and reinforced it in spots with aluminum window screening, which is easy to cut with scissors into custom shapes. In spots I used bits of gasket material. Now my secondary air passage is totally isolated from flue gasses and primary air, and everything is working much better. By that I mean, secondary combustion is easier to attain, and its easier to attain and sustain stable high temps in the firebox. The stove is a pleasure to use again.

I tore my stove apart to address this and other problems, but you needn't do that just to inspect the passage, which you can do with a bright light that you can move around inside the stove. Peer into the secondary air passage, but put the light inside the firebox, shining into the primary air ports. If light leaks into the secondary air passage, then air will also leak. Second test is to put the light in the smoke chamber and again look down the secondary air passage for light leaking in. Finally, use common sense to inspect the integrity of the secondary passage whereever you can see it. Correct as necessary.

Disassembly is best for addressing serious problems, but some repairs can be attempted without disassembling the stove. The top of the passage is really the bottom of the smoke chamber and can be worked on to some extent by reaching down through the flue collar. The bottom of the passage can be addressed by sliding a long slender stick into the secondary air port and using it like a paddle to smear cement around. Crude, but got me by until I could fix things properly.
 
VTZJ, That is really helpful info. Thanks. I took apart the stove today and found that the secondary combustion chamber was completely full of ash. Also, the cement sealing the area between the primary and secondary air supplies was all cracked and in failure. I hope to have it all sealed up soon.

This stove was left in the house by the previous owner and I haven't had a chance to look at it until now. They didn't take very good care of it, but I'm getting it back to working condition. Amazingly, they were running the stovepipe from it right through drywall into a block chimney with no thimble. The stovepipe also had no screws holding the sections together. On top of that it was missing one leg which they had precariously propped up on a broken old andiron. The insurance inspector came through when I bought the place and took one quick glance at the set up and said that it was just fine!! At the time I didn't even know the fire code but anyone with half a brain could see that it was unsafe.
 
ICY99 said:
VTZJ, That is really helpful info. Thanks. I took apart the stove today and found that the secondary combustion chamber was completely full of ash. Also, the cement sealing the area between the primary and secondary air supplies was all cracked and in failure. I hope to have it all sealed up soon.

Glad to help. Post up when you have her done!
 
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