refresher after a 40-year wood burning hiatus

[MegoryInVermont]

I just purchased a home with a VC Defiant. I am thrilled to be burning wood after not having this opportunity for 40 years.
I have vague memories of how to tackle all of the ins and outs but need more info than what remains in my head.
I'm looking for recommendations on places to go for the very basics, to refresh my memory, to see what might be new in the industry, to learn as a newbie perhaps.
Websites? Threads? Books? Videos? I typed beginner in the forum search hoping to find what I need. No luck yet....
Many thanks!
Megory

 

[begreen]

Moved to the VC Classics forum. There's lots of information on these stoves here.

 

[peakbagger]

I will start you out. First thing is unless the house came with a seasoned pile of firewood, its highly unlikely that any wood you buy right now no matter that the dealer says is truly dry for two years. If you hear any hissing or hitting two pieces of wood gives a thud instead of a snap liek a bat hitting a ball, you really cannot burn wood successfully this winter. In some rare cases you may find a place that sells kiln dried wood for nearly double the regular price or a cord. BTW a cord is 4' by 4' by 8', be careful as folks in NY tend to use the term face cords which is stack 4' High by 8' wide one long deep. Depending on the log depth is may be a 1/3 rd of real cord.

Make sure your chimney has been cleaned and inspected. Invest is a small metal ash can with metal top. Most hardware stores have them or can order them. Treat ashes like nuclear waste until they are outside away from the house as ashes in a can may start a fire days after they were put in there. Dont store ashes on the porch or anything flammable. The stove is designed to run with about an inch of ashes or sand in the bottom ribbed area. Once you get over a couple of inches then you need to shovel them out and odds are there will be hot coals mixed in. Air gets introduced as the base do the fireback, the base of the side door and bit more towards the front doors. Dont let the ash get too deep in these areas.

It looks like an original Defiant with side loading door. The original Defiants were beasts, quite oversized for a typical home but very popular in poorly insulated VT homes. There was a flaw in the first models, there was a recall but some may still be out there. Open up the front door and look at the fireback with the cast pattern and a date in it. If its one piece top to bottom and if its been used much, the fireback will be cracked and distorted. If there is a seam left to right its the modified version. The fireback is important as in the back of it is a casting that forms part of the secondary air passage to the chamber on the right side (looking from the front. When the upper lever is rotated down, the fire is directed into the chamber on the right side of the stove where fresh air is introduced. The hot gases are then routed behind the fireback and then up through the chimney.

The trick is that chamber behind the fireback eventually fills up with ash and it needs to be cleaned out. If you do not the stove will be less efficient, and the fireback will eventually start to warp as the ash behind it acts like insulation. The access to the chamber is under a cast iron cover inside the stove accessed from the chimney connection and the oval cooking plates. The manual which I believe is available in a PDF shows you how to get it. Its not intuitive but once you have done it, you will never forget. You need a vacuum cleaner with crevice brush to clean it out. Because they were so popular in VT, the local chimney sweeps knew how to get at the chamber but its now something that many do not know about.

The other aspect with Defiant's are they best run like a train, they do not take well to sudden changes in loading or air supply. If they are putting out too much heat put less wood in it. If you crank back on the primary air control (the lever with the chain in the left corner back) quickly you may get familiar with "huffing", the first time it happens it will be a WTF moment that most would not care to repeat. Folks do not keep cast iron kettles on the cook plate for the looks, it helps the cook plate from lifting up during a Huff event. The stove will build a bed of good hot coals, if you load it up with fresh wood and crank the air down before going to bed you may get a huff. A small huff will rattle the flap on the primary air damper and possibly spill some smoke out, a big huff could lift the cook plate. It also could separate the chimney pipe or lift if up off the stove(very bad) so make sure your chimney pipe fittings are secured with a minimum if 2 stainless steel screws at every joint. Once you hear it you will know why I call it a "huff".

Its a great stove for its era, the newer EPA stoves can burn cleaner but most lack the capability of using with the front doors open and the screen on.

 

[MegoryInVermont]

peakbagger,
thank you SO MUCH!
This is exactly the kind of personal reception I was hoping to find here. How absolutely WONDERFUL.

The house did indeed come with a cord of dry wood. I tested the stove (after, yep, getting the pipe thoroughly cleaned) but will save the rest of the wood for those late January days.

There is kiln dried wood for sale, a large operation about 20 minutes away and I know I can access 'ready' wood there if I absolutely must (as in, my heat pumps have all died OR the power is out for more than a month.)

Thank you for the reminder about the ash can. I do not see one here so perhaps it dissolved finally, right before the 90 year old lady moved out, leaving me this fantastic home and lovely wood stove. As soon as I read 'ash can' all of those memories came back about trying to move my shovel every soooo sloooooowly in order not to raise ash dust everywhere.

The huffing is a fascinating bit of info. This unit came with a cast iron humidifier so I hope not to deal with HuffStuff on the top plate.

I also recall the tink tink sounds of the back damper 40 years ago. Might have been huffing and I had no idea back then.

Once my current Thanksgiving fire has ended, I will look for those cast pattern markings inside of which you speak. Thank you for the heads up about the recall info!!

What a great help you are.

 

[peakbagger]

Some reading for you to take a look at

Vermont Castings older stoves

The first model from Vermont Castings was the Defiant http://hearth.com/images/uploads/vcdefiant.pdf followed by: Vigilant - http://hearth.com/images/uploads/vcvigi.pdf Resolute - http://hearth.com/images/uploads/vcresi.pdf Intrepid These 4...

www.hearth.com

 

[MegoryInVermont]

Some reading for you to take a look at

Vermont Castings older stoves

The first model from Vermont Castings was the Defiant http://hearth.com/images/uploads/vcdefiant.pdf followed by: Vigilant - http://hearth.com/images/uploads/vcvigi.pdf Resolute - http://hearth.com/images/uploads/vcresi.pdf Intrepid These 4...

www.hearth.com

EXCELLENT! Thank you