Tempwood retirement/upgrade

[Flamestead]

I am looking to retire the Tempwood and am considering the VC Defiant 2 in 1, but am concerned about all the Defiants on Craig's list that cite too much heat. The house is 1790's, 3,500 sq ft but we close half the rooms off in the winter. Basic layout is 4 square rooms per floor with central hallway that runs from front to back, two interior chimneys. My concern is the Defiant will drive us out of the kitchen. Down the road I might do a fireplace insert in the diagonally opposite room of the house, but for now the one wood stove and a backup FHA oil furnace are the plan. I'm thinking that with the 2 in 1 can I run in non-cat this time of year and throttle it back some, and then use the cat in colder weather. About 20 days of the winter the Tempwood is clearly too small, but I don't want to go too big.

As an aside, this is my first post, but I've been lurking off and on several years, and have found the information shared here very useful.

 

[dafattkidd]

I have never burned in the VC before but I can tell you that I have a 3.2 cf insert heating a drafty 1700 sf. I could over heat the place if I fully loaded it every load, but I control my heat output by reducing the amount of wood I feed the stove. When I want more heat on those super cold days/nights I load 'er up. But most of the time I'm building smaller fires in a larger firebox, and I'm thankful to have the extra firepower on the rare occasion that I need it.

The only head's up with buying a used VC is I have read some posts that say it can get expensive to buy replacement parts for a VC, and there was a time when VC was putting out inferior products for whatever reason, but I could be wrong on that. I'm sure some of the former VC owners or current VC owners will chime in. Hope that helps. Good luck!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum Flamestead.

It is very common for folks to learn their stove is too small. It is very rare for folks to complain their stove is too big. I recommend erring on the large side because of that. After all, nothing says you have to completely fill a stove if you do not need that much heat. VC has had some problems and I don't know their present situation. They used to be an excellent stove but many folks have had problems. Have you considered a Woodstock stove? A Fireview is an excellent stove and if you want bigger, their new Progress is fantastic. You can look them up at woodstove.com

 

[Todd]

I think it would be better in your case to use the Defiant in the cat mode to get a lower output. If it does get too hot in the kitchen a small fan will help or opening the unused rooms will help cool things off.

 

[Dune]

Which Tempwood do you have, the small one or the large one?
If you have the large one, and it is too small, then there is no way a defiant is going to be too much stove.
If you have the small one, then that may well be the case.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I am looking to retire the Tempwood and am considering the VC Defiant 2 in 1, but am concerned about all the Defiants on Craig's list that cite too much heat. The house is 1790's, 3,500 sq ft but we close half the rooms off in the winter. Basic layout is 4 square rooms per floor with central hallway that runs from front to back, two interior chimneys. My concern is the Defiant will drive us out of the kitchen. Down the road I might do a fireplace insert in the diagonally opposite room of the house, but for now the one wood stove and a backup FHA oil furnace are the plan. I'm thinking that with the 2 in 1 can I run in non-cat this time of year and throttle it back some, and then use the cat in colder weather. About 20 days of the winter the Tempwood is clearly too small, but I don't want to go too big.

As an aside, this is my first post, but I've been lurking off and on several years, and have found the information shared here very useful.

In theory, the 2-in-1 stoves should be better and lower in maintenance than past VCs.
If the new, harder, fire-brick-like assembly works as it should, it should last much, much longer.
The catalysts on the stove also have a lower replacement cost and are in line with other catalytic stove.

Would I buy one? Yes. Can I recommend one to someone else? No. Since there is no track record for the stove at this point.

To throttle back the stove, you want to run in cat mode. I would just run it in cat mode all the time, to be honest.

The Progress Hybrid is an option as well, but no one has even burned the stove yet. The stoves have not shipped yet. If you order yours now, you may not receive yours for a few months. A call to them would be needed.

I am in the same situation as you with an old house that contains smaller rooms in a not-so-open floor plan. It is incredibly tough to heat with one stove.

 

[Flamestead]

Which Tempwood do you have, the small one or the large one?
If you have the large one, and it is too small, then there is no way a defiant is going to be too much stove.
If you have the small one, then that may well be the case.

I have the larger Tempwood, supposed to be a 55,000 BTU stove. Wonderful stove to burn - I generally use no matches from mid November until mid March because it can restart on one glowing coal.

I've been following threads here on the VC issues, and am not settled on the Defiant. Sounds like some more head-scratching is in order.

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Which Tempwood do you have, the small one or the large one?
If you have the large one, and it is too small, then there is no way a defiant is going to be too much stove.
If you have the small one, then that may well be the case.

I have the larger Tempwood, supposed to be a 55,000 BTU stove. Wonderful stove to burn - I generally use no matches from mid November until mid March because it can restart on one glowing coal.

I've been following threads here on the VC issues, and am not settled on the Defiant. Sounds like some more head-scratching is in order.

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

Ignore BTU ratings. What is the firebox size?

 

[Flamestead]

Which Tempwood do you have, the small one or the large one?
If you have the large one, and it is too small, then there is no way a defiant is going to be too much stove.
If you have the small one, then that may well be the case.

I have the larger Tempwood, supposed to be a 55,000 BTU stove. Wonderful stove to burn - I generally use no matches from mid November until mid March because it can restart on one glowing coal.

I've been following threads here on the VC issues, and am not settled on the Defiant. Sounds like some more head-scratching is in order.

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

Ignore BTU ratings. What is the firebox size?

The Tempwood is about 5 cu ft based on exterior measurements, but then there is the firebrick in the lower third, a bed of ashes, plus the downdraft tubes limit wood placement. Also, I try to not have the wood directly against the steel sides, so effective space might be 2.5 cu ft.