I have had this stove since 1986 and it has served me well! I have rebuilt it 5-6 times over its life and it is now due for another. The ceramic board is crumbling and last week the cat just stopped working. There are no warped cast pieces and everything is in really great shape. The stove is only used in shoulder season or for ambience when we want to look at the flames in the living room. For the main heat I have a Energy Mate heavily modded furnace that is ducted from the basement. The mods on that stove include secondary combustion tubes, fully brick lined fire box, top, bottom, sides and baffle as well as a glass insert on the door. I have been very happy with the modifications the past few seasons with my furnace.
So now the question arises in my modding of the defiant/encore?? I will not be rebuilding the combustion chamber in the rear out of ceramic this time, I am going to line it with 1/2 inch fire brick and ditch the cat. I will also be closing up the secondary air port in the back bottom of the stove and leave the primary as is. I will be installing some secondary burn tubes where the cat use to sit. The secondary tubes will start at the rear bottom part of the stove and end about half way up where the exhaust enters the secondary chamber.
For those that are familiar with this stove would you also run another set of secondaries in the main firebox or leave it be with just one set in the rear? I am also contemplating drilling the start of the secondaries on the bottom of the exterior sides of the fire box and drilling another set of holes in the rear of the firebox into the secondary chamber and route them to the middle exhaust area. Any thoughts would be great!
I have modded MANY of pre EPA stoves for my own use as well as helped friends and people on this site, but I have never modded an EPA approved stove and one as complex as this. The stove is a thing of beauty but some of the components and engineering seem to be lacking. Again if you know this stove and have any helpful ideas on my modification I would be all ears. I really don't care about voiding the UL FWIW. Thanks in advance
So now the question arises in my modding of the defiant/encore?? I will not be rebuilding the combustion chamber in the rear out of ceramic this time, I am going to line it with 1/2 inch fire brick and ditch the cat. I will also be closing up the secondary air port in the back bottom of the stove and leave the primary as is. I will be installing some secondary burn tubes where the cat use to sit. The secondary tubes will start at the rear bottom part of the stove and end about half way up where the exhaust enters the secondary chamber.
For those that are familiar with this stove would you also run another set of secondaries in the main firebox or leave it be with just one set in the rear? I am also contemplating drilling the start of the secondaries on the bottom of the exterior sides of the fire box and drilling another set of holes in the rear of the firebox into the secondary chamber and route them to the middle exhaust area. Any thoughts would be great!
I have modded MANY of pre EPA stoves for my own use as well as helped friends and people on this site, but I have never modded an EPA approved stove and one as complex as this. The stove is a thing of beauty but some of the components and engineering seem to be lacking. Again if you know this stove and have any helpful ideas on my modification I would be all ears. I really don't care about voiding the UL FWIW. Thanks in advance
