VC Vigilant Cracks

[DeRock]

I went and looked at a used Vermont Castings Vigilant woodstove today here in Western Michigan. It had a date of 1977 on the inside of the firebox. It has a tan enamel finish. The owner is asking $650.

The back plate said it could burn wood or coal with an accessory kit. It did not have the coal accessory kit installed.

It had two cracks in the bottom cast plate of the stove.

The first crack starts where the front ash lip starts its curve out from the front of the stove on the left side. This crack extends through the ash lip and into the firebox about 4 inches. I couldn't see daylight through it but the crack could be felt because the metal had a small step in where it was cracked.

The second crack starts at the exact same spot on the right side. It is only cracked through the ash lip.

Other than this the stove looks to be in very good shape.

My questions are:

1. How serious are the cracks?

2. Will they continue to grow?

3. Can they be repaired and what technique would be advised?

4. If they can be repaired what would a reasonable cost be and is it worth it?

5. What would you do?

Thanks in advance!

DeRock

 

[Nonprophet]

Bottom line: $650 is waaaaaay too much to pay for any 1977 Vigilant, much less a cracked one! I see used Vigilants of that vintage for sale pretty regularly (on Craigslist) for $300 or so, and that's without any cracks.

From what I understand, repairing cracks in wood stoves (whether steel or cast iron) is not easy to get done properly and many times the repairs don't hold for very long. Obviously, it's a hassle to keep loading up a heavy stove and taking it to a welder for repairs......We had a steel smoke dragon with a crack on top, and we used it for two seasons by just patching the crack with stove cement, but I'm sure we burnt through a fair amount of extra wood because of that crack. You can drill out the end of the crack to keep it from spreading (easier to do on steel than cast iron as cast iron has a tendency to want to crack more when you drill it if you don’t know what you’re doing....) but again you should be able to find a real nice used stove in that price range without any cracks!

For comparison, I picked up our used 1995 Defiant Encore from a family friend for $100, then spent $150 on a new lower fireback and two andirons, but it's now burning great and we love it!

FWIW I saw some much better deals on Craigslist in Michigan, http://grandrapids.craigslist.org/hsh/1067861648.html is a "like new" Vigilant in enamel finish for $650 in Kalamazoo,
and here are some others in your neck of the woods:

http://grandrapids.craigslist.org/hsh/1066967430.html

http://grandrapids.craigslist.org/hsh/1065634654.html

http://kalamazoo.craigslist.org/hsh/1056257159.html

http://kalamazoo.craigslist.org/for/1056104446.html


One last thing, on feeBay today there was a brand new Dutchwest steel wood stove for $599 plus free shipping, so keep looking, there are much better deals out there!

NP