I have a VC defiant encore. We are getting ready to use it for this season and we noticed the damper lever is loose and seems to no longer be connected to anything. The damper is in the open position and can easily be lifted and moved by hand. I cannot see how to get at the apparatus to reconnect it. Anyone out there ever run into this problem? Thanks for any help. Mark
Vermont Casting Defiant Encore damper problem
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I had the same thing once. it turned out that theres a metal clamp that holds the rod for actuating the damper mechanism- had broken. Take off the flue collar and have a look. The actuating rod should not flop around.
Sounds like the damper door has come loose from one or more of the tabs that hold it in place. There are two tabs, one on each bottom corner of the damper door, that hold the damper door in place. If one is broken the door can come out of the tabs and not close right. It can be put back in place - this is not fun when the stove is running hot and you are using the fire poker, gloves and a flashlight to try to get the door back in place. But we lived for a few years with one of the tabs broken.
There are one or two tabs that hold the rod that connects the handle to the damper door. This can also break. If you are lucky you can remove what is left of a broken tab and replace it. You can try to see these by looking in the stove with the damper door open, but the easiest way, as mentioned above, is to take the flue collar off.
We lived with a broken damper tab for years. When a second one broke we could not use the stove anymore. We thought of getting another stove, but ended up getting a whole fire back kit when replaced the damper door assembly, refractory and some other parts - was close $600 for the parts. Stove works great now. With hindsight it was dumb to run with the broken tab. Now the damper locks in place like it should, every time.
With the broken tab, sometimes the door would close, but still have an air gap. Stove would run quite hot then.
I would take the stove a part and find the problem. The manual can be found on-line or wiki section here. The model number is on the back of stove. There are some places to get parts on-line, but it often takes a couple weeks to get the parts. Local dealers, if they don't stock the parts, can take a few weeks to get the parts as well.
If you are going to use the stove much this winter I would take it apart to find the issue. We pushed are luck because we didn't know how the stove should work. The damper tab was broken when we bought the house. Now I would not run the stove with a broken tab.
There are one or two tabs that hold the rod that connects the handle to the damper door. This can also break. If you are lucky you can remove what is left of a broken tab and replace it. You can try to see these by looking in the stove with the damper door open, but the easiest way, as mentioned above, is to take the flue collar off.
We lived with a broken damper tab for years. When a second one broke we could not use the stove anymore. We thought of getting another stove, but ended up getting a whole fire back kit when replaced the damper door assembly, refractory and some other parts - was close $600 for the parts. Stove works great now. With hindsight it was dumb to run with the broken tab. Now the damper locks in place like it should, every time.
With the broken tab, sometimes the door would close, but still have an air gap. Stove would run quite hot then.
I would take the stove a part and find the problem. The manual can be found on-line or wiki section here. The model number is on the back of stove. There are some places to get parts on-line, but it often takes a couple weeks to get the parts. Local dealers, if they don't stock the parts, can take a few weeks to get the parts as well.
If you are going to use the stove much this winter I would take it apart to find the issue. We pushed are luck because we didn't know how the stove should work. The damper tab was broken when we bought the house. Now I would not run the stove with a broken tab.
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