As some of you that have provided input on my prior posts know, I finally "upgraded" from the steel Magnolia stove to a Vermont castings vigilant 1977 (old school), I know that there are a lot of Nay sayers out there that will say this was the wrong thing to do.
But I couldn't be happier, for example it was 5 deg outside lastnight without the windchill and that stove chugged along with a flue temp of only 275-300 and the room that the stove was in was an easy 80 deg. Something that the magnolia with a larger firebox and EPA certified secondary combustion chamber was never able to accomplish.. even when outside temps were much higher. I have had warmer nights in the 30's where the kids told me they couldn't sleep upstairs in the back of the house because it was too warm in their rooms. When it is up into the 40's there are days I let the furnace run because it cranks so much heat. Same house, chimney, and pretty much wood, and style of burning only difference is the stove.
I am sold on this stove, it took a lot of convincing for me to even try the stove, the seller of the stove worked on me for a year to at least try it, and finally told me to just take the stove run it for a few months and see if it heats better than my current stove at the time. Like most people I assumed that newer technology was the way to go (and for some it is). But for me the old school seems to be a lot better. Funny part is after the first week of test driving the Vigilant my son told me to buy this and sell the newer stove because it was out performing the other stove.
I am learning every day about the stove, like when it is above 25 outside just put 1-2 pieces of wood in at a time. As far as it being a smoke dragon, I really don't notice it being that bad, I can get my flue temps up pretty high if I choose more than once the flue has read over 700, so no smoke in that range, and I do try to hold it at that range for a few minutes every couple of days to clean the chimney, and the thing I now laugh about is that at a certain point the auto thermostat (damper) will shut down after a short while in that range and drop the flue temps to with in a safer range. Even if I forget to adjust the thermostat or flip the damper the stove remembers.
I am currently running it from the 8 in oval to a 6" SS chimney, and have been contemplating upgrading to an 8" SS as recommended by VC to see if it would perform even better. My only concern now is when I do run it in Horizontal mode to get that new fangleded secondary combustion to make it heat more and smoke less, the stove temp drops too low to me, and the flue temps drop to around 250. From what I have heard I guess that could be a normal range for this stove to run in when in horizontal. I can say that when the secondary does kick in you know it because you can hear it roar, so there is no doubt those gases are being ignited.
Its a shame that they really don't make them like this anymore, and I tend to be a firm believer that when something works this well the Govt always finds a way to mess it up.
Bottom line would I recommend one of these, in a heartbeat, just do your research on the stove, do your light test to check the seams and joints, make sure the fire back is not cracked etc.
Then get ready for odd looks like I did from my oil dealer when I told them I only wanted one tank of oil for the entire year lol.
But I couldn't be happier, for example it was 5 deg outside lastnight without the windchill and that stove chugged along with a flue temp of only 275-300 and the room that the stove was in was an easy 80 deg. Something that the magnolia with a larger firebox and EPA certified secondary combustion chamber was never able to accomplish.. even when outside temps were much higher. I have had warmer nights in the 30's where the kids told me they couldn't sleep upstairs in the back of the house because it was too warm in their rooms. When it is up into the 40's there are days I let the furnace run because it cranks so much heat. Same house, chimney, and pretty much wood, and style of burning only difference is the stove.
I am sold on this stove, it took a lot of convincing for me to even try the stove, the seller of the stove worked on me for a year to at least try it, and finally told me to just take the stove run it for a few months and see if it heats better than my current stove at the time. Like most people I assumed that newer technology was the way to go (and for some it is). But for me the old school seems to be a lot better. Funny part is after the first week of test driving the Vigilant my son told me to buy this and sell the newer stove because it was out performing the other stove.
I am learning every day about the stove, like when it is above 25 outside just put 1-2 pieces of wood in at a time. As far as it being a smoke dragon, I really don't notice it being that bad, I can get my flue temps up pretty high if I choose more than once the flue has read over 700, so no smoke in that range, and I do try to hold it at that range for a few minutes every couple of days to clean the chimney, and the thing I now laugh about is that at a certain point the auto thermostat (damper) will shut down after a short while in that range and drop the flue temps to with in a safer range. Even if I forget to adjust the thermostat or flip the damper the stove remembers.
I am currently running it from the 8 in oval to a 6" SS chimney, and have been contemplating upgrading to an 8" SS as recommended by VC to see if it would perform even better. My only concern now is when I do run it in Horizontal mode to get that new fangleded secondary combustion to make it heat more and smoke less, the stove temp drops too low to me, and the flue temps drop to around 250. From what I have heard I guess that could be a normal range for this stove to run in when in horizontal. I can say that when the secondary does kick in you know it because you can hear it roar, so there is no doubt those gases are being ignited.
Its a shame that they really don't make them like this anymore, and I tend to be a firm believer that when something works this well the Govt always finds a way to mess it up.
Bottom line would I recommend one of these, in a heartbeat, just do your research on the stove, do your light test to check the seams and joints, make sure the fire back is not cracked etc.
Then get ready for odd looks like I did from my oil dealer when I told them I only wanted one tank of oil for the entire year lol.
