2018/19 VC Owners Thread

frased said:

Randy... just wondering if this is something I should consider eventually.

I’ve been burning quite a bit now and getting better at choosing the right fuels. That runaway griddle temp burn I had last week was the last time that happened.

I seem to have CAT temps under control now too.

So when I close down my primary even with good load of slower burning CAT engaged oak... should I see no flame? Should I be able to kill the fire completely? Or see a little flame in the middle still? Which is what happens now.

Just wondering how ones controls a burn that gets griddle temps too high even with primary closed. Guess my thought was I should be able to completely kill the fire. Maybe not.

And should I consider disconnecting secondary some day.

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Once I have closed my primary all the way there is no flame in the box. The coals are glowing a dim orange and every now and than there is secondary flames dancing everywhere. I disconnected my secondary air because my cat wants to run hotter than I want it to. If you are able to keep yours under 1500* than I would say leave it alone for now. Does your secondary flapper have that little stopper nub in the lower corner?

CTwith3 said:

View attachment 235636

I know this is a rookie question, but what is the best way to stack wood in my Encore to get the longest burn? Wood is properly seasoned- yes I re-split and take readings with my moisture meter.
Try and cross-cross the splits? Pull all the coals forward and pack the wood in there from the back to the front? 2 (sort of) parallel stacks with the flame between them? A different way?

I have my cat probe in, and am closing the damper when the GT reaches 450-500 and I see the AT100 temperature climb over 500 so the cat is working (it’s in excellent condition). I am trying to keep my GT temperature at about 450-500 as this is how I heat my home.

My doors are not right. I am going to strip off the gasket in a couple of days and redo it. I adjusted them so the gap is equal from top to bottom where they meet, and have adjusted the latch but it doesn’t pass the dollar bill test. I really don’t remember when the door became a problem.

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When I fill my stove I use my shovel and push everything to the back. I then grab my poker I made and drag only the coals forward to the glass. I than spread the ash evenly behind the coals. I like to keep a couple inches of ash in the bottom to prevent the epa holes and any possible ash pan gasket failure to leak air into the firebox. Than using a combination of all sizes of splits I fill the firebox all the way up to the griddle in an E/W orientation. I use big and small splits to come up evenly mainly using the small splits to fill the air gaps between the big splits. Less airspace means more fuel which means longer burn times. Once I get above the andirons I use a piece that spans from one side of the stove to the other to prevent any wood from falling into the glass. If I do everything right and my heat demand is low I can easily get 12 hour burns. I am still only loading twice a day and easily lighting off coals.

Woodsplitter67 said:

If your closing your primary you should see all of the flames go out in the box. You should still see your coals glowing but not super bright.. that is whats going on in my stove

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Regardless of fuel type or how mature the fire is? You can still kill flames?

@CTwith3. If you are doing door gaskets I would do glass gaskets as well.

RandyBoBandy said:

@CTwith3. If you are doing door gaskets I would do glass gaskets as well.

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And gridle gasket as well. Super easy to do and it yields huge benefits.

RandyBoBandy said:

Once I have closed my primary all the way there is no flame in the box. The coals are glowing a dim orange and every now and than there is secondary flames dancing everywhere. I disconnected my secondary air because my cat wants to run hotter than I want it to. If you are able to keep yours under 1500* than I would say leave it alone for now. Does your secondary flapper have that little stopper nub in the lower corner?

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I’m able to keep it under 1500 99% of the time

My secondary flapper does have that little stopper nub yes.

Diabel said:

And gridle gasket as well. Super easy to do and it yields huge benefits.

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Best place to order griddle gasket?

frased said:

Best place to order griddle gasket?

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I just buy it from a local hearth shop. Make sure to get the high density (graphite) gasket. Not the white one.

frased said:

I’m able to keep it under 1500 99% of the time

My secondary flapper does have that little stopper nub yes.

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I removed the nub so the flapper closed all the way. I also put two small magnets on the bottom of the stove so the flapper couldn’t go past closed and start opening again in the top side. I will look for a picture and show you what I mean.

frased said:

Regardless of fuel type or how mature the fire is? You can still kill flames?

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I haven't burned anything other than wood.. so anything else im not sure like.. biobrick..
But yes i can load my stove full of wood and all flames go out and coles get dim.. and i can actually hear my cat running in the back of the stove..

Woodsplitter67 said:

If your closing your primary you should see all of the flames go out in the box. You should still see your coals glowing but not super bright.. that is whats going on in my stove

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I’ve beeen worried about that myself because my GT will eventually drop down to 400 even though the probe reads well over 500. My c0ncern has been that I’m just running my heat up my chimney and not keeping my house warmer.
I still have my question above regarding how to best load with wood.
Additionally, my doors are not passing the dollar bill test regardless of my having tightened the door latch.

Dobish said:

My doors shifted a little bit too after a bit of use. the gasket wasn't the issue, it was the actual adjustment of the handle mechanism to pull the door tighter.

I load mine going e/w and try and load it as jam packed as I can. I do have a bunch of really short pieces that I will put in N/S if they fit.

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I take those real short ones and stand them up vertically on the sides.

Read

CTwith3 said:

I’ve beeen worried about that myself because my GT will eventually drop down to 400 even though the probe reads well over 500. My c0ncern has been that I’m just running my heat up my chimney and not keeping my house warmer.
I still have my question above regarding how to best load with wood.
Additionally, my doors are not passing the dollar bill test regardless of my having tightened the door latch.

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Read post 252

CTwith3 said:

I’ve beeen worried about that myself because my GT will eventually drop down to 400 even though the probe reads well over 500. My c0ncern has been that I’m just running my heat up my chimney and not keeping my house warmer.
I still have my question above regarding how to best load with wood.
Additionally, my doors are not passing the dollar bill test regardless of my having tightened the door latch.

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So there are a number of ways to look at this. Dont take any of this the wrong way.. your always going to lose heat up the chimney. you need to get used to the fact that your griddle temp is not going to be high if you're running it in cat mode with the air all the way down. what you're trying to achieve is an overnight burn so you don't have to get up in the middle of the night and reload. running the stove with the are all the way back will produce heat all night and will allow you to reload in the morning. for me the object of the cat is not to produce heat but produce a clean enough burn for me not to fill my stove pipe up with creosote and cause a fire and burn my house down. the cat does produce heat, the back of the stove is warm my house does drop down in temperature at night, this is to be expected but first thing in the morning when I wake up I have a large amount of Cole's, drop a bunch of wood in it run the temperature up to 600 or so and warm the house back up. My house temp drops at night when I go to bed my house is around 68 degrees when I wake up in the morning my house is 65 to 66 degrees.. i never wake up thinking my house will stay at 68. The object for me, is to burn all night, keep the house at a reasonable temperature, and not have to start a fire from scratch first thing in the am.. right now the temp is not that cold out and i still manage to go 4 or 5 days with out starting a fire from scratch

As for your doors I'd check amd make sure you not getting any air intrusion. One key way is to dampen it down and turn your primary air all the way back. If you fire keeps going your leaking air.. your stove should be at dimly lit coles and no flames

CHIMNEY FIRE!

Hey all man just when I think I have this stove thing dialed in again.

Griddle at 500... already had CAT engaged. Nice little fire. Down to coals and a little log.

Decided bed time load.

So I loaded up sides top bottom with Oak. Somewhat greener.

Anyway the last log I put on didn’t block damper but was tall in the firebox. Sort of in front of it. Definitely not blocking it.

Here’s where things went haywire... my CAT was nearing 1800... so I opened damper to cool it. Left stove unattended for 5 minutes. Came down to chimney temp screaming at 800. I closed damper but I could hear flames reaching the damper back of stove. Chimney hit 1000.

I tried going back n forth closing damper, cooling chimney... opening cooling CAT back n forth... but chimney kept raging...

Did what I had to do! Opened window next to stove and starting chucking flaming logs out.

It worked. Got fire, chimney, CAT under control.

What caused the chimney fire? Or the flames racing up back of stove? Does a hot hot cat also cause that situation?

My chimney etc is new. It wasn’t a creosote fire. Or shouldn’t have been?! But flames were reaching back of stove. It was nuts. Help.

Frased- glad you caught it in time and we’re able to take back control.

I left the house in a hurry this afternoon and thought I’d get back in time to redo my door gaskets, but that didn’t happen so the stove went cold.
I packed my stove like Randy said in post 252 and I had the stove up to 550 for almost an hour to heat the house, and the dialed the air back to run at 450; that was 5 1/2 hours ago, and now I’m down to coals. I was burning cherry and a couple small splits of oak.

Is it possible you have an air leak somewhere


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Hey all... my 2550 was brand new as you know. Never used.

But even though it was never used my fear is my griddle, door, and ash pan gaskets probably lost that sponge affect. Sat for 15-20 years.

When I look at them they have that permanent molded look. Even though they were all brand new still.

I don’t think I need to take my flue collar off too.

Trying not to open a huge can of worms here.

Ordering a gasket kit on amazon today.

Any tips on this job? Removing old cement tricks?

frased said:

Hey all... my 2550 was brand new as you know. Never used.

But even though it was never used my fear is my griddle, door, and ash pan gaskets probably lost that sponge affect. Sat for 15-20 years.

When I look at them they have that permanent molded look. Even though they were all brand new still.

I don’t think I need to take my flue collar off too.

Trying not to open a huge can of worms here.

Ordering a gasket kit on amazon today.

Any tips on this job? Removing old cement tricks?

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Dremel is your friend here! It will clean those grooves in minutes.

Have you done the dollar test on the doors, griddle?

Diabel said:

Dremel is your friend here! It will clean those grooves in minutes.

Have you done the dollar test on the doors, griddle?

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I did not do the dollar test.

I swear the doors seem to seal good.

But I question the griddle. When the firebox is smokey before the draft reverses I get smoke leaking out griddle top. Not normal?

I also thought one time I could see yellow through back side of griddle when closed.

I definitely don’t want to waste time on unneeded gaskets.

My doors seem to seal well. The flame noticeably goes down when I close the doors up.

The griddle gasket in the easiest to replace of them all on the Encore.

Do the test on the griddle, doors and especially the ash pan!!

You shouldn’t see smoke coming out of your stove with everything (doors, griddle top, edges of the glass, ash pan) closed.

Diabel said:

The griddle gasket in the easiest to replace of them all on the Encore.

Do the test on the griddle, doors and especially the ash pan!!

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Dumb question I’m assuming dollar bill test is close doors, griddle, ash pan... see if dollar bill is removable from test spot? Testing sections of gasket.

Searched for this test.