2019/20 VC Owners thread

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Newbie poster and stove user here. I've been observing this form for a while now, learning a lot. I wanted to see if anyone could provide some thoughts or advice. My backstory, I recently built a vacation home/second residence in the northern Catskills in New York. I wanted to have a wood stove for heat while I'm there, however, there is propane baseboard as a backup. This is our first winter in the home. We use the propane baseboard set low to prevent the house from freezing, and the wood stove as primary heat while there. We had a few nights dip into the 40s late August/early September so we seasoned a brand new Vermont Castings Defiant with some small quick fires per the manual, just to get the chill out of the air.

This past weekend temps didn't get out of the 50s and were into the 30s at night, so we decided to go full force with the stove. Here is what we did/learned. It is a catalytic stove, which I've been reading mixed opinions on. But it's what we were sold, so let's roll with it. We are burning all hardwood. It is not as seasoned as I'd like, I would admit.

To get it going, we put a couple of pieces of crumbled newspaper and two or three strips of fatwood with one smallish split log. We leave the damper open and door cracked for a bit to let as much oxygen fuel the fire. Once the larger log ignites, we close the front doors. Then we add some logs to the top, stacking it full for an overnight burn. We let the temperature get to about 550-600 at the stove top (per the magnetic thermometer), and the flames are roaring. We then close the damper. Upon closing the damper, the flames basically die down to a glow or nothing much at all. This is when my better half starts yelling at me that it's not working right. And I say, to the contrary, this is how catalytic stoves work. We burned all night and when I woke up, the stovetop was at about 200 with some hot coals left. I opened the damper, threw another couple of logs on the fire, and let it continue to warm up until it burned out. Then we didn't need the heat much during the day. We reignited the fire again for our second night.

So I guess my questions are: am I doing this right? Are we not supposed to see crazy flames when the damper is shut? Additionally, is it ok to just let the fire slow burn overnight with the damper closed although the temp eventually gets to below 250? My wife sees the "creosote" meter on the thermometer and freaks that we are going to burn the house down.

The little catalytic gauge on the back of the stove isn't moving at all...even when the stove rips at 600 degrees for some time. We also have a blower installed on it that doesn't seem to work...I called our installer about it..waiting to hear back.

So how am I doing? Ideally I'd like more seasoned wood to burn.....we have some blacking on the glass already. I plan on cleaning the chimney in the spring. And this is only for part-time use while we are there which is every couple of weekends. Am I missing anything with operating this stove? I have used other wood stoves when I was younger, however they were older models and had dampers that partially opened/closed. The Defiant has open/close damper setting and a separate temperature control. Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance.
 
It sounds like you are doing things mostly correct. The cat meter on the back of the stove will only rise when the damper is closed, and there is enough heat in the firebox to light off the cat. If you don't have a good coal bed, the cat will not light off and you will stall the cat. Normally it lights off around 500 and with dry seasoned wood will get to around 1400. Your wood is probably well below seasoned, and the firebox isn't quite hot enough.

You should see cat temps around 1100 and flue temps around 400 with little or no flames when you are cruising. If you do not need as much heat, just turn down the air after letting the cat light off. It is easier to maintain a bed of coals and not have to do a cold start every night.
 
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Did not sell the Encore yet. Had somebody at my former employer (I retired the beginning of this month) said was intrested a few weeks ago but think that fell through so will probably put it back on Craig's List for $850 as has been suggested here as a good selling price. Wifey wants it out of the garage and be done with it.
Congrats on the retirement
 
I'm a newbie to the cat stove world as well, but my understanding has been that running the stove on low heat overnight is within design spec. The fact that the stove top thermo is at 300 degrees and says "creosote" does not mean you are actually creating large scale creosote throughout the night. When using the cat, once ignited, it tends to stay ignited for a long time (sustaining the combustion environment via its own heat generation) and the cat chamber will stay at >500 degrees and burn very very cleanly (should not see dark chimney smoke).

Crazy flames will not be a part of your life, aside from getting a new fire start up to temp. I get nice lazy flames when the damper is shut and typically the coals burn a deep orangish-red.

The window blackening will happen more with unseasoned wood. I find that when temps inside the stove get to ~600 it starts to clean itself. I have cleaned the glass once after the first couple burns (those low temp burns with fatwood are a recipe for dirty glass) but haven't since then, Most of the time my glass is 95% clean and 5% dirty. I do have dry wood tho...

I was pushed to get a digital cat thermometer (Auber AT100 and K probe) from the gentlemen on this site and it has been great for learning my new Encore. It's probably $70 bucks all-in, so not cheap, but beats the pants off the probe ON THE BACK of the stove.

Btw, congrats on the new stove! Overall my experience has been almost too smooth with the new VC. I keep on waiting for an issue :). I will say, once you get comfortable with it, the overnight burns are fantastic with these cat stoves. I keep waking up after 8+ hours with a 300+ degree stove, a heap of hot coals, and a warm house.

I'm sure someone will correct me if anything I stated here is wrong.
 
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2040 - just got it last week!
When you get a moment, can you add your stove make/model to your signature line? You can do this by clicking on your avatar name in the upper right, then click on Signature.
 
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A visit to the VC dealer today found that VC no longer supplies an OAK for the Intrepid. And I think this may have extended to all models but not sure. Dealer said that VC did not make any of they're OAK's anyways and they were outsourced. Not rocket science to make one save for the need to have a 3 1/2" reducer to 3" on the intake pipe. The new September 2019 owners manual they dropped the part # for the OAK but still mention the need to have one in certain circumstances.
 
When you get a moment, can you add your stove make/model to your signature line? You can do this by clicking on your avatar name in the upper right, then click on Signature.
I believe I finally figured out my signature but not sure
 
I'm a newbie to the cat stove world as well, but my understanding has been that running the stove on low heat overnight is within design spec. The fact that the stove top thermo is at 300 degrees and says "creosote" does not mean you are actually creating large scale creosote throughout the night. When using the cat, once ignited, it tends to stay ignited for a long time (sustaining the combustion environment via its own heat generation) and the cat chamber will stay at >500 degrees and burn very very cleanly (should not see dark chimney smoke).

Crazy flames will not be a part of your life, aside from getting a new fire start up to temp. I get nice lazy flames when the damper is shut and typically the coals burn a deep orangish-red.

The window blackening will happen more with unseasoned wood. I find that when temps inside the stove get to ~600 it starts to clean itself. I have cleaned the glass once after the first couple burns (those low temp burns with fatwood are a recipe for dirty glass) but haven't since then, Most of the time my glass is 95% clean and 5% dirty. I do have dry wood tho...

I was pushed to get a digital cat thermometer (Auber AT100 and K probe) from the gentlemen on this site and it has been great for learning my new Encore. It's probably $70 bucks all-in, so not cheap, but beats the pants off the probe ON THE BACK of the stove.

Btw, congrats on the new stove! Overall my experience has been almost too smooth with the new VC. I keep on waiting for an issue :). I will say, once you get comfortable with it, the overnight burns are fantastic with these cat stoves. I keep waking up after 8+ hours with a 300+ degree stove, a heap of hot coals, and a warm house.

I'm sure someone will correct me if anything I stated here is wrong.

Thanks for your reply. I have similar lazy glowing flames, however the glass is somewhat blackened in spots so hard to see. Since this was the first weekend we fully used the stove for heat, it was a little different for us than running those quick fires to get the chill out of the air and season the box. We loaded the box up on Friday night after the fire was roaring and once the new logs caught, we shut the damper. I woke up 8 hours later to a 300 degree stovetop and glowing coals, so it was very easy to throw a couple of logs on for the cold morning. And yes, I did notice more smoke from the chimney when we had the damper open, and once it was shut, the smoke was minimal and not dark in color at all. So I guess it's working!

Could you please explain how this Auber AT100 works? Do you attach it to the cat directly somehow?
 
Alivegas99, you've got it figured out with the Encore well it seems. I had one for two years and couldn't keep it from back puffing on low temps. Turned out I was trying to run it too low to keep from overheating the room it was in which reduced the draft to the point in a 21' 6" flue that the draft could not pull the off gassing fast enough. To keep it from off gassing had to crank it up and get a larger coal base which over heated the room. I think with the Encore a 8" flue is preferable over the 6" no matter the length which would have helped. Lessen learned too big a stove. Got a smaller stove (above thread) and life is better with a VC. Make no mistake though no matter the VC stove it's all about establishing a proper coal bed. This may take an hour to do. But enjoy the Encore, it sounds like it's working well.
 
Thanks Kevin - I've definitely got more house than stove, and a >30ft interior chimney, so I guess in those aspects the wind is at my back (or going up my flue pipe?).

RJ - The K probe (temperature probe) goes exactly where the current probe is on the back of the stove. That is the entire installation! The AT100 is just the display / user interface. It allows you to see, digitally, what temperature the K-probe is reading as well as set alarms for maximum cat temps.

The most useful thing about the probe is how easy it is to tell that your stove has gone into cat mode. Just in the few weeks I've had it, my hunch for exactly when I can throw the damper and engage the cat has gotten pretty darn good. If you throw too early it tells you, because the cat probe will sit at something like 350 degrees. If you engage it at the right time it will shoot upward well over 500 degrees in a few minutes.

My cat has yet to get into the 1,400's, I've heard some here say it gets dicey at over 1,700 degrees so my alarm is set at 1,650. I tested the alarm at low temperatures and it is quite a loud and annoying alarm! Definitely would wake me up.
 
My cat has yet to get into the 1,400's, I've heard some here say it gets dicey at over 1,700 degrees so my alarm is set at 1,650. I tested the alarm at low temperatures and it is quite a loud and annoying alarm! Definitely would wake me up.
The catalyst can get damaged at 1600º.
 
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Good morning everyone. Hopefully we are all almost ready for another burn season.
Question for the experts:
I am about to clean the chimney, replace the griddle gasket, put in a new cat. I am debating if I should replace the bypass gasket (no easy task). It has been four years since the rebuilt and the stove has been used almost 24/7 Nov to Apr (less several winter vacations).
 
Hello, I am new to this forum. We just installed our first wood burning stove, a biscuit-color Defiant. Today is the third time we are using it.
 

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Hello, I am new to this forum. We just installed our first wood burning stove, a biscuit-color Defiant. Today is the third time we are using it.
Beautiful looking stove. Welcome to the forum. Lots of excellent information you will find here.
 
Hello, I am new to this forum. We just installed our first wood burning stove, a biscuit-color Defiant. Today is the third time we are using it.

Such a pretty stove


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Hello, I am new to this forum. We just installed our first wood burning stove, a biscuit-color Defiant. Today is the third time we are using it.
Congratulations on the new stove. Youll get years of beautiful fires in that stove. The defiant is a big stove. Were on the east coast are you..
 
Beautiful looking stove. Welcome to the forum. Lots of excellent information you will find here.
Thank you! The stove is performing great. I spent a lot of time on this forum before we made the decision to go with a VC stove. :) Lots of great information, thank you.
 
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Intrepid Flex-Burn update: installed a 3" OAK per manual to see if any immediate difference. No immediate difference. But it did get to 50 this afternoon from 27 this morning and no wind. The difference in incoming outside air tempature 49 or so compared to the 66 room temp did not affect the flu temps or the secondary burn temps. So one questioned answered. Other questions to be answered later if this will make a less drafty house when winter really gets here and on a windy day will it affect the draft in the stove? So far in the non-cat mode this stove rates a solid 'B' maybe a 'B+' for me. Will get with the cat mode later when it gets colder to rate that.
 
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Intrepid Flex-Burn update: installed a 3" OAK per manual to see if any immediate difference. No immediate difference. But it did get to 50 this afternoon from 27 this morning and no wind. The difference in incoming outside air tempature 49 or so compared to the 66 room temp did not affect the flu temps or the secondary burn temps. So one questioned answered. Other questions to be answered later if this will make a less drafty house when winter really gets here and on a windy day will it affect the draft in the stove? So far in the non-cat mode this stove rates a solid 'B' maybe a 'B+' for me. Will get with the cat mode later when it gets colder to rate that.

I hope it does well for you. We looked really hard at it but passed for the little Morso. Is yours enameled? That was a big draw for us.
 
No, just the basic Classic Black. Wifey didn't want to spend extra $600 or so for the enameled ones. Plus easier repair of paint than enamel. If there were no price difference the then enamel it would be though.
 
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