2022/23 VC Owner thread

[U235]

Yeah I know the manual says that. The reality is that wax is not the issue, fire starter logs are generally really bad because they contain other stuff (metals) that can poison the catalyst. Same with the colored ink on newspaper. The pure paraffin wax that is used in super cedars will be 100% combusted and leave no residue by the time the catalyst reaches operating temp.

Then there's another consideration. I don't know how your stove behaves with the bypass open but I'm pretty sure my stove has 0% exhaust passing through the catalyst while bypassed. The secondary air just backfeeds into the firebox and I do not see any temp rise on the catalyst until I shut the bypass. Therefore whatever I'm burning during startup has very little chance of passing through the catalyst anyway so I don't worry about

With bypass open, my Auber catalyst probe stays below 150 - fully agree that all the exhaust (and any possible wax issues) is completely missing the catalyst.

Maybe the manual meant: Do not burn firestarters … with the bypass closed.

That’s the interpretation I’m going with.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

We just collect fallen branches.. I have 1 tree that supplies enough branches for cold starting for the entire burning season.. paperbark Burch.. put them in the stove.. 5 seconds with the torch.. and off and running we go..

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Right now Im burning without the cat.. this is what the stoves doing.. no smoke out of the chimney

 

[arnermd]

We just collect fallen branches.. I have 1 tree that supplies enough branches for cold starting for the entire burning season.. paperbark Burch.. put them in the stove.. 5 seconds with the torch.. and off and running we go..

White birch bark..... best fire starter for me.... and free. I always pick up and save shavings after splitting, makes great kindling.

 

[arnermd]

Right now Im burning without the cat.. this is what the stoves doing.. no smoke out of the chimney

Was that peak cat temp? Or maybe you don't know because you don't stare at your stove all day like I do....

 

[gthomas785]

White birch bark..... best fire starter for me.... and free. I always pick up and save shavings after splitting, makes great kindling.

I save all the splitter trash but with 2 stoves I guess I use too much, I always run out. I also save woodworking scraps and small sticks from the yard but somehow I'm still scrounging for kindling..
I guess I could be proactive and split some, but I'd rather just put my feet up by the fire..

 

[arnermd]

I save all the splitter trash but with 2 stoves I guess I use too much, I always run out. I also save woodworking scraps and small sticks from the yard but somehow I'm still scrounging for kindling..
I guess I could be proactive and split some, but I'd rather just put my feet up by the fire..

Maybe you are starting to many fires..... gotta keep em rolling.

 

[gthomas785]

Maybe you are starting to many fires..... gotta keep em rolling.

Yes tell me about it. But my little intrepid only goes for 6-8 hours, so it's out when I wake up. The encore hardly ever needs kindling.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Was that peak cat temp? Or maybe you don't know because you don't stare at your stove all day like I do....

that was pretty much the max temp

 

[sargeott]

Day 4 straight of burning constantly. I haven't been tracking data much passed this since we are into a new pile of wood.
Lows at night about 37 outside and highs of about 55-56 during the day in the pacnw.
We are able to run it with the cat engaged and full throttle on the air until inside temps reach 70ish.
Night time settings are cat engaged and 4 clicks in from full open and we see about 4 hour burns at best with a pine, fir and black walnut mix.
The black walnut burns slow and long.
Just got home from work and attached are pictures of what we have after a warm reload and 1 hour of the cat enabled and full air open. Stove temps stay below 500. They will dip to about 300ish on overnight burns.
Flew temps never get over 250 under any air setting with the cat enabled.
This thing is getting easier to control when outside temps are higher than 28 degrees. Once we see below 32 outside this old cabin is hard to keep warmer than 65 inside.

 

[Eman85]

Cat engaged and full air my cat would go to the moon and stove would be very hot. 4 hour burns is pretty short granted I don't burn pine.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

2hat is the catalyst temperature

 

[GrumpyDad]

Day 4 straight of burning constantly. I haven't been tracking data much passed this since we are into a new pile of wood.
Lows at night about 37 outside and highs of about 55-56 during the day in the pacnw.
We are able to run it with the cat engaged and full throttle on the air until inside temps reach 70ish.
Night time settings are cat engaged and 4 clicks in from full open and we see about 4 hour burns at best with a pine, fir and black walnut mix.
The black walnut burns slow and long.
Just got home from work and attached are pictures of what we have after a warm reload and 1 hour of the cat enabled and full air open. Stove temps stay below 500. They will dip to about 300ish on overnight burns.
Flew temps never get over 250 under any air setting with the cat enabled.
This thing is getting easier to control when outside temps are higher than 28 degrees. Once we see below 32 outside this old cabin is hard to keep warmer than 65 inside.

View attachment 311561 View attachment 311562 View attachment 311563 View attachment 311564

How long is your chimney?
Is this room closed off or is it fairly open?
Do you have a crawlspace or a full basement or sit on cement slab?

My dauntless is by no means a super heater. It takes quite some time to get up to temperature. Usually by 8 hours into a burn Im putting out great, dont know the smell to describe, heat. Ignore STT until you are well into a burn. If the sides are cool enough to touch for more than a couple of seconds your stove isn't producing the heat it needs to heat the room. Ignore cat working, that's meaningless aside from being able to more efficiently and slow burn. If heat is your goal, keep that air control to the point that those sides are also putting out heat. LIke I said it takes awhile to get these stoves warmed up, but once you do you can slow things down and it will continue to send that heat back into the room vs up the pipe. Ultimately the size of the stove is still fairly small. It will keep a 650 sqft w/ cathedral ceiling room fairly warm, 71-73 degrees and also heat the living room next to it to about 68-72 degrees, and the room adjacent as well. From there though temps drop 8 degrees for every 10' I walk it seems. That part is an old leaky part of our cabin that has no heat other than electric baseboards.

Tonight I'll load my stove up as it will be around freezing again, but like you I normally move to 4th from highest, though I think 5th or 6th from highest is where I'll ride this and expect to see chonky red coals in the morning. Maybe throw one medium split in there to keep it going a bit every 3 hours as day time temps are supposed to get up there.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

@sargeott ... please ignore the above post from @GrumpyDad .. it is filled with bad information.. Please pay careful attention to the stove top temperature... it is important AT ALL times. Our stoves have ceramic panels on the sides as to protect the sides of the stove. they will heat up slower. If your not paying attention and taking the advice above you could warp some top parts of the stove like the bypass damper housing.. The top will heat up A LOT faster then the sides.

Your stove as well as mine are both cast.. they put out geat heat in a reasonable amount of time.. definitely less then an hour.. There is no way it takes 8 hours to get good heat out of stoves like ours.. obviously.. that guys doing something incredibly wrong.

The above post is incredibly inaccurate when it comes to the area it will heat.. Results will vary on how much will be heated due to insulation in the house, walls/ Ceilings and floor plan, how easily the heat travels to other spaces and of course how tight the house is.. Your results should be better then his, please dont think you stove will only heat 650sqft. With a good floor plan and installation Id bet you could probably double that..

 

[sargeott]

@sargeott ... please ignore the above post from @GrumpyDad .. it is filled with bad information.. Please pay careful attention to the stove top temperature... it is important AT ALL times. Our stoves have ceramic panels on the sides as to protect the sides of the stove. they will heat up slower. If your not paying attention and taking the advice above you could warp some top parts of the stove like the bypass damper housing.. The top will heat up A LOT faster then the sides.

Your stove as well as mine are both cast.. they put out geat heat in a reasonable amount of time.. definitely less then an hour.. There is no way it takes 8 hours to get good heat out of stoves like ours.. obviously.. that guys doing something incredibly wrong.

The above post is incredibly inaccurate when it comes to the area it will heat.. Results will vary on how much will be heated due to insulation in the house, walls/ Ceilings and floor plan, how easily the heat travels to other spaces and of course how tight the house is.. Your results should be better then his, please dont think you stove will only heat 650sqft. With a good floor plan and installation Id bet you could probably double that..

Yeah, At this point I wasn't chiming in for advice, but more over to provide input that I am figureing this thing out.
4 full cords of wood into it this season & 1 chimney fire ( totally my fault for not running the stove correctly and learning it).
I was able to get the issue put out and cleaned out the chimney. We had a pile of wood that wasn't seasoned long enough and the top of the pile was uncovered to long. We stopped using that wood pile for the year. Also I figured I need to clean the chimney twice during the season to keep it clean. We usually don't get temps below 40s this time of year so we are buring longer into the season than we anticipated.

Its a balance between how long to run with the bypass open to get the stove up to temp, building a bed of coals etc. I dislike sholder season because it takes way more time and wood to get things comfortable than burning constantly.
On a constant 24/7 burn for weeks at a time, we have it down solidly as long as the outside temps don't dip to low. Then it's harder to keep the cabin in the high 60s. We found that sleeping in rotating shifts works best. Ill keep the fire going all night until 10pm, then wife will reload it at about mid night and then Ill reload it at 3 am and again at 6am as I leave for work.

 

[sargeott]

How long is your chimney?
Is this room closed off or is it fairly open?
Do you have a crawlspace or a full basement or sit on cement slab?

My dauntless is by no means a super heater. It takes quite some time to get up to temperature. Usually by 8 hours into a burn Im putting out great, dont know the smell to describe, heat. Ignore STT until you are well into a burn. If the sides are cool enough to touch for more than a couple of seconds your stove isn't producing the heat it needs to heat the room. Ignore cat working, that's meaningless aside from being able to more efficiently and slow burn. If heat is your goal, keep that air control to the point that those sides are also putting out heat. LIke I said it takes awhile to get these stoves warmed up, but once you do you can slow things down and it will continue to send that heat back into the room vs up the pipe. Ultimately the size of the stove is still fairly small. It will keep a 650 sqft w/ cathedral ceiling room fairly warm, 71-73 degrees and also heat the living room next to it to about 68-72 degrees, and the room adjacent as well. From there though temps drop 8 degrees for every 10' I walk it seems. That part is an old leaky part of our cabin that has no heat other than electric baseboards.

Tonight I'll load my stove up as it will be around freezing again, but like you I normally move to 4th from highest, though I think 5th or 6th from highest is where I'll ride this and expect to see chonky red coals in the morning. Maybe throw one medium split in there to keep it going a bit every 3 hours as day time temps are supposed to get up there.

It's a single level 1400sq ft cabin that sits above a gravel base. No basement, no concrete slab.
Chimney is 15 feet tall.

 

[GrumpyDad]

Yeah, At this point I wasn't chiming in for advice, but more over to provide input that I am figureing this thing out.
4 full cords of wood into it this season & 1 chimney fire ( totally my fault for not running the stove correctly and learning it).
I was able to get the issue put out and cleaned out the chimney. We had a pile of wood that wasn't seasoned long enough and the top of the pile was uncovered to long. We stopped using that wood pile for the year. Also I figured I need to clean the chimney twice during the season to keep it clean. We usually don't get temps below 40s this time of year so we are buring longer into the season than we anticipated.

Its a balance between how long to run with the bypass open to get the stove up to temp, building a bed of coals etc. I dislike sholder season because it takes way more time and wood to get things comfortable than burning constantly.
On a constant 24/7 burn for weeks at a time, we have it down solidly as long as the outside temps don't dip to low. Then it's harder to keep the cabin in the high 60s. We found that sleeping in rotating shifts works best. Ill keep the fire going all night until 10pm, then wife will reload it at about mid night and then Ill reload it at 3 am and again at 6am as I leave for work.

Ah I see my little creepy weirdo stalker is back at bashing me.
However, he is right about one thing that I didnt state correct, and obviously he could have verbalized it better but he loves to poke the bear.
You WOULD pay attention to the STT early on to ensure you dont overheat the stove when you start up, but it's fairly useless to determine how much heat you are really producing overall until the stove has been fully heated and the sides are putting out good heat. You would still want to ensure you dont exceed the safe operating temps from first flame to last ember.
And yes, it does take 8 hours to have the stove to the point that you are in auto pilot basically only requiring micro adjustments here and there. 3 hours to get it to start to heat well, and then a load burned down to great coals for the next reload and subsequent reloads therein. Everything between 3-8 hours is building up the stoves capacity to hold heat and build up a great bed of coals for subsequent reloads.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Yeah, At this point I wasn't chiming in for advice, but more over to provide input that I am figureing this thing out.
4 full cords of wood into it this season & 1 chimney fire ( totally my fault for not running the stove correctly and learning it).
I was able to get the issue put out and cleaned out the chimney. We had a pile of wood that wasn't seasoned long enough and the top of the pile was uncovered to long. We stopped using that wood pile for the year. Also I figured I need to clean the chimney twice during the season to keep it clean. We usually don't get temps below 40s this time of year so we are buring longer into the season than we anticipated.

Its a balance between how long to run with the bypass open to get the stove up to temp, building a bed of coals etc. I dislike sholder season because it takes way more time and wood to get things comfortable than burning constantly.
On a constant 24/7 burn for weeks at a time, we have it down solidly as long as the outside temps don't dip to low. Then it's harder to keep the cabin in the high 60s. We found that sleeping in rotating shifts works best. Ill keep the fire going all night until 10pm, then wife will reload it at about mid night and then Ill reload it at 3 am and again at 6am as I leave for work.

So.. Im not from your area and don't know all of the species that grow there..

For longer burns you want dense wood like hickory, or oak split super thick.. You stove is smaller but the method is the same.. if your processing you own wood split square and rectangle this will help you pack the box tight and have very little air gap. My stove is only 2.3 cuft and I regularly get 12+ hours out of a burn. The longest Iv gotten is 16 hours on a load of white oak and pignut hickory

The other part to this is during shoulder season of you want to burn more and longer load the stove with wood that is less dense.. for instance black cherry or poplar.. in comparison a cord.of oak will be roughly 24 million BTUs per cord.. while say Poplar is 14 million BTUs per cord for the same volume of wood. This means if your using oak in shoulder season your heat output is high.. for almost the same amount of wood your getting almost half the the heat.. so youll be burning longer with less restarting.

I dont know what your situation is with wood supply. I know your newer.. it takes time. Im sitting on roughly 14 cords and all the wood is in woodsheds. Most is oak and some is cherry and some maple.. the lighter wood gets used in spring and early fall.. All the big BTU stuff is burned in the winter. I enjoy burning so I try to do it as much as possible.

Wood storage is critical. Iv done the tarp the rack and pile thing and that didn't last long as I didn't want to babysit the piles.. sheds are great, they speed up the process of drying. Its cut, stack and take it out when you need it. The wood dries pretty quick in a shed because once its in there rain never touches it.. In the long run.. the less work the better

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Ah I see my little creepy weirdo stalker is back at bashing me.
However, he is right about one thing that I didnt state correct, and obviously he could have verbalized it better but he loves to poke the bear.
You WOULD pay attention to the STT early on to ensure you dont overheat the stove when you start up, but it's fairly useless to determine how much heat you are really producing overall until the stove has been fully heated and the sides are putting out good heat. You would still want to ensure you dont exceed the safe operating temps from first flame to last ember.
And yes, it does take 8 hours to have the stove to the point that you are in auto pilot basically only requiring micro adjustments here and there. 3 hours to get it to start to heat well, and then a load burned down to great coals for the next reload and subsequent reloads therein. Everything between 3-8 hours is building up the stoves capacity to hold heat and build up a great bed of coals for subsequent reloads.

If you think in anyway im stalking you.. you have a real problem.. Iv been on this site for 6 years.. you've been on it for 6 months I dont go looking for your posts.. by saying things like that your trying to make yourself relevant..

Just so were on the same page.. you should expect me to let the other members know when your dispensing poor advice.. people like yourself that give poor advice give a site like this a bad name..

Its unfortunate that you have stove issues and still cant figure it out.. wood burning isn't for everyone.. this includes you.

Your going to get someone hurt with the things you say. Some people come on here with very little knowledge and someone may think you actually know what your talking about, follow the poor advice that you give and hurt themselves or others.

Wood burning and giving advice on the subject is simply not for you.. try to find something your good at..

 

[sargeott]

Ah I see my little creepy weirdo stalker is back at bashing me.
However, he is right about one thing that I didnt state correct, and obviously he could have verbalized it better but he loves to poke the bear.
You WOULD pay attention to the STT early on to ensure you dont overheat the stove when you start up, but it's fairly useless to determine how much heat you are really producing overall until the stove has been fully heated and the sides are putting out good heat. You would still want to ensure you dont exceed the safe operating temps from first flame to last ember.
And yes, it does take 8 hours to have the stove to the point that you are in auto pilot basically only requiring micro adjustments here and there. 3 hours to get it to start to heat well, and then a load burned down to great coals for the next reload and subsequent reloads therein. Everything between 3-8 hours is building up the stoves capacity to hold heat and build up a great bed of coals for subsequent reloads.

Thanks for thay clarification and thay all makes perfect sense. I'm in now way discounting your feed back, so once again thanks for the reply.

 

[sargeott]

So.. Im not from your area and don't know all of the species that grow there..

For longer burns you want dense wood like hickory, or oak split super thick.. You stove is smaller but the method is the same.. if your processing you own wood split square and rectangle this will help you pack the box tight and have very little air gap. My stove is only 2.3 cuft and I regularly get 12+ hours out of a burn. The longest Iv gotten is 16 hours on a load of white oak and pignut hickory

The other part to this is during shoulder season of you want to burn more and longer load the stove with wood that is less dense.. for instance black cherry or poplar.. in comparison a cord.of oak will be roughly 24 million BTUs per cord.. while say Poplar is 14 million BTUs per cord for the same volume of wood. This means if your using oak in shoulder season your heat output is high.. for almost the same amount of wood your getting almost half the the heat.. so youll be burning longer with less restarting.

I dont know what your situation is with wood supply. I know your newer.. it takes time. Im sitting on roughly 14 cords and all the wood is in woodsheds. Most is oak and some is cherry and some maple.. the lighter wood gets used in spring and early fall.. All the big BTU stuff is burned in the winter. I enjoy burning so I try to do it as much as possible.

Wood storage is critical. Iv done the tarp the rack and pile thing and that didn't last long as I didn't want to babysit the piles.. sheds are great, they speed up the process of drying. Its cut, stack and take it out when you need it. The wood dries pretty quick in a shed because once its in there rain never touches it.. In the long run.. the less work the better

My section of oregon pine and fir is free and everywhere. Hardwoods are a little more difficult to find, but available. The problem I have with hardwoods is it takes a few years to season and I'm not that patient. Pine, fire and alder season quickly. Therfore we burn way more of it and faster.
My oak and black walnut are from old shade trees that dropped limbs (big ones) after wind storms or cut backs.
I have 28 acres up here and try to manage my foliage myself year round.

I'm newer to the VC family, but not so new to wood burning since we've lived in this cabin for 12 years burning wood for at least 10 as primary heat. I'm not going to buy or process wood for three years from now. I don't have time for that.
Cherry is non existent and maple is hit and miss around here naturally.

I guess right now we are trying to figure out consumption vs stock with this particular unit.
Any and all poplar trees we throw into the burn pile. I hate that type of tree and won't use it for heat fuel ever.

 

[GrumpyDad]

With bypass open, my Auber catalyst probe stays below 150 - fully agree that all the exhaust (and any possible wax issues) is completely missing the catalyst.

Maybe the manual meant: Do not burn firestarters … with the bypass closed.

That’s the interpretation I’m going with.

I had a 'day of mistakes', it all started with me trying to start up my stove with the damper closed. WHY is the smoke pouring back into the cabin, I never have this problem. Oh, I C.
Then I let my kindling load plus about 4 splits burn wildly and couldnt lower the air. Nothing would work. I still had the door cracked opened from the initial start.

 

[GrumpyDad]

I had an interesting burn this weekend that lasted 13 hours.
Friday, 45 outside I started up the stove and at 11p I loaded it full. I set the air control maybe a notch or two lower than what I would normally mid winter.
Saturday morning we had to go somewhere, so I lowered the stove a couple of notches.
Noon we came back, and the STT was still at 350 with some nice chonky coals still left. I let that go until 2pm when I stirred coals to see what I had left, and there was still plenty of hot coals in there. Saturday was very warm at 62 and the room was at 76, so I opened a window and waited until almost 5 to restart the stove. I restarted by just placing three pieces of kindling at the bottom then a few smaller splits...I controlled that to a very minimal amount of output until a cold front came through dropping us to 34 degrees outside, then I packed it full again. I think the lowest temp was 28 that night.

The older part of the cabin was very comfortable and normally it's pretty darn cold in there in comparison to the stove room. Even with fan pointing toward the stove room. I think my cathedral ceiling is locking in a lot of that heat. For some reason though even with it being mid 30's out after the warm day we had, that area was warmer than normal. I think it takes alot for that area to release the cold and absorb the heat, and it's very drafty and poorly insulated in there. I've tried to get the stove up in temps more to warm the stove room to 74 or 75, which I can do but it takes ALOT more air and wood to do so. The sweat spot for this stove is to run at mid temps, that produces a good long burn and enough heat to warm the stove room and the older part of the cabin within temps that are barely acceptable. Once I get a ceiling fan in the stove room Im hoping that will help circulate the air downward more giving more opportunity for that air to go into the older cabin.

Due to 60mph winds, power was going out everywhere. Ours went out for about a minute and in that minute I was happy we had the stove, because I knew it could be many hours or even days until power was restored.

 

[arnermd]

Probably my last data post for the season, expect see 80F next week so not too many burns left....

Stove has been running pretty well the last few weeks, a few spikes up to ~1450 but they did not stay there too long. It has been a joy to run the last month or so, with very little finegaling...

Why the change in attitude? I can not say for certain, I did get into some fresher wood, more dense and the splits were bigger, MC=15-18%.
Maybe the metal cat calmed down a bit?

Speaking of metal cat, It is holding up very well so far, the grid is defintely moving around but so far structurally sound. I am very pleased with its performance and integrity so far.

Wishing you all a happy spring / summer, see you back here in the fall for another round..... Time to go buck/split wood for 2025....

Data for the whole season

- Metal Cat installed: 2/5/2023
- Fresh wood started on 3/1/2023
- Flue temp location move to 3' above stove top on 12/25/2022
- Flue temp moved back to 18" above stove top on 2/10/2023

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Probably my last data post for the season, expect see 80F next week so not too many burns left....

Stove has been running pretty well the last few weeks, a few spikes up to ~1450 but they did not stay there too long. It has been a joy to run the last month or so, with very little finegaling...

Why the change in attitude? I can not say for certain, I did get into some fresher wood, more dense and the splits were bigger, MC=15-18%.
Maybe the metal cat calmed down a bit?

Speaking of metal cat, It is holding up very well so far, the grid is defintely moving around but so far structurally sound. I am very pleased with its performance and integrity so far.

Wishing you all a happy spring / summer, see you back here in the fall for another round..... Time to go buck/split wood for 2025....

View attachment 311798
View attachment 311800 View attachment 311799

Data for the whole season
View attachment 311801
- Metal Cat installed: 2/5/2023
- Fresh wood started on 3/1/2023
- Flue temp location move to 3' above stove top on 12/25/2022
- Flue temp moved back to 18" above stove top on 2/10/2023

we should meet back here in September.. glad you tried the metal cat and its working out for you