Hi everyone, this is a bit long, so I apologize in advance. As I'm not exactly well-versed in the finer points of wood stoves, I could really use some help.
My family has had a VC Vigilant for over 30 years. The previous homeowner bought/installed it, and it came with the house when my family subsequently purchased it. We've recently had some work done on our chimney box, and when we had it inspected for insurance purposes, we were told that due to insufficient clearance distances between the chimney pipe and the box, we either need to replace our wood stove with a new one that can utilize a 6 inch diameter pipe (current piping is 8 inches), or we need to entirely rebuild our chimney box.
Per the price quote we got, rebuilding the box is roughly double the price of replacing our Vigilant with a new Defiant model. So that leaves us with replacing the Vigilant.
However, our Vigilant has sentimental value, so we tried researching to see if there was any way that it could handle a 6 inch pipe. If that was the case, we'd only have to get the converter and the required 6 inch diameter pipe. We found an adapter that might work for it on a parts website, but when we looked up the logistics of converting from 8 to 6 inch pipe, we found conflicting answers about whether this would be a viable solution for our model or not - some places said it wouldn't vent well enough, some said that it would, some even said that there were different ways you had to approach making fires if you did convert to a smaller pipe.
Essentially, what we need to know is:
1.) Would an 8 to 6 inch adapter be viable for our Vigilant (1980) in terms of functionality?
2.) Would it be safe?
3.) If there is a loss of efficiency, would it be drastic, or minor?
My family has had a VC Vigilant for over 30 years. The previous homeowner bought/installed it, and it came with the house when my family subsequently purchased it. We've recently had some work done on our chimney box, and when we had it inspected for insurance purposes, we were told that due to insufficient clearance distances between the chimney pipe and the box, we either need to replace our wood stove with a new one that can utilize a 6 inch diameter pipe (current piping is 8 inches), or we need to entirely rebuild our chimney box.
Per the price quote we got, rebuilding the box is roughly double the price of replacing our Vigilant with a new Defiant model. So that leaves us with replacing the Vigilant.
However, our Vigilant has sentimental value, so we tried researching to see if there was any way that it could handle a 6 inch pipe. If that was the case, we'd only have to get the converter and the required 6 inch diameter pipe. We found an adapter that might work for it on a parts website, but when we looked up the logistics of converting from 8 to 6 inch pipe, we found conflicting answers about whether this would be a viable solution for our model or not - some places said it wouldn't vent well enough, some said that it would, some even said that there were different ways you had to approach making fires if you did convert to a smaller pipe.
Essentially, what we need to know is:
1.) Would an 8 to 6 inch adapter be viable for our Vigilant (1980) in terms of functionality?
2.) Would it be safe?
3.) If there is a loss of efficiency, would it be drastic, or minor?
![[Hearth.com] Advice Needed Vermont Casting Vigilant 1980 - Replace or Adapt](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/316/316888-f2d3e2df33ccc3392be078ef61c4d5f2.jpg?hash=tCpuEwKP9- "[Hearth.com] Advice Needed Vermont Casting Vigilant 1980 - Replace or Adapt")
![[Hearth.com] Advice Needed Vermont Casting Vigilant 1980 - Replace or Adapt](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/317/317163-cb06d35b20480cb446ea5099a99a68b0.jpg?hash=ciHxbcrVgA "[Hearth.com] Advice Needed Vermont Casting Vigilant 1980 - Replace or Adapt")
![[Hearth.com] Advice Needed Vermont Casting Vigilant 1980 - Replace or Adapt](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/317/317164-4703b3908f2c7c9df10cd730358b3a4f.jpg?hash=g751Bx1Rmj "[Hearth.com] Advice Needed Vermont Casting Vigilant 1980 - Replace or Adapt")
