Defiant 1945 temperature control questions

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The house we moved into had a Vermont Castings Defiant 1945 installed already. Long-term we want to get a new stove, but we’re not the types to get rid of something if it‘s still working fine.

When I fully load my stove which is usually 6-8 good sized splits of 16”-18” laid parallel to the door in a tight stack with the coals raked to the front and sometimes a few short pieces leaning vertically against that stack (it’s a really massive box imo), I can’t seem to get the stove to maintain a constant temperature. It doesn’t ever feel like the fire is out of control, the bypass seems to work fine, but even if I put the airflow down to the bare minimum the STT will eventually creep up to ~675F (and sometimes a bit beyond that) plateaus for a while then starts to come back down.

In the dead of winter I burn a mostly ash and maple with a bit of cherry and oak mixed in (fall and spring there are more softwoods in there). It’s been split and seasoned as people here direct and I do occasional re-splits to check moisture content.

I also redid the door gaskets this fall and the doors both passed dollar bill tests.

I’m new to both catalytic stoves and Vermont Castings, so I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong, or if the stove is supposed to have a temperature curve that looks more or less like a normal distribution.

Please ask questions and I will answer them to the best of my ability, bearing in mind that 1. I didn’t install the stove, and 2. I’m not that well-versed in engineering or mechanics.
 
Number 1 the coals should be in the back by the access cover to get the cat to light off..
2.. your stove will not stay the same temperature all the time, even mine creaps up depending on how its loaded and where your at in the burn.. 675 sounds a little high.. Id check the ash pand and the griddle gasket
 
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Number 1 the coals should be in the back by the access cover to get the cat to light off..
2.. your stove will not stay the same temperature all the time, even mine creaps up depending on how its loaded and where your at in the burn.. 675 sounds a little high.. Id check the ash pand and the griddle gasket
can you test those gaskets or is it just an eyeball test to see if they’re in decent shape. haven’t noticed any fraying or the like.

not sure if it’s relevant but my griddle is bare cast iron. i didn’t buy the stove and haven’t seen another VC in person, so it never occurred to me that it might have once been enameled but now i’m wondering.
 
your gaskets should not be hard, dry or dusty looking.. the best that I can explain... Id do the dollar bill test.. put in in and close.. pull the dollar bill.. if the gasket is bad it will pull right out with little resistance... repeat
 
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Went ahead and replaced all the gaskets just to be sure. Low firing right now to finish curing the seals and will try a fuller load to see if that has really made a difference.