Defiant questions

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presta24

New Member
Nov 24, 2022
12
611b09
Good morning all and happy Thanksgiving!

I just picked up a used defiant 1975 and am curious if this model is supposed to have fire bricks in it? The stove appears to be in good shape. But there are no bricks in it. I see online that they sell "refractory" pcs for this stove so I am concernd that I bought a stove that is going to need a bunch of money dumped into it.

That said, this is not for a main heat source but as a secondary to our model 91. We have an addition on the back of our house that is pretty much all glass and if its windy, or below 20, we typically just close this room off. But the fam uses it a lot so I bought this stove to run in there only when needed. Can I burn it without the bricks if it does in fact need them?

Thanks all!
 
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Never mind! I found out :)

 
nope no bricks. just use some of the ash to make about a inch of clearance off the floor of it. hide the built in grate with the ash and build the fire on the the ash
 
If its new to you, make sure you figure out how to clean out the hidden chamber behind the fireback. It fills up with ash during use and if not cleaned, its going to lead to cracked and distorted fireback. The only way to get to it is from the outlet of the stove. with the damper vertical there is cast iron plate than can be removed and then a skinny vacuum cleaner attachment get down in this area.
 
Is 1975 the date on the fireback? Asking because the current production model number is also 1975, just to make things more confusing .
 
If its new to you, make sure you figure out how to clean out the hidden chamber behind the fireback. It fills up with ash during use and if not cleaned, its going to lead to cracked and distorted fireback. The only way to get to it is from the outlet of the stove. with the damper vertical there is cast iron plate than can be removed and then a skinny vacuum cleaner attachment get down in this area.

thanks! Is there a how to vid on it somewhere?
 
None that I am aware of. Its in the manual.
 
Is 1975 the date on the fireback? Asking because the current production model number is also 1975, just to make things more confusing .
That's why I didn't answer though I almost moved it.
@presta24 does the stove have window glass in the doors or just metal?
 
OK, this is the original Defiant. The manual is posted here:
 
If its new to you, make sure you figure out how to clean out the hidden chamber behind the fireback. It fills up with ash during use and if not cleaned, its going to lead to cracked and distorted fireback. The only way to get to it is from the outlet of the stove. with the damper vertical there is cast iron plate than can be removed and then a skinny vacuum cleaner attachment get down in this area.
Hi, we also have an original Defiant, 1975. Came with the house. Cleaned it out yesterday, took out a thin (1/8th inch) make-shift metal plate that was up against the fireback to discover the fireback had broken and it appears lower segments of the fireback might be missing. Is there a danger in operating the stove in that condition, and can the fireback be replaced?
 
No danger in running it that way but the efficiency goes way down as most to the heat is going up the stack. Many old Defiant's end up in garages and hunting camps due to a cracked fireback.

As for is it rebuildable?, yes with a major "but" If you have an original Defiant you will have a single piece fireback. It was a design flaw and VC ended up converting many of them to two piece firebacks. The conversion requires quite a few parts and if the kit is still available, it costs more than the stove is worth. If you have two piece fireback version that has horizontal seam going right to left about 8" up then you can just buy the part that is warped from several vendors and replace it. That means labor on your part as you need to take it apart, clean out all the old refractory cement and then reassemble. There is guide to doing it and its not that difficult but messy and will take up a day or two.

So figure out if its single piece and write it off or if its two piece start looking for how much the new pieces will be and go from there.
 
I just took 1975 out of the title to reduce confusion. The original Defiant is called Defiant I. A fireback replacement is available here:
Check to see if this is a Defiant I, II, or III. Woodman's has diagrams to help with this.
 
As new stoves become increasingly costly, I'm finding that repairs which once were prohibitive are now seeming more feasable. I'm now doing $1500-$2000 projects routinely!!