Don't know what I did wrong..

[Bigcube]

But today I'm sitting in a 75* house with no smoke problems. 30 YO monster VC stove is running good with the new sleeve. Not sure what I did wrong Monday when I tried to light it for the first time with the new sleeve. I was convinced the liner that was put in was too small. I hope it's not just flaky to get started, it was much warmer today then it was on Monday night. For the first time since I can remember I had to take off my flannel in the house in the winter time

 

[Bigcube]

:coolgrin:

 

[eernest4]

Wow!

I have to admit, you sure made a production out of a place to put a not very rusty ,obsolete
old time stove.

The brick backing & hearth look bueatiful. Really ,really bueatiful.


You really should do it justice with a brand new secondary burn stove , that will give you the same heat for 1/3 of the wood that you are currently burning.

Its like,I see all this awesume brick work & then this old gray stove & I think, something new & shiny would really knock your eyes out.

But maybe you are an antique stove collector or something similar & that looks bueatiful to you just as it is. And,if so, God Bless!!

Unelse you own your own woodlot & get your wood for free, that old time stove is costing you 66% more to opperate than a secondary burn stove would.
But if your an antique buff, please just disregard my words, as I understand collecting stuff.

I know because I have a 1970 copy of an all nighter humped back front loader with 1/4 in plate steel & a 12 cubic foot firebox. It came with a domestic hot water coil made of 5/8 in exterior diameter black steel pipe, which was why I bought it, & I was very disappointed when the hot water coil leaked & couldn't be used at all, the very first time i lite up the stove.

I ran the stove that winter , without the hot water coil or the secondary burn conversion that I later used the water coil piping for 7 it did a nice job heating my 3000 sq ft house but ate wood like a hungry eliphant. A whole wheelbarrow full in 3 hours. 3 to 4 wheelbarrows full a day.

Cord of wood every 2 weeks.

After I converted it to secondary burn, I never heve to fill it up with a full load, 1/2 loads are good enough & they last 4 to 5 hours & the embers will put out heat for another 5 to 6 hours
but on 10 deg days the embers don't put out enough heat, so I will refill after 5 or 6 hrs.
On 4o deg days, I only refill, 1/2 loads, every 8 or 9 hrs, as the embers are good enough to keep the house warm with the milder temps.

HUGE DIFFERENCE IN FUEL SAVINGS. Now , i dont even bring in the wood with a wheelbarrow, as 6 or 8--- five gal buckets full of wood last me a 2 or 3 of days.

Id sure like to see what an englander 50-30ncp ,rated 2000 sq ft , would look like on your hearth. you could get the one with the immitation gold door & gold trim with the big fire viewing window. They only cost $1,100.oo new at home depot & sometimes you can get one on sale at end of heating season clearance sale for only $500.oo to $800.oo

I bought on 4 weeks ago at lowes end of season clearance for 476.oo See my signature line.
I have not installed it yet, maybe in may I put it in.

To be honest, i am quite happy with the way my secondary air conversion can out & the great fuel saving it gives me. I only bought the summerheat (lowes name for englander) because
I knew I would never get it again at that price if I lived to be 100.
And I figure it will save me even more on wood & as wood gets more expensive, that I will need the extra wood savings.

For now,I still opperate my 12 cuft but a 3.5 cu ft has got to use less wood, im just wondering if it will give enough heat because of the difference in the fire biox sizes.

My friend has a 2000 sq ft house & he says that the englander will roast him out, if he lets it.

 

[eernest4]

This spring ,hit that old vermont castings up with some rutland stove black.

www.rutland.com

It will come out looking a lot like that nice new stove pipe that you have in the picture.
Maybe not qiute that nice, but it will restore much of your VC 's former glory.
Not hard to do, I bet it only take you 3 hrs ,if that.
And it would fetch you more money if you decided to sell the vc & replace it with the englander 30ncp. (your choice,of course!) i just make a sugestion,what I think is cool. You may think cool is something else. every one have different ideas, which is cool,too.

You need to do it on a warm day because when you cure the stove black with a high temp cook off, it, the stove , will smoke up the room for about 20 -25 minutes while the new black finish bakes on. You have to open all the doors & windows & place any ventilation fans that you have to remove the smoke from the room.

As an option, you can use the slow cure method, put just a few 3 or 4 small splits in the stove
& control the stoves temp with an extra small fire, low on fuel, & the stove black will cure on & smoke off more slowly.

Rutland stove black contains waxes That smoke & cook off & black pigments that stay on the stove when the wax is gone.

 

[Bigcube]

I really appreciate the comments. I did not do the install, it was here when I bought the house. I had the chimney cleaned when I first moved in and was told the flue tiles were cracked. I just had a sleeve put in which you can't see in the pic. I did not want to replace the stove but hearing how much better the newer stoves are I will update when I can. I like the quadra-fire Isle Royal and also the leyden Lopi. I was hoping to use this the rest of the year and maybe update the stove over the summer. I think the sleeve installed is marginally too small and it should work much better with a new stove.

 

[eernest4]

englander50/30ncl

www.englanderstoves.com

Don't forget to do the stove black thing in spring as it will make your old vc look a lot more sellable. Probably not a bad idea to sell the VC as vermont castings had doubled the price of their repair parts for all their stove models & has closed down their main foundary & laid of 6o % of their work force. Looks like the are going under (out of bizness) or sell out to another company. Maybe if they can really lean out their opperation, & if they have a killer sales season in sept,oct & nov 2008, they just might pull through, but its all up in the air for now.
They have a wearhouse full of 07 stoves that they couldn't sell this year & they holding on to them ,hoping to sell them as 2008 stoves in oct.

Good burning!

 

[Henz]

wow, Old VC Vigilant!