Earlier this year, on the advice of my chimney sweep, I replaced an Avalon Olympic insert with a Vermont Castings Defiant Catalytic free standing stove. The Defiant does produce a huge amount of heat, but like a spoiled child, is extremely difficult to control. This is what happened tonight, which is typical:
I started it from a cold start around 8:00pm; as usual it starts and gets going very easily. By 8:30, the top griddle temperature is about 650-700 degrees. I lower the air control and let it burn for another 30 minutes until I have a nice bed of coals; so far so good.
I then add a few splits filling the firebox about half way, let it burn for about 10 minutes, then close the damper, engaging the CAT. I turn on the Condor digital CAT gauge to monitor CAT chamber temperature. Within about 15 minutes, the CAT chamber temperature climbs from 500 to about 1300. I then lower the air control to a little more than half open. After about 10 minutes, things start to go south.
I start noticing sudden explosions in the firebox, which causes smoke to force it's way out the top loading door. The CAT chamber is reading 1700 degrees, and the stove top 600. The whole house smells like smoke. I open the air control more which after about 10 minutes, allows more flame in the firebox which helps the smoke get burned, but also increases the stove top temperature to over 700 degrees. Finally after much fiddling, both the CAT and stove top temperature drop a bit, and it runs Ok.
At other times, I've seen CAT chamber temps over 2100 degrees, and the only way to cool it down is to open the damper for a while. Although I'm not completely sure, I don't believe the wood is the problem since it starts and burns very easily and I don't hear any sizzle or see any bubbling.
What is going on here? The stove produces great heat, but is so difficult to control. Is this typical with EPA or CAT stoves, or is the Defiant just not a well designed stove?
I just paid a lot of money on this stove, but am getting so frustrated that am thinking about a replacement, maybe the new large Woodstock stove when it comes out. The other issue is that there doesn't seem to be any way to contact Vermont Castings; I tried a while searching for 'hidden' phone numbers on the internet for VC, but with no luck. How can a company like this have no contact information?
I started it from a cold start around 8:00pm; as usual it starts and gets going very easily. By 8:30, the top griddle temperature is about 650-700 degrees. I lower the air control and let it burn for another 30 minutes until I have a nice bed of coals; so far so good.
I then add a few splits filling the firebox about half way, let it burn for about 10 minutes, then close the damper, engaging the CAT. I turn on the Condor digital CAT gauge to monitor CAT chamber temperature. Within about 15 minutes, the CAT chamber temperature climbs from 500 to about 1300. I then lower the air control to a little more than half open. After about 10 minutes, things start to go south.
I start noticing sudden explosions in the firebox, which causes smoke to force it's way out the top loading door. The CAT chamber is reading 1700 degrees, and the stove top 600. The whole house smells like smoke. I open the air control more which after about 10 minutes, allows more flame in the firebox which helps the smoke get burned, but also increases the stove top temperature to over 700 degrees. Finally after much fiddling, both the CAT and stove top temperature drop a bit, and it runs Ok.
At other times, I've seen CAT chamber temps over 2100 degrees, and the only way to cool it down is to open the damper for a while. Although I'm not completely sure, I don't believe the wood is the problem since it starts and burns very easily and I don't hear any sizzle or see any bubbling.
What is going on here? The stove produces great heat, but is so difficult to control. Is this typical with EPA or CAT stoves, or is the Defiant just not a well designed stove?
I just paid a lot of money on this stove, but am getting so frustrated that am thinking about a replacement, maybe the new large Woodstock stove when it comes out. The other issue is that there doesn't seem to be any way to contact Vermont Castings; I tried a while searching for 'hidden' phone numbers on the internet for VC, but with no luck. How can a company like this have no contact information?