Looking for help with Old VT castings Defiant

[mcfarland10]

New wood burner looking for help with i think an original difant with newer parts

 

[mcfarland10]

My first question is the thermostat... when the lever is straight up and down should flapper be open or shut?

 

[mcfarland10]

The other question is the horizontal burn not quit sure i'm doing this right as temps don't seem to get as hot as i've read others mention in here

 

[claydogg84]

The lever is adjustable and thermostatically controlled. You want the flap to be completely open, nearly at 90 degrees open, when the stove is cold. When the stove warms up to where you want to be constantly burning, the flap should be barely open, maybe a 1/4" or so gap. So really the lever itself will be in a different position based on how much heat you want. I had a stovetop thermometer on the griddle and had the air nearly closed when it was reading 600. This is a very easy stove to operate and puts out a tremendous amount of heat. Oh, and it's called Defiant. Feel free to ask if you have anymore questions, I used this stove to heat my home last year.

 

[claydogg84]

I didn't put mine into horizontal mode until the griddle read 600, and at that point it would cruise around those temps for a little over an hour and slowly taper off.

 

[Chestnut]

I have been burning in one of these for the past 20+ years.
looking at your pics its a defiant 1.
I notice that the thermostat is pointed backwards, the lever should point toward the stove pipe.
Just rotate it counter clockwise 180 degrees " the way it is now the flap will open on heat up, instead of close."
I usually start the stove with the flap at 45 Degrees about half open, you will adjust this later depending on how hot you want it.
The start up procedure I use is a couple of dry splits on the bottom then light your fire on top adding larger pieces.
Run the pipe up to 450 degrees with the side door cracked.
Close the bypass damper leaving the side door cracked until the griddle hits 500 degrees.
even with the driest wood it sometimes wont convert to the baffle flame path, just reopen the damper and try again if it doesn't.
You can tell if it converts, the right side of the stove will get very hot when its burning right.
These stoves will pump out massive heat for 8+ hours it will gobble a bit of wood doing it though.

 

[Chestnut]

The proper lever orientation, Your stove did not come with the cover that's on the later model Defiant II that I have.
The white discoloration of the paint is caused by the secondary flame's heat in the fireback.
When this one of these Defiant's gets cooking with dry wood there's nothing like the heat these thing's can throw.

 

[mcfarland10]

I have a cover its a sheet metal one.. just took it off for pic and to see how it works...
When i open flapper all the way the lever is pointing away from pipe.....closed its pretty much verticle

 

[mcfarland10]

Does the lever move as the stove opens and closes the flapper? or the coil just expands and contracts opening and closing the flapper

 

[claydogg84]

The flap should be extremely easy to set up. The flap should be open when cold and then slowly close as the stove warms up.

 

[Chestnut]

Does the lever move as the stove opens and closes the flapper? or the coil just expands and contracts opening and closing the flapper

The latter.
The lever only moves by your hand.
The "bimetallic" coil expands with heat and drops the chain, which closes the flap.
This has the effect of limiting air flow into stove keeping a steady burn rate.

 

[Chestnut]

I have a cover its a sheet metal one.. just took it off for pic and to see how it works...
When i open flapper all the way the lever is pointing away from pipe.....closed its pretty much verticle

As shown your lever is wrongly oriented this way the stove just wont work, look at your spring the way it is, when it lifts the flap opens.

 

[mcfarland10]

So I adjusted handle so when straight up flapper is open and when closed pointing towards pipe.
Seems to be heating better.
But have noticed if I open flapper up and stove gets hot I can not close flapper back to close it???
Also still can't seem to get the horizontal burn.... I get stove cranking up to 600 than close damper and temp drops right off to 300/400

 

[begreen]

Sounds like either the wood is not fully seasoned or the stove is plugging up with ash. The flapper should not bind. It may be slightly out of alignment.

 

[mcfarland10]

The draft is not the greatest here also. .. was reading that may be an issue in horizontal mode.
How would I know if handle is out of aljgnment

 

[mcfarland10]

If I unscrew handle off will coil come off as well

 

[claydogg84]

If I unscrew handle off will coil come off as well

Yes.

 

[mcfarland10]

..does the coil look right?
Handle pointing toward pipe Flapper closed

 

[mcfarland10]

Handle straight up flapper all way open

 

[claydogg84]

Does the flap close as the stove heats up? If it does, it's set up correctly.

 

[fbelec]

how tall is your chimney? once you get the thermostat issue straightened out run the stove to 700 before horizontal burn. if it still doesn't work the stove may need to be rebuilt. also make sure your stove has been running around 45 mins before switching to horizontal burn. it gives more time to the secondary burn chamber to come up to temp. and start your fire up against the far right side up against the baffle.. that will help heat the secondary chamber. when hot throw on two or three splits give them 15 minutes then go to horizontal. after another 15 minutes load it up if your secondary is running you should see the light through the secondary air inlet on the left side toward the bottom left of the left side of the stove. that is the 1 inch round hole that should be wide open on the horizontal burn and closed for up draft mode. if you don't see a light in the secondary hole after all that your wood is not seasoned enough.

 

[HotLogs]

Mcfarland,
If ur new to the stove as I was when I purchased our home I suggest reading over the manual as it does have some good info
https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/vermont-castings-older-stove-models/