Hello!
New to the forums here and I've spent quite a bit of time reading through the archives--what a wonderful resource this site is for those of us who heat with wood! Many thanks in advance to all the knowledgeable people here who offer advice based on their own experiences....
We live in a 750 sq ft. Yurt outside Portland, Oregon. Relatively mild winters by some standards--daytime temps in the 30-40's nightime rarely below 20. We have other friends who live in yurts, the general guideline for getting a woodstove seems to be to look for one that's rated to heat 1,000-1,200 sq ft. or so as the yurts have high ceilings and only moderate insulation.
We've lived in our yurt for two winters now. For the first winter, we got a used Northland wood stove off of Craigslist for $100 with a bunch of 8" Selco double wall SS pipe. The stove had a crack in the top that we kept patched with stove patch, and it worked pretty well in that it put out a lot of heat, but it did go through wood pretty fast and it was hard to not have it get too hot in the yurt no matter how much we damped it down--though we did not add a flue damper until this fall.......
We got rid of that stove and picked up another used one this summer--a non-certified stove built by Sweet Home Stove Works here in Oregon. It works better in that it's much easier to burn at about 300-400 degrees once the yurt is heated, it seems to burn pretty clean (we're using very well seasoned white oak and madrone mixed with kiln dried 2x4 scraps from a local mill) as it doesn't produce a lot of smoke unless we really damp it down and the temp drops below 300. Still, it doesn't burn for more than 4-5 hours no matter how much wood we stuff in it, and thus mornings can be chilly. Also, it's not airtight--I can see the orange glow inside the stove through gaps in the two doors top and bottom flanges--this doesn't appear to be a flaw, just how the doors were designed. I'm no expert on woodstoves, but I have used quite a few over the years. By far the best one we had was a Vermont Castings airtight--we used it in a home in Boulder Colorado for many years and we really liked it. We'd light that thing in the fall and never need to relight it all winter--it always kept hot coals inside
I sold it in the early 90's when the certified stoves were coming out and they were saying that it would soon be illegal to sell the non-certified models.
Money is an issue for us in that we just can't go out a buy a new $1,500-$3,000 wood stove, and so we'd like to buy a quality, used woodstove preferably certified (but we live in a pretty remote area so legal compliance isn't as big an issue--though we do want to limit pollution and limit how much wood we use).
One of my friend's mother just bought a new house a few months back that has a VC Encore 2550 woodstove in it. She had to get the stove inspected by a local shop for the homeowners insurance (I thought that was interesting.......) Anyway, he told her that it's a VC "Defiant Encore" model 2550 made up until 1994 or so. I didn't write down the serial number, but it does say "model 2550" on it. She has no idea how old the stove is (can you find this out by the serial number???) or what if anything has been replaced on it. He told her that it needed considerable work inside to be "covered" by her homeowner's insurance. Long story short, he scared her into a buying a new pellet stove (which he happens to sell.......) so they want to know if I want to buy the old stove for $100. She was told that it would need a new upper and lower fireback, new sides, new hood, new andiron, new grate, and new catalyst--and then they quoted about $1,200 to do it.
I went over an looked at the stove yesterday. I can see that the lower fireback is slightly cracked on the top edge, but the side pieces look fine. She says the "hood" (the metal piece covering the refractory box) came off the last time she used the stove, but I was able to pick it up and put in back in with no problem. The grate is warped, but other than that it looks ok on the inside. I've been reading a lot of the posts here about the Encore, and it seems like internal parts, catalysts, and refractory boxes are pretty common maintenance items. When I was there looking at the stove I didn't know how to get to the catalyst or the refractory box, so I don't know their condition.
The outside is flawless--it looks like new. Comes with the two warming shelves, and mitten/boot holders, and all the knobs/levers, etc seem to work just fine. I'm pretty handy, so I don't mind doing the work on the Encore myself--especially if it will save us some money. We really like the glass doors, the top-load door, and the ash pan, plus the stove is just GORGEOUS!
So, after all that, my questions are: Would this be a good stove for us? Is it worth the $100 plus parts to fix it? Can we run it with the catalytic converter and keep the stove temp down to 500 degrees or so? VC rates the stove at 8,700-41,000 BTUs, and then says it's good t heat up to 1,900 sq ft. We missed out on a really nice Regency woodstove for sale last week on CL--an F1100. It's rated at 55,000 BTU, and is suggested for 600-1,200 sq ft--so why the difference in sq ft ratings between these two models?? Is the Encore going to blast us out of our yurt? Can we burn it at 300-400 degrees at night without damaging the catalyst or the stove and/or burning through a ton of wood?
We'd really like a quality, well-built stove that we can use for at least the next five years. We'd prefer glass doors and certified, and a stove that can at least have hot embers in the morning for ease of re-light, but not cook the yurt out all night at 80+ degrees.
Any advice, comments, or suggestions are GREATLY appreciated!!
New to the forums here and I've spent quite a bit of time reading through the archives--what a wonderful resource this site is for those of us who heat with wood! Many thanks in advance to all the knowledgeable people here who offer advice based on their own experiences....
We live in a 750 sq ft. Yurt outside Portland, Oregon. Relatively mild winters by some standards--daytime temps in the 30-40's nightime rarely below 20. We have other friends who live in yurts, the general guideline for getting a woodstove seems to be to look for one that's rated to heat 1,000-1,200 sq ft. or so as the yurts have high ceilings and only moderate insulation.
We've lived in our yurt for two winters now. For the first winter, we got a used Northland wood stove off of Craigslist for $100 with a bunch of 8" Selco double wall SS pipe. The stove had a crack in the top that we kept patched with stove patch, and it worked pretty well in that it put out a lot of heat, but it did go through wood pretty fast and it was hard to not have it get too hot in the yurt no matter how much we damped it down--though we did not add a flue damper until this fall.......
We got rid of that stove and picked up another used one this summer--a non-certified stove built by Sweet Home Stove Works here in Oregon. It works better in that it's much easier to burn at about 300-400 degrees once the yurt is heated, it seems to burn pretty clean (we're using very well seasoned white oak and madrone mixed with kiln dried 2x4 scraps from a local mill) as it doesn't produce a lot of smoke unless we really damp it down and the temp drops below 300. Still, it doesn't burn for more than 4-5 hours no matter how much wood we stuff in it, and thus mornings can be chilly. Also, it's not airtight--I can see the orange glow inside the stove through gaps in the two doors top and bottom flanges--this doesn't appear to be a flaw, just how the doors were designed. I'm no expert on woodstoves, but I have used quite a few over the years. By far the best one we had was a Vermont Castings airtight--we used it in a home in Boulder Colorado for many years and we really liked it. We'd light that thing in the fall and never need to relight it all winter--it always kept hot coals inside
I sold it in the early 90's when the certified stoves were coming out and they were saying that it would soon be illegal to sell the non-certified models.Money is an issue for us in that we just can't go out a buy a new $1,500-$3,000 wood stove, and so we'd like to buy a quality, used woodstove preferably certified (but we live in a pretty remote area so legal compliance isn't as big an issue--though we do want to limit pollution and limit how much wood we use).
One of my friend's mother just bought a new house a few months back that has a VC Encore 2550 woodstove in it. She had to get the stove inspected by a local shop for the homeowners insurance (I thought that was interesting.......) Anyway, he told her that it's a VC "Defiant Encore" model 2550 made up until 1994 or so. I didn't write down the serial number, but it does say "model 2550" on it. She has no idea how old the stove is (can you find this out by the serial number???) or what if anything has been replaced on it. He told her that it needed considerable work inside to be "covered" by her homeowner's insurance. Long story short, he scared her into a buying a new pellet stove (which he happens to sell.......) so they want to know if I want to buy the old stove for $100. She was told that it would need a new upper and lower fireback, new sides, new hood, new andiron, new grate, and new catalyst--and then they quoted about $1,200 to do it.
I went over an looked at the stove yesterday. I can see that the lower fireback is slightly cracked on the top edge, but the side pieces look fine. She says the "hood" (the metal piece covering the refractory box) came off the last time she used the stove, but I was able to pick it up and put in back in with no problem. The grate is warped, but other than that it looks ok on the inside. I've been reading a lot of the posts here about the Encore, and it seems like internal parts, catalysts, and refractory boxes are pretty common maintenance items. When I was there looking at the stove I didn't know how to get to the catalyst or the refractory box, so I don't know their condition.
The outside is flawless--it looks like new. Comes with the two warming shelves, and mitten/boot holders, and all the knobs/levers, etc seem to work just fine. I'm pretty handy, so I don't mind doing the work on the Encore myself--especially if it will save us some money. We really like the glass doors, the top-load door, and the ash pan, plus the stove is just GORGEOUS!
So, after all that, my questions are: Would this be a good stove for us? Is it worth the $100 plus parts to fix it? Can we run it with the catalytic converter and keep the stove temp down to 500 degrees or so? VC rates the stove at 8,700-41,000 BTUs, and then says it's good t heat up to 1,900 sq ft. We missed out on a really nice Regency woodstove for sale last week on CL--an F1100. It's rated at 55,000 BTU, and is suggested for 600-1,200 sq ft--so why the difference in sq ft ratings between these two models?? Is the Encore going to blast us out of our yurt? Can we burn it at 300-400 degrees at night without damaging the catalyst or the stove and/or burning through a ton of wood?
We'd really like a quality, well-built stove that we can use for at least the next five years. We'd prefer glass doors and certified, and a stove that can at least have hot embers in the morning for ease of re-light, but not cook the yurt out all night at 80+ degrees.
Any advice, comments, or suggestions are GREATLY appreciated!!
