new here ? on vermont casting 2478

[mhl380]

hi all new here i just bought a new model 2478 dutchwest i have some ?'s. this thing is
kicking my butt i can not get this thing to work wright. first should the clean out door in
the basement be sealed tight or should it be open.if i leave the damper open it seems
to to do ok or if i shut it and open the ash pan door just a bit. my set up is that the stove is
in the living room goes up to a 90 degree and then in the round flu in the wall and then
in the chimmey it is an out side chimmey i did do the break in period on the stove
any help would be nice thanks. Rick

 

[rkymtnoffgrid]

Rick, the stove you have is notorious for kicking butts around here, it can be a difficult stove to master, espically if you have poor draft, and your setup to the outside chimney may be part of the problem. Others are going to be of far more benefit than I but I do have the same stove and have been battleing with "everburn" for quite some time. Anyways were going to need a bit more info. What kind of wood are you burning, are you certain its dry? Can you post pictures of your inner and outer flue setup. And most of all, what exactly is the problem...describe it in more detail. Help is on the way, meanwhile I suggest you read the entire thread labeled "dutchwest, worst stove ever", although its long and drawn out and a bit negative at times, it goes percisely into the majority of the problems encountered with this stove and alot of remedies. After reading that thead I now realize I have never fired my stove properly and I am certain my issues is with wet wood. Read it, practice the wood loading and coalbed techniques, I'll bet if indeed you don't have a draft problem, you will be burning fine in no time.

 

[rkymtnoffgrid]

hi all new here i just bought a new model 2478 dutchwest i have some ?'s. this thing is
kicking my butt i can not get this thing to work wright. first should the clean out door in
the basement be sealed tight or should it be open.if i leave the damper open it seems
to to do ok or if i shut it and open the ash pan door just a bit. my set up is that the stove is
in the living room goes up to a 90 degree and then in the round flu in the wall and then
in the chimmey it is an out side chimmey i did do the break in period on the stove
any help would be nice thanks. Rick

The ashpan door should only be cracked while you start the fire cold, leaving it open, (although is common practice at my house) could definately overfire the stove once it gets cranking.

You really need a good bed of coals before closeing the damper, read the suggested thread, its a good education.

How tall is the outside chimney? Is it insulated, does it have a liner or does the stove just dump straight into an external masonry chimney?

 

[mhl380]

it dumps right in the chimmey and it is not lined or insullated it is 20 ft tall i think.
what about the clean out should it be closed or open in the basement.

 

[mhl380]

does mine have the everburn ?

 

[sullystull]

hi all new here i just bought a new model 2478 dutchwest i have some ?'s. this thing is
kicking my butt i can not get this thing to work wright. first should the clean out door in
the basement be sealed tight or should it be open.if i leave the damper open it seems
to to do ok or if i shut it and open the ash pan door just a bit. my set up is that the stove is
in the living room goes up to a 90 degree and then in the round flu in the wall and then
in the chimmey it is an out side chimmey i did do the break in period on the stove
any help would be nice thanks. Rick

The ashpan door should only be cracked while you start the fire cold, leaving it open, (although is common practice at my house) could definately overfire the stove once it gets cranking.

You really need a good bed of coals before closeing the damper, read the suggested thread, its a good education.

How tall is the outside chimney? Is it insulated, does it have a liner or does the stove just dump straight into an external masonry chimney?

You should not get in the habit of ever operating the stove with the ash pan door open. try this thread as well for additional info:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/4188/

 

[rkymtnoffgrid]

Yes your stove has "everburn" which is vermont castings trade name for their downdraft design. If you look into the center bottom of your stove you'll see the opening to the secondary combustion chamber, in theory, by closing the damper, (upper left side lever) you route all the exaust gasses through the combustion chamber which are preheated by the coal bed, when it works properly, your stove burns cleaner, hotter, and more efficient. However, in my opinion, this design sucks for thoes of us with poor wood quality, poor draft, and little patience for fidding constantly with the levers on the stove. I can already tell you that in order for you to ever be able to properly utilize the everburn feature, you are going to have to get your chimney lined. You will find and incredible differece just in the way the stove operates normaly. I would think that would be your first step. Until then, I dont know if I would even fool with the bypass, you will probably note the stove smokes, beltches, flares-up, ect when closed. As far as leaving the cleanout door open, obviously that improves draft, I don't know what negatives that would have besides wind blowing smoke back into the home, perhaps other have different ideas on that. get your chimney lined first, and by the way, do you any 30 day satisifaction garantees on that stove?

 

[rkymtnoffgrid]

Oh yea, good quality, DRY wood is going to be key as well, what are you buring right now. How big are the internals of that chinmey, are we talking 8"x8" here or something way bigger...

 

[rkymtnoffgrid]

Another thought as well, at first opening the cleanout door may indeed improve draft, I would think it would have a negative effect after the fire gets hot, as it will be sucking cool air into the chimney and diluting the hot gasses from the stove. The warmer and taller your chimney is the better the draft. I would close that door right after you get the fire rocking, and leave the bypass on the stove open. And although I'm going to get a lot of negative crap about my next suggestion, but try this while your trying to lite the fire. Close your basement clean out, close the side and front door on the stove, open the air feed all the way, just crack the ashpan door only while the fire is geting going, Dont leave it like this! (also realize that is expressly opposite of the directions in the manual, and just by admiting you fired your stove with the ashpan door open, you have voided your warranty) but I think your an adult, and if you have draft issues this might be key. This is only way I have been able to start my stove without smoking me out of the house until I get the chimney warm. After that, I can operate the stove normaly. Don't even try the everburn until your chimney is lined, youll be gagging on the smoke and the flare-ups will scare you...

 

[rkymtnoffgrid]

Rick, this is the NON-CAT model right?

 

[mhl380]

yes non-cat model

 

[bsa0021]

and by the way, do you any 30 day satisifaction garantees on that stove?

Best suggestion you'll ever get!!

 

[mhl380]

well if i run with the damper door open it runs fine no smoke. top of the stove is running around 500-600 degres
and the pipe is about 300-400 seems to run fine when i run like this.

 

[trailblaze]

i have the same stove. it takes a learning curve but once you figure stuff out it's a very nice heat source. it's not wise to use ash door for air, but i do it too when starting a fire.... but never leave it open and leave the stove!

i found i needed to get the external flue pipe temp (@ say 15" up from stove top) to hit around 350-400 before i closed the damper. i don't monitor stove top temps anymore as i've found just paying attention to one reading and learning how to control that temp is best method.

i've altered my secondary air intake too. i am now able to control the air flow much better.

i added the optional fan kit this season and it's 110% worth the money! my house is really not set up for a stove but just burning wood is all im doing now for heat. last year i was running the oil furnace and used about 400 gallons. so far this season i've used 25 gallons... might use 75 all year just because sometimes i can't keep the fire going long enough.

i am averaging 8 hour burns with damper closed and at the end it's mostly ash with some coals to quickly start the next everburn. it takes about an hour of small splits burning hot to get the ash base again for another everburn cycle.



hang in there..... you'll get it! this is my second season btw.

 

[ecocavalier02]

It defiantly takes some time to learn and even after you learn it, it will still take time. it does heat the house very well. but that reason alone of having to take an hour after reload to play with it is tough, especially before work to do and get it to keep working right. hope you have good luck with it. keep us posted how it goes curious to see how it works with your setup