That's a long and respectable run. How has the servicing been? Has the stove's combustion package been replaced?
New to Wood Stoves . Recommendations?
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Northern NH Mike
Feeling the Heat
I have done the gaskets a couple of times but other than that it has not needed repairs to the refractory. I'm making chili on the cooktop as we speak.
Impressive. This is the longest I have heard of with an Encore NC of that vintage. Usually, the refractory of that time period was shot after 5-8 yrs. Was it only used part-time at some point?
Northern NH Mike
Feeling the Heat
I burn on the weekends and during the weeklong Christmas and February vacation. It is not the primary heat source. We are out of the house weekdays most of the day. We go through a cord to a cord and a half a season. We are lightweights compared to most others on the site.
Replaced cat and gaskets. This spring I plan on pulling the fireback and resealing it. Refractor looked good when I changed the cat.
The VC dauntless doubles as a piece of furniture. It just looks good sitting there.
If you are home and don't mind the three month learning curve, it's not a terrible experience. But if you plan on setting it and never checking it and leaving the house, best to run with the cat and run it a little on the lower side to be honest. And be prepared to have blackened glass and maybe a few extra gray hairs.
If you are home and don't mind the three month learning curve, it's not a terrible experience. But if you plan on setting it and never checking it and leaving the house, best to run with the cat and run it a little on the lower side to be honest. And be prepared to have blackened glass and maybe a few extra gray hairs.
I couldnt agree more. The Dauntless has been a terrible experience so far. I wish I had a CAT for it, hoping that will make things easier.
It will make the fires more predictable and able to run steadily at a lower output.
My observations are minimal. Likely placebo effect. The only benefit it has is to baffle some of the higher draft stove setups and maybe tamp down that experience a bit ..dunno..I dont really suffer from run away fires aside from the one time my air control cable must have gotten stuck on something,...or there was a mouse stuck in my air intake. Possible.
What makes this stove more predictable to run and more steady at lower output, is having a full ash pan and a nice thick red juicy glowing bed of coals. Dont ask my why about the ash pan, it just does. I have no leaks there, tested it when I got the stove and tested it again after I observed this. Id rip my dollar if I tried to get it out any harder.
Welp, no one is interested in my stove - and the dealer sure isnt in a hurry to call me back and 'lets make a deal'. So I guess Im stuck with the VC.
Do you get the black glass on the top like this? I can't prevent it. Happens every fire.
Yes every fresh start. It's impossible to avoid. But once you reload on a pile of coals and let that catch nicely and continue to operate it so they flames are always showing up, most of that will burn off. Having logs up a bit burning will cook that stuff off. That only happens if your bottom layer of wood is getting nice flames from a hot bed of coals and you let that bottom layer catch and then the second layer eventually. Very hard to achieve from what I can tell early into a load with the stove turned down. Once a load burns down do whatever you want as long as you see lots of glow or flames but early into the load try to keep that STT to at least 500 degrees.
In short , burn hot
Burning hot isn't helping. And one side gets more than the other. Looks terrible. If you open the doors and look on the right and left , there are air vents by the glass. The smoke starts where the air vent stops. I think that is the issue.
Ok let me rephrase. You need that entire box burning pretty hot, not just the stt. Once you've been burning for hours you can use that as a gauge but never during an initial load or when the damper is open. The Stt can be super hot yet the sides cool enough to touch.
I'm thinking of doing a video of a 7 hour burn. Hopefully that will help me learn and help others that might be struggling more than me. Cat in or cat out is the question?
I would not put high expectations that the cat will be a silver bullet to your problems. It's almost better to learn now without the cat how best to burn your stove in your house using your fuel. Add the cat for greatly flexibility for lower cleaner burns.
Remember, it's not the stove - it's us!
WE just dont know what we are doing.
Get a real solid bed of coals. Load the box halfway and burn it wide air for a few hours. It'll clean right up
Not how the stove was intended to be run, full time - BUT yes, this man is 100% accurate. In fact, this is how these stove operate the best.
Medium splits - 1/2 full to start on a great bed of coals. Learn to master that then work toward a full load. On a morning reload, Ive taken upwards of 1.5 hours with the damper open to get a load burning nice enough to close down to secondary and not risk the flames dying down too much and the glass turning black.
If you have too much draft though and really dry wood, you may be a bit toward the danger zone so keep that in mind.
I don't understand the stress over getting a little black soot on the glass. You're burning wood in a box, it gives off smoke.
Wellllllll for some it isn't just a little black spot.
And keep in mind most stoves don't suffer with a very poor flame watching experience. None that I've seen at least.
Otherwise, why put a damn window on it in the first place right?
I don't know how you accomplished that. I've burned mine cold damped down for 14 hour burns and only have soot not syrup like that. I've burned mine non-cat and damped it down to smolder and still only get soot. I don't have a stove merely for flame watching, I can open the air and it burns off the soot and I see the flames. The glass is a marketing tool and it sells stoves to people that want them in their living spaces that look pretty. The stove would be a better stove without the glass, probably make it cheaper and less places for air leaks but it wouldn't be as pretty.
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My dealer told me the stove operates best between 550-650 and I tend to believe that is pretty accurate. It is warm here today so I will run it lower and cooler and probably turn it up around 4 and get it nice and hot with a lot of coals before I load it for the overnight. When I wake up at 4:30-5:00 tomorrow morning I will throw 3-4 splits and run it wide open till that burns down, glass will be clear then burn as my heat requirements are from that point.
I burn whatever during the odd. I try and use more of the odd sizes and ugly pieces. I use bigger splits at night
My glass has never looked like that
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