New Vogelzang Colonial (TR004) installation and intro!

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anthonyj124

Member
Nov 1, 2014
42
New England
Hi All!

I've been lurking for months, and finally tackled my installation over the past weekend. All went great! I really have to thank everyone on the forums, I've read so much great information on here that I went from total noob to comfortable picking equipment and doing the install by myself.

Brief history, we bought the house this year and it has a beautiful fireplace, and on that fireplace was a VC vigilant that was well beyond a useful condition. That's actually how I found the site- looking for info on rebuilding the VC. I decided against that however, and we agreed that an insert would be the correct equipment.

INSERT SHOPPING. So many options. Go deep and spend big dollars?? Go cheap and be happy?? I read. And read. And read. Initially I decided on a Drolet Escape, but after an issue with Lowes, my order got dropped and by the time I figured that out- the Drolet was well into back order. My second choice was the Vogelzang Colonial, and lowes could source it for me- so we changed the order and they refunded me a bit of money for the trouble. I wasn't too upset with that.

LINER!! Chimney liner depot. Great people. Answered all my questions and shipped the 25' flex king and all necessary parts super fast.

INSTALL DAY! So, our driveway starts to slope at the chimney base, and our roof is steepest at the chimney. Although I used to paint professionally, I hate ladders. The cost of the aerial lift is only a little more than my hospital deductible, so I'll get the lift every time.

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I'll do a quick pictorial of the install, since I'm already a bit wordy. :)

Three flues; oil burner, fireplace, empty to basement (future pellet stove??). I made a little cap for the third flue, and modified the supplied screen/cap to fit under the slate topper.

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Liner up!! The pull went WAY easier than I expected. My wife fed it up the bottom and I pulled from the top. Done in about 10 minutes.

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All set on the topside!
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I made a block off plate, again thanks for the wealth of information on here. I used a modified 8" HVAC duct "starter" section, sized down to just slightly larger than the chimney liner, as my pass through. I knew I wasn't going to be able to cut a nice round hole and cut pretty tabs around that hole. The starter worked well, I modified it a bit and gave it a front to rear oval to help the liner come down through it easier. Also stuffed above the plate with plenty of roxul for good measure.

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Cutting the liner was actually the most nerve wracking part. I measured and measured, got it close, then took off 1/2" at a time and test fit for perfection. Got it cut, test fit, and happy, then applied a bit of flue goo around the damper plate at the liner penetration, then some onto the appliance adapter. Probably overkill, definitely overkill, but I had a whole gallon at my disposal, and only used about half in the end.

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FIRST BURN!!
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All installed (minus the silver trim, there's a debate on that- I think it'll get painted black).
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Massive success. Very happy with the whole setup, cold weather coming this week so we'll be testing it good! I've got two ton of envi blocks- of anyone has pointers on burning them, I'm all ears, thanks again to the community here, I'm humbled by the amount of great information on these forums.
 
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First good burn last night. Not overwhelmed with the heat output, but I'm admittedly timid of packing the box and letting temps climb. It hung around 415-420 for a few hours.

Played with a few splits, then once I had good coals, I threw an enviro block in. I can definitely see how those things could cause damage with the way they expand...

Happy burning!

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Been running the new stove as much as possible. Still struggling at keeping temps above 400, even with just envi blocks, but still very satisfied with the overall output. It's keeping our 2000ish sqf lofted home above 64 pretty easily with only the occasional boost from the furnace on the most distant zone. Had a successful overnight burn last night with plenty of solid coals in the morning to pick right back up again.

Also modified the stove slightly based on a little research. I used a pair of 1/4" x1/2" long bushings and 1" self tappers to space the blower out a tad to help with the airflow. Seems to help.

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Warming up on the floor with the dog this afternoon admiring the heat.

I've found so far that a good 3-5 hour burn is two envi blocks burning good, then placing two medium splits on top. Or three envi blocks- but this tends to spike (easy to run up to 600F, then it tapers off to 300ish in an hour or two. Been loading three envi blocks before bed and getting plenty of solid coals in the morning to reignite.

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Happy holidays!
 
That looks really nice. Good work. Keep playing with it and you'll get tuned in. Takes a while sometimes.
 
Looks great, Anthony. Love the stonework!
 
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