Older Intrepid 1 in Vermont Yurt

[StoveHopeful]

Greetings! Getting ready for our first yurt winter here in Vermont. We have 4 cord of wood and an old Vermont Castings Intrepid 1 in the center of our 20' yurt. I've been building fires in the stove morning and evening for two weeks and noticed on occasion smoke coming out from the seam/joint between the top of the stove and the side walls. I now believe it needs new stove cement in the seams in order to help me better control the air coming into the stove. Are there any good tutorials or instructions to separate the top from the sides and replace the cement? All I've done so far is replace/re-cement the gaskets.

Thank you for any support you can provide!

 

[StoveHopeful]

Just wanted to bump up this question and see if anyone has tips or advice for me. Is it a big deal if the stove is leaking air? Can I just add cement to the seams from the outside without taking it apart? If I need to take it apart, any tips?

 

[stoveliker]

Yes, I would say it needs to be made tighter. Otherwise you are burning very inefficient (which may be an issue if you have 4 cords in a yurt in Vermont...).

Also, it should be sucking in air, not letting smoke out - if your chimney is tall enough. How tall is it (and how does that compare to what the manual recommends)?


Given that this is your first winter, how dry is your wood? How long has it been split, stacked, covered?

Is the stove installation honoring the clearances to combustibles?

 

[Defiant 3]

Prolly a pretty short chimney in a yurt? Wonder if it drafts sufficiently? Does it do it only w damper closed? Smoke chamber may need cleaning?

 

[StoveHopeful]

@stoveliker Thank you for sharing this advice - I agree that it needs to be made tighter and have been thinking about ordering more wood just in case. It generally does suck in air and not let smoke out, there are just a few specific cases where a little smoke comes out between the sides of the stove and the top of the stove - for example, when I am just starting up the fire and I blow on the new coals to help everything catch, a small amount of smoke will come out from gaps where the cement must have degraded, which is why I am thinking about a rebuild to fill any gaps between sides and the top. The skylight in our yurt is about 10 feet tall, so the total chimney height is about 11 or 12 feet. I believe its pretty standard for yurt chimneys in our area, and the smoke does go straight up the chimney once the flue is warm. I am mostly concerned about getting the gaps and gaskets properly filled so that I can control the fire better. The wood has been stacked and covered at our house about 2 months but was cut a few seasons ago by a local firewood supplier who said it will be ready for winter and has been seasoning nicely for us. I will keep measuring moisture with my moisture meter (fresh splits, parallel to grain). We built a custom hearth from slate and have followed the manual to ensure proper distance to combustibles.

@Defiant 3 Yes, it is a pretty short chimney but I have not had any draw issues (I am new to wood stoves but it seems to draw well to me). I just think that the cement has degraded over the decades and probably needs to be replaced. Smoke does not come out of the stove at all while it is in regular operation, only when the fire is just getting started with the damper open.

@stoveliker and @Defiant 3 Any advice on getting the seams between the top and sides sealed up? Also, I did the paper test around the door and it failed miserably. When I close the doors and look down into the stove from the griddle top I can see that the gasket at the bottom of the doors is not touching the body of the stove at all - I can even see red light from coals on the little tray in front of the stove while the coals are burning with the door closed. I will replace the door gaskets. The manual does not say much about replacing the gaskets - I believe it takes 5/16. There is a channel around the inside of the doors as well as on the stove body where the doors close, but the previous owner only had gaskets around the inside of the door, not on the stove body. Does it take a gasket on the doors AND in the channel around the body of the stove?

Thank you both!

 

[stoveliker]

I think the only way to properly seal this is to take it apart and rebuild it.

I also do not believe the wood is dry if it was split 2 months ago as wood does not dry well when in rounds or logs.

I also strongly advise to have a CO detector, and a smoke detector. CO is a silent killer, you have a short flue, and draft reversal at the end of a burn (when you sleep) could do you in.

 

[Defiant 3]

@stoveliker Thank you for sharing this advice - I agree that it needs to be made tighter and have been thinking about ordering more wood just in case. It generally does suck in air and not let smoke out, there are just a few specific cases where a little smoke comes out between the sides of the stove and the top of the stove - for example, when I am just starting up the fire and I blow on the new coals to help everything catch, a small amount of smoke will come out from gaps where the cement must have degraded, which is why I am thinking about a rebuild to fill any gaps between sides and the top. The skylight in our yurt is about 10 feet tall, so the total chimney height is about 11 or 12 feet. I believe its pretty standard for yurt chimneys in our area, and the smoke does go straight up the chimney once the flue is warm. I am mostly concerned about getting the gaps and gaskets properly filled so that I can control the fire better. The wood has been stacked and covered at our house about 2 months but was cut a few seasons ago by a local firewood supplier who said it will be ready for winter and has been seasoning nicely for us. I will keep measuring moisture with my moisture meter (fresh splits, parallel to grain). We built a custom hearth from slate and have followed the manual to ensure proper distance to combustibles.

@Defiant 3 Yes, it is a pretty short chimney but I have not had any draw issues (I am new to wood stoves but it seems to draw well to me). I just think that the cement has degraded over the decades and probably needs to be replaced. Smoke does not come out of the stove at all while it is in regular operation, only when the fire is just getting started with the damper open.

@stoveliker and @Defiant 3 Any advice on getting the seams between the top and sides sealed up? Also, I did the paper test around the door and it failed miserably. When I close the doors and look down into the stove from the griddle top I can see that the gasket at the bottom of the doors is not touching the body of the stove at all - I can even see red light from coals on the little tray in front of the stove while the coals are burning with the door closed. I will replace the door gaskets. The manual does not say much about replacing the gaskets - I believe it takes 5/16. There is a channel around the inside of the doors as well as on the stove body where the doors close, but the previous owner only had gaskets around the inside of the door, not on the stove body. Does it take a gasket on the doors AND in the channel around the body of the stove?

Thank you both!

5/16" gasket on doors only, not the front. Be sure to clean out all of the old cement from the gasket channel on the doors. If that's not possible for some reason, then go with quarter inch.

 

[Defiant 3]

5/16" gasket on doors only, not the front. Be sure to clean out all of the old cement from the gasket channel on the doors. If that's not possible for some reason, then go with quarter inch.

You can get some furnace cement in a caulking tube and squirt it up into those seams between the sides and the top, front & top etc.
you may be able to get at it from the inside and the outside, in which case it would be pretty effective!

 

[StoveHopeful]

@stoveliker That's what I thought too regarding a rebuild. Not sure I have the skills to do that but I might try - I read an old post about using threaded rod to replace the tie posts but havent found much info on how to do it yet. I think the wood is in pretty good shape, it was cut 6 months to 1 year ago and has been stacked by me about 2 months. It was originally split into pretty large chunks and Ive been splitting it down further to dry it out faster. Im going to keep checking it with the moisture meter but it seems to be doing pretty well. Good call on the safety devices - we have a combo smoke and CO alarm, as well as a dedicated low ppm CO alarm. So far the CO alarm has one time registered 30 ppm but that was from our propane cook stove, not the wood stove.

@Defiant 3 Thanks for this info about the gasket. I will clean them out really well from the old cement. Right now it seems like the doors, with the old gasket, seal well on the left and right sides of the stove but the middle, where the doors meet, there is clearly no seal at the top and bottom of the doors. The gasket is there but the doors are not closing far enough for the gasket to touch the front of the stove - the gap is not big enough for coals or embers to fall out of the stove but tons of air can get through there. I hope with a new gasket it will close the gap but Im worried the doors would be warped or something, they bow out a good bit and do not sit snug up to the front of the stove, which is why I thought maybe there needs to be a gasket on both sides (the inside of the door and the face of the stove). Ill try and see. Ill also try using the furnace cement instead of a full rebuild. Do you know the right gasket for the window glass? I read that the griddle top needs to be steel/wire 5/16.

 

[stoveliker]

What are your moisture readings?

I do think that not only for efficiency it is needed to tighten up the stove, but also for safety. You need to control the fire to avoid embers coming out of the chimney, possibly landing on the yurt. Quite possible to burn down the thing quickly.

 

[StoveHopeful]

What are your moisture readings?

I do think that not only for efficiency it is needed to tighten up the stove, but also for safety. You need to control the fire to avoid embers coming out of the chimney, possibly landing on the yurt. Quite possible to burn down the thing quickly.

I totally agree. Most recent moisture readings are 17-19% on my smaller splits and 20-23% on the pieces I haven't split down yet (they have been split but not into their final smaller size). I've been burning the smaller stuff which has worked pretty well so far and hope the bigger stuff will dry up in the next few months

 

[stoveliker]

Is that measured on a freshly exposed surface that you access by resplitting it so that you essentially measure on the middle of the split?

If so, then that is quite good.

Regardless, I would seal it as good as you can. For efficiency and safety.

 

[StoveHopeful]

Is that measured on a freshly exposed surface that you access by resplitting it so that you essentially measure on the middle of the split?

If so, then that is quite good.

Regardless, I would seal it as good as you can. For efficiency and safety.

Yup - fresh split, moisture meter pins parallel to wood grain. I think it's going pretty well - and yes I'll definitely try to seal the stove as best I can, new gaskets just arrived so that will be this weekend project.

 

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

Take the doors off, clean the old cement out of the grooves, reisntall and close the doors and see how tight the gap can be made at the bottom, adjust set screw loosely so the doors hold shut. if need be you can use 1/4 on the top and sides and 5/16 on the bottom. Use a very fine bead on the top and sides and a thicker bead on the bottom loosen the set screw until the doors will shut snugly but not forcibly. Let it set up. Once the cement has set tighten the set screw 1/4-1/2 turn , if need be you can shim the bottom of the doors with a bit of 1/4” rope under the 5/16 gasket to add some thickness. To rule out air leaks you can caulk the top joint on the outside but it isn’t a permanent solution.

 

[StoveHopeful]

Hi everyone! Update: We made it through the winter pretty well with our old, leaky VC Intrepid. It was a mild winter with only two days at -20 F, so we only used 3 cord of wood. I have about 5 seasoning now for this coming winter (4 new green cord and 1 leftover from last winter). I'm hoping to rebuild this stove and at least replace the cement between the stove panels to get more control over the fire this winter. Are there any tutorials on how to rebuild this old thing? Thank you!

 

[Prof]

I suspect that you found that as the weather got colder, your stove/chimney performed better? Maybe you don't need to do anything but heat your chimney with a propane/MAP gas torch in the shoulder season.

 

[StoveHopeful]

I suspect that you found that as the weather got colder, your stove/chimney performed better? Maybe you don't need to do anything but heat your chimney with a propane/MAP gas torch in the shoulder season.

Hi @Prof ! The chimney worked great, but the stove still needs to be rebuilt and have the cement in the seams replaced. I think the fire would last longer if I could control the air intake, instead of being super leaky, right? I might try to recement the seams or just buy another stove, I'm not sure yet.