Out With The Old In With The New

[Sierra Guy]

It arrived yesterday! Our beloved and faithful 14 year old Defiant Encore has been replaced with an Isle Royale and I have attached some photos (the first is the "old" stove) to capture this signature event. (One shows my wife praying they don't drop the new stove!) Although I knew the Isle Royale was bigger, I still was surprised by the side-by-side comparison.

We haven't had any fires yet but will soon. I need to find out how to do initial or "tempering" fires but the Quadra-Fire manual didn't have that information. Any suggestions? I did download a Vermont Castings Defiant manual which discusses the 3 or 4 initial fires it recommends which I will go with unless I get better instructions.


Jim

 

[Todd]

Very nice install. It should keep you plenty warm this winter.

 

[AlexNY]

Our beloved and faithful 14 year old Defiant Encore has been replaced ...

You must take very good care of your stoves. I had trouble telling the new unit from the old one!

I replaced a 20 year old Jotul last year. Initially, I was very unhappy with the new stove. I tell you this because things have changed over the years. Firewood needs to have much lower humidity to work in the new units, and you may need to split smaller also.

Don't get discouraged!

Good luck.

 

[begreen]

I've noticed that the Europeans are more lax about break in recommendations. Even Jotul's European manuals are this way. It certainly won't hurt to do a few break in fires, each hotter and longer than the previous one. Maybe go for 300, 400 and 500 stove top temps. Then let her loose. That is a very serious heating machine there. Congratulations. It looks great in that setting.

PS: Love the cat inspector on the truck. "I don't smell no other cat here."

 

[Pagey]

That's a great looking install. In one pic the old stove looks maroon yet in another it's red! Trick of the eye/light?

 

[firefighterjake]

I'm loving that large, over-sized hearth . . . looks like a perfect place to sit down some wet gloves or boots . . . or for a yellow cat to sleep away a cold, winter day.

 

[ShenValSteve]

Now I have to decide whether or not to let my wife see these pictures, we've been planning on ordering a black Isle Royale.

 

[Sierra Guy]

Thanks very much for all of your comments. I will take your good advice and make sure our firewood is dry as well as I can and do several initial burns starting with lower temperatures.

The Defiant Encore, when it was hot, did change colors from bright red to more of a maroon color. You could really see the difference when you compared the warming shelves to the stove.

ShenValSteve, the black Isle Royale is really a good looking stove. We had to think long and hard before we went with the mahogany. We were ready for a color "less bright" than the previous red and really liked the black but ultimately we couldn't quite get away from a reddish stove. Guess we were with the Vermont Castings stove too long!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

That is a beautiful install.

 

[Sierra Guy]

Thanks very much, Dennis. And, Jake, the yellow cat is a stray we took in in April who was only skin and bones and badly wounded. He's come a long way since then and has joined our other crowd of 3 cats plus 1 Coonhound recently adopted from the animal shelter. They all either have or will learn to love the hearth.



Jim

 

[Bobbin]

Yes, I too love the gracious proportion of the hearth. Very, very pretty! and I love the bright color of the new stove, too, really handsome.

(fabulous cat, too)

 

[Sierra Guy]

Bobbin, looks like you're a pet lover too! Anyway, the hearth was actually one of several big surprises we had when building a new home years ago. We didn't give the contractor much direction...we lived about 3 hours away at the time...and the hearth ended up being one heck of a lot bigger than we thought it would be or certainly wanted at that time. It ate up part of the living room and initially we weren't too sure about it. However, with time, we've grown to really like it and, as said in an earlier post, the cats would be lost without it. That makes it ok.


Jim