Hey all,
This morning I lit the first test fire in our newly installed VC Defiant. Just a small fire, and kept it under 500 degrees as the manual suggests for the first few. Things went well, and we love the heat that it puts out. I do need to do the dollar bill check on the gaskets, though, as the air control seemed to have no effect on the flame.
When running the dollar bill test I assume that I have to do that all the way around the gaskets of the doors and ash pan, correct? I'll see if I can find a thread that calls it out.
ha I love your name DullAxe. Welcome to the Dauntless club! A stove I love and hate. Im on year 2 of mine, and while it is way too warm out to run the stove in my area we have had a few nights that I fired her up to blow out the cobwebs and take the edge off.
The Dauntless as I found out, is not a beginner stove. IMO. You essentially have purchased an italian sports car. Beautiful to look at and operate, but temperamental.
Based on your post, Im going to give you some advice so that you can avoid headaches, hearthbreak and possibly a house fire.
TLDR, keep flames visible, a nice hot bed of coals, make changes slowly, use <20MC wood, expect from cold start to smooth operation it will take you ~6 hours to a set it and walk away (after months of experience)
-You are burning small short fires for now. That's barely going to get the stove up to temp. I bet the sides are cool to the touch or at least not able to burn your hand holding it there for awhile. If you continue to try and burn a small fire though for longer periods of time, the stove will really start to throw out some heat. So you may get more than you asked for. Conversely when it's really cold out, you may really wonder if you got the right sized stove, 3 hours in when the room/house is cold. Cast iron stoves take a long time to heat up and cool down. Sure you can get the top blazing hot fairly quickly, but most of that heat is going up the chimney at that point early in. Just setting an expectation here.
-You must use well seasoned wood. <20% MC tested properly. If you dont have that, you've got the wrong stove. Search here for how to test, and buy a moisture meter.
-Prepare to babysit and resist the urge to fiddle with the air control. Make changes in small increments and wait ten minutes before changing again until you get used to the stove.
-Do not allow this thing to burn long/slow until you've learned the stove well. They create a monstrous amount of creosote in a very very short period of time. If you continue to do this, and then one day get a really hot large flaming fire going and leave the bypass open, you will quickly learn the term 'creosote burn off' aka chimney fire. Im talking in a matter of weeks.
-When you are starting your stove, start as you have then keep adding a few smaller pieces as those burn down, building up to slightly larger and more pieces but I wouldnt fill the box with more than half early on. Make sure you keep the air control to the point that you always see a flame behind that black glass
. Once you see that you have 3-4" of chunky and small red hot coals, you can go ahead and pack up the stove fairly tight. But it's important that you let that new wood catch. Usually 30 minutes of running it to the point that you can see flames in between the logs. Might be hard to see at first. If in doubt set the air control to the highest setting for awhile then back it down halfway to ensure that new packed load gets caught. Once you have that large load showing flames easily observed, you can then back off the air control to like the 3rd or 4th from the bottom and let that load run for hours. Might take an hour to get there though. Key here is not to pack the stove tight, and believe you can just set the air control to the lower/lowest settings and wake up to anything other than an appliance that created thick black juicy tar all throughout your stove and stove pipe. Heat is the key to ensuring that creosote doesnt build up.
-It not impossible but it's probable that you will need a cat thermometer. Even if you dont have a cat installed, you are going to want to know when you can switch over to the secondary and close the bypass. I can usually get there before I do a big load, but then I have to open the bypass again to do the full load and then let that remain as such for awhile until my big load catches.
-If you arent getting 8 hours of burn time on this stove once you've gotten through a long start up, you arent optimizing your burn. These stoves were not meant for the weekend warrior really, they are better suited to remain in operation through the week. But that's not to say that they cant just be used on the weekends, just realize though that there is a long startup time to get it operating smoothly without a ton of effort.
-You will have black glass. Black glass is a sign that you are doing something wrong, and even if you do all the right things there will still be sizable portions of black glass. I have mornings that I wake up to completely clear glass, and mornings that it isnt so much. Same wood, same methods, same air control settings. For the most part though, the coldest days/nights that I run it on the hotter side, the glass is clear.
-Do yourself a favor and between fires, check your flue. Get a flashlight and a phone and take a picture up inside there to see how much creosote is up there. Also get a pair of binoculars and inspect the spark arrestor after a few months. After one season my spark arrestor was 50% clogged. Yikes. Much of that was me learning the stove, operating it too low too soon without cat installed.
-Consider getting a cat if you dont have one. It will allow you to burn off that stuff that would create creosote at lower temps. Even if you run the stove hot and get a load really caught, when you shut down the bypass and lower the stove temps, you probably arent burning off that smoke.
-Go outside and look at the smoke coming from the chimney, there are threads about this. It's frustrating to see a good bit of smoke coming from the chimney, but satisfying when you have a good fire inside and a hot stove, but outside you dont really see much coming out of the chimney.
-Never operate the stove on high flames while holding the top door open to inspect for too long. Those flames rush up the pipe and you'll hear all sorts of scary noises and smells as it burns the gunk inside. Also take your time to open that door. Ive had smoke billow up then suddenly catch 1' - 2' from the stove top. Yes a giant fireball in front of you, scary.
-You'll know you've gotten the top/stove pipe too hot when you smell that smell that I can't describe.
-Stove top temperature can be a good gauge for operating, but it's fairly meaningless for the first 3-4 hours other than to avoid getting the top too hot aka the danger zone.
Your goals are safe operation. Clear glass. Little to no smoke out of the chimney during long term usage once a load has caught and the stove is sailing along. You may find that you can only create a situation whereas there is no smoke from the chimney once a full load is about 1/2 burned out. But as you gain experience you'll get better at this.
Finally, if you havent figured this out. The chances of having other family members operate this are slim to none, at least until you've figured it out enough to create a guide for usage. I have a laminated piece of paper that tells my family what to do while it's running when Im away and I would never leave the stove for the first 4-5 hours after startup with family to tend to it. One on my paper is: If they are cold, the answer isn't increase the air control all the way and walk away from the stove for an hour. It's go put on a sweater, then walk to the stove and if you dont see flames adjust the air control up two notches then wait 30 minutes.
Also btw, when it's warm out and you have a new load smoking heavily out the chimney, dont freak out when you see some smoke coming through the hatch. Increase the air control a bit. You've introduce too much wood on not enough coals. That's why the startup process in the manual is what it is. They have it right.
Once you get this down, you will be able to build a small kindling fire with a couple small splits in the stove packed to the top, let that burn but adjusting the air down and down as it burns down, then smash that down and just add about half the stove with mediums, let that burn on hit for awhile till that burns down, smash that down then pack it tight and let that burn for about 30 minutes, then set and forget. The cat help as well, but it's not a must.
