Stack Vista 640 Woodburner Help

[gnatto]

Hi,

I recently moved into a house that has a Stack Vista 640 Woodburner which was installed sometime in the mid 80's. When lighting a fire it got a little smokey like nothing was going up the flue and then when I closed the door it kept killing the fire. It looks like the back baffle is cracked and crumbled a bit, and the upper baffle is worn and the middle part of it is warped upward. I attached a photo of it.

I've also attached a photo of the inside of the door as the rope insulation thing looks a little worse for wear.

The other thing is the high/low lever seems to have no tension anymore and just drops to the low setting.

Any advise or thoughts on what I may be able to do to get this fire working again would be great.

 

[kennyp2339]

Time to buy a new stove there. The thing looks pretty worn out, some warped area's and a smoke dragon with a huge wood appetite

 

[begreen]

Agreed. A chimney cleaning, new stove and fully seasoned firewood will make for a much better experience.

 

[Heatsource]

+3, its not worth repairing

 

[Kiwi Firemaster]

Here is one I converted to an IntensiFire. They are not a big stove, and the IntensiFire sort of splits it in two. Needs an adapter made to mate up to the IntensiFire.

One image shows where you start disassembly. You want to watch for another weakness, both those that have an IntensiFire had come away at the junction of the side plates to the bottom plate and I made a little bracket to hold it together. I also bolted the good part of the broken baffle under the cracked base. It is still working well two years down the track.

Once I finished the job I went down the road to a local beach to catch the magical sunset.

 

[Lake Girl]

Looks like the OP has some serious recon (and cleaning) to do before he can determine if the stove is a viable candidate for the modification. How does your home owner's insurance treat modifications like that? In North America, you would be dropped as uninsurable...

 

[Kiwi Firemaster]

To be fair, if going the IntensiFire route you would see about picking up a more suitable candidate for a few hundred dollars on craigslist. Refurbishing this stove would be best done by stripping it down, so a half day job to do that and reassemble.Those broken baffles are not required, and just unbolt. I never worry about a door seal with the IntensiFire, a little extra air doesn't hurt, but probably a cheap part over there. It would give another 30 years of service without too much work, but it has to be a well considered project.

Most of my customers are fairly independent types, so are capable of using common sense when upgrading to an IntensiFire. In my experience it doesn't affect the safety of a sound installation, but the intervention offers a chance to assess that soundness. I counsel customers to do this, key area being penetration through the roof timber structure. Second to that is the wall clearance, which can be checked with a $10 thermometer.

I guess you have to take insurance in context, 1 in 3 homes in New Zealand uses a stove as the primary source of winter space heating. The population, and insurance companies, are a lot more comfortable and familiar with their use.

 

[begreen]

I guess you have to take insurance in context, 1 in 3 homes in New Zealand uses a stove as the primary source of winter space heating. The population, and insurance companies, are a lot more comfortable and familiar with their use.

Wow Jason, I had no idea that wood burning was so popular in NZ. That's a lot of stoves in a community. No wonder they are seeing smoke issues in mountain valley towns.

 

[Kiwi Firemaster]

Well the last census data I had available stated 1.7million homes, 550,000 of which heated with wood. Only 18,000 of those being an open fireplace. We also have massive exotic timber forests of predominantly monterey pine (known as radiata pine here), so wood is accessible and the cheapest way to heat a home. Some of the pioneering ideas in woodstoves have come from New Zealand because of this.

Australia is a bit behind, but with 1.5 million stoves it is still up there compared to the USA. Chile is another country with very high usage of woodstoves, and the associated pollution problems with inversion layers in their topography.

 

[begreen]

Yes, the Kent Tile stove is a good example of a nice NZ stove that made it over here. It's good that you are helping get the emissions down on the older stoves. With that many stoves burning emissions are a serious issue. Hope you and your dad are seeing success.

 

[Kiwi Firemaster]

I have been meaning to post this recent youtube video of the IntensiFire on the Kent Tile Fire thread on this forum. I will hunt it up again.

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[Hogwildz]

For a few hundred dollars, and the few hundred dollars more for the IntensiFire, you could have a brand new Englander stove, no brainer, save your cash and get a new stove.

 

[kennyp2339]

Wow- it just clicked for me, I apologize for not understanding what the OP was going to do, I totally forgot about the intensifier technology since it's not talked about much in North America

 

[begreen]

For a few hundred dollars, and the few hundred dollars more for the IntensiFire, you could have a brand new Englander stove, no brainer, save your cash and get a new stove.

OP is from down under. Are Englanders sold in NZ?

 

[Hogwildz]

I missed the their location. Dunno about availability in NZ

 

[begreen]

Me neither. Wondering if there is an equivalent if no Englanders in NZ? Drolet?

 

[Hogwildz]

Osburn maybe? Or may be able to have them ship to NZ?

 

[kennyp2339]

Hog how's the back been

 

[begreen]

Osburn maybe? Or may be able to have them ship to NZ?

Bingo. I found Osburns for sale in NZ.

 

[Hogwildz]

Hog how's the back been

Back has been okay, but I haven't been using it much, till yesterday. I split up a big Hemlock that died and blew over, and it was not fun to split.
Lifting 3' rounds up to the splitter is fading away quick. Standing or sitting in one spot for long periods is not user friendly for me also. Last night was a Percocet night. Other than that, I still get around, ride my bike, work on the house. Things got to be done, so life goes forward.