VC defiant 1945 - longer burn time

[RandyBoBandy]

They offer two cats, ones metal and the other is ceramic, both are the same size. Which is better? What piece is the flame shield? I assume it’s the one that goes above the bricks and has all the pieces coming off of it

I think it comes down to personal preference with the cats. Some guys like the steel better because it tends to heat up and light off faster. Others prefer the ceramic. I have been putting ceramic in my encore and have no issues with it. The flame shield is the piece that sits above the fire brick. Yours is completely trashed. All the red discoloration you see on the internal parts is a direct indication of overfiring....repeatedly. What kind of shape is the damper assembly in? If I had to guess that is probably smoked as well.

 

[TravisNY]

Damper assembly is actually solid and works good. The only thing was I just adjusted the screw to get a more tight seal

 

[TravisNY]

For anyone that is interested... I added 3’ of chimney outside, new cat and new gaskets all around and the stove is much more controllable. Got it up to 600(slowly) added 3 pieces of seasoned oak and dialed the stove back and it dropped down to 450 and is slowly burning the logs

 

[Diabel]

For anyone that is interested... I added 3’ of chimney outside, new cat and new gaskets all around and the stove is much more controllable. Got it up to 600(slowly) added 3 pieces of seasoned oak and dialed the stove back and it dropped down to 450 and is slowly burning the logs

Excellent!

When you close the air completely, do you still see lots of flame in the firebox? And do you see smoke out the chimney?

 

[TravisNY]

I do still see flames in the firebox with the air cut all the way back (so I’m sure there’s still a little leak somewhere) but it’s a lot more manageable now. I barely see any smoke coming out of the chimney, I see what I’ll call the “invisible heat wave” haha

 

[Diabel]

That is good.

Take a lighter and run it by all the seams of the stove. When and if you will see the lighter flame being sucked toward the seam, you know you have a leak there.

For a leaky VC one quick remedy is to plug the epa hole. Not sure where on the defiant that hole is , it should be somewhere near the ashoan door. The Encore has it there.

Also, keep a good bed of ash. This helps to extend the burn time

 

[TravisNY]

Current state. Primary all the way closed and no ash bed

 

[Diabel]

Looks good

In dead of winter I empty ashes maybe once per week. Let it build up. And throw some wood into that belly!

 

[TravisNY]

Just got up to 700....

 

[TravisNY]

Is this suppose to close when the stove is hot? If so the rust was stopping it from doing that so I just pushed it down and now it’s staying down. Possibly another reason I was having trouble controlling the temp?

 

[Diabel]

Yes it supposed to close

This stove sat in the rain for quite some time

 

[baerjo]

I have a brand spanking new Defiant, pro installed straight from VC, and I just dialed in to get 6hrs of burn time after about a week of messing with it. This guy has that "thermostatic" control on it so bumping the temp down doesn't do anything to the flames at times. The main damper level is either open or on cat, that's it. Kinda related, kinda not to OP :D. Have a feeling I either have a leak on a brand new stove, or have some major back draft down the chimney feeding the fire more than it should be fed...something's going on.

 

[Diabel]

Burntime is really hard to define. Almost every one will have a different idea. There are so many factors involved. If you get 6h of meaningful heat from softwood, stove loosely packed then you are good. If you get 6h from fully packed with hardwood stove, from light to ambers then you need to play with the stove some more.

 

[baerjo]

Burntime is really hard to define. Almost every one will have a different idea. There are so many factors involved. If you get 6h of meaningful heat from softwood, stove loosely packed then you are good. If you get 6h from fully packed with hardwood stove, from light to ambers then you need to play with the stove some more.

Yeah I posted elsewhere that I think it's an install issue. They didn't crimp and tuck the oval to round adapter into the flue collar like they're supposed to, so major draft coming in there. In my case it's mostly maple, some elm, tightly packed = 6hrs. So once they come back to fix that issue I'm betting I'll get much better performance.

 

[Defiant 3]

Definitely do gaskets and pay special attention to making sure the ash pan door closes and seals properly, that's the " Achille's heel" of so many V. C. stoves. Also, yeah you can run it in any condition you want to buy you'll never get the safety and performance you want until everything is working as it should. It's a good stove but it's a complicated stove.