VC Defiant II possible issue found during light test

[emory]

As part of my yearly maintenance, I had my stove apart and was working in the back secondary burn area. I removed the upper plate for the rear of the stove and while I was light testing I noticed the following gap. With the front of the stove facing you, looking down into the rear chamber through the oval top stove pipe, you can see down in the back bottom left corner a small area where air can pass from the rear air intake vent flap.

Is this normal or should there be some stove cement in there preventing air from entering the system at that point?

I've attached two pictures, one taken with the light on looking down into the rear chamber through the top stove pipe and the other showing the area leaking light into the rear box. The light was placed right in the rear air flap/intake.

 

[Nonprophet]

Well, I'm no expert on VC stoves, though I've owned a few of them......

That being said what your pics show sure doesn't look like it was an intentional/by design air inlet--it looks like it's opened up with use. Accordingly, I'd patch it with some stove cement!


NP

 

[fbelec]

i run the defiant 1. i just rebuilt it. that channel you see from the smoke pipe hole is your secondary air. if you put a light into the rear metal flap area and you see light, you need to rebuild that stove. now if the light were inserted into the round hole on the left side you could put some cement on that hole and worry about it later, but from what you said your primary and secondary air is mixing. if you run the stove like the manual says to, the secondary air flap should be wide open when running with the damper engaged, and if your air is mixing even thou your primary flap is closed because the stove is running up to temp you have the possibility of getting the stove to hot because it will continue getting hotter with the air it's getting from the wide open secondary hole. until you rebuild, run the stove in the updraft position and keep the secondary air closed.

 

[fbelec]

get another picture but this time pull back a little so that i can see some of the area around it.

 

[emory]

Correction, after doing another light test using a flash light and not a flood light, the light is coming from the side hole, not the rear flap. I can get another picture if needed, but it's in a tight space between the fire back and the rear of the stove.

 

[fbelec]

if that is your only hole and the rest of the stove looks good and clean, wet the area drop some furnace cement all around that area and that should get you thru this season. then next season rebuild it. i rebuilt mine alone. not a good position for three slipped disks. getting cement on the fireback and the back casting was easy, but getting them to mate was another. had to use a loooong screw driver with a bent tip in the air whole on the side and use the screw stick like a putty knife to marry the two sides of cement together. not easy but do-able. bent screw driver was the key.