VC Vigilant Advice

[thiscoldhouse]

Hi all,

I'm new here. I've recently acquired a fully rebuilt Vigilant from my neighbor, and I've been trying to learn how to use it, but I'm having a bit of a hard time.

I've found all these older threads:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/vermont-castings-1977-vigilant-noob.24359/
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/vigilant-issues-help.151547/

As well as some guides, like this:
https://www.firewood-for-life.com/vigilant-wood-stove.html

I've tried following these guides. The stove seems to maintain a steady temp around ~600, but even then, when I go outside and look at my chimney, it looks pretty damn smokey to me. Much more so than other stoves I've burnt, and I've burnt old antique stoves before. My moisture meter tells me I've got pretty dry wood, so I know it's not that. The stove is definitely fully rebuilt, the chimney liner is new and 2+ stories tall, so plenty of draft.

I also see no signs of achieving that secondary burn, maybe that would help me reduce smoke? The area behind the secondary burn chamber doesn't seem to get particularly hot or anything, and a lot of those posts mention being able to hear it?

 

[bholler]

Hi all,

I'm new here. I've recently acquired a fully rebuilt Vigilant from my neighbor, and I've been trying to learn how to use it, but I'm having a bit of a hard time.

I've found all these older threads:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/vermont-castings-1977-vigilant-noob.24359/
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/vigilant-issues-help.151547/

As well as some guides, like this:
https://www.firewood-for-life.com/vigilant-wood-stove.html

I've tried following these guides. The stove seems to maintain a steady temp around ~600, but even then, when I go outside and look at my chimney, it looks pretty damn smokey to me. Much more so than other stoves I've burnt, and I've burnt old antique stoves before. My moisture meter tells me I've got pretty dry wood, so I know it's not that. The stove is definitely fully rebuilt, the chimney liner is new and 2+ stories tall, so plenty of draft.

I also see no signs of achieving that secondary burn, maybe that would help me reduce smoke? The area behind the secondary burn chamber doesn't seem to get particularly hot or anything, and a lot of those posts mention being able to hear it?

How dry is pretty dry? And how are you measuring it?

 

[thiscoldhouse]

From 7-8% to 16%, depending on which stack I take from. I tried both just to see if it made a difference, and it didn't really. I usually measure the ends and then split a couple beefier splits to measure the center. I usually find it's a few % higher in the center.

 

[bholler]

From 7-8% to 16%, depending on which stack I take from. I tried both just to see if it made a difference, and it didn't really. I usually measure the ends and then split a couple beefier splits to measure the center. I usually find it's a few % higher in the center.

You need to be testing your wood at room temperature on a fresh split face. I can tell you that there is something wrong because unless your wood is dried in a kiln in new england it cant reach 7 or 8% there is just to much humidity in the air to reach that.

 

[bholler]

That being said these stoves are very temperamental to run. And not very durable. It is going to take a,while to figure out

 

[thiscoldhouse]

You need to be testing your wood at room temperature on a fresh split face. I can tell you that there is something wrong because unless your wood is dried in a kiln in new england it cant reach 7 or 8% there is just to much humidity in the air to reach that.

The really dry stack is kiln dried, yeah.

 

[bholler]

The really dry stack is kiln dried, yeah.

Ok in that case it isnt the wood. Hopefully one of the vc guys can come along to give you some pointers.

 

[thiscoldhouse]

Thanks, I hope so too!

 

[begreen]

Hopefully the rebuild was done properly. Is the secondary air port open on the left side of the stove? It needs to be open. If so, the stove should burn reasonably cleanly once the wood is burning well. Not nearly as cleanly as modern stoves, but not bad for its vintage. The Vigilant was an excellent, durable design. My brother had one. I had the Resolute. I found it pretty easy to run, but that was ages ago.

Do you have the manual for the stove? If not it is posted here in 3 parts:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/vermont-castings-older-stove-models/

PS: The stove needs to have about an inch of sand or ash in it before burning.

 

[bholler]

Ok so this is one of the older ones my mistake they are very good durable stoves

 

[thiscoldhouse]

Hopefully the rebuild was done properly. Is the secondary air port open on the left side of the stove? It needs to be open. If so, the stove should burn reasonably cleanly once the wood is burning well. Not nearly as cleanly as modern stoves, but not bad for its vintage. The Vigilant was an excellent, durable design. My brother had one. I had the Resolute. I found it pretty easy to run, but that was ages ago.

Do you have the manual for the stove? If not it is posted here in 3 parts:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/vermont-castings-older-stove-models/

PS: The stove needs to have about an inch of sand or ash in it before burning.

I hope the rebuild was done properly too! Guy who did it apparently worked at VC back in the day, so probably? Secondary air port is all the way open, though I've experimented with leaving it half open, 2/3 open, etc., with no real change in behavior. It does have an inch of ash.

Oh, and I didn't have a manual! Thanks for the link.

 

[thiscoldhouse]

Another thing to add: I see online other people get burns of 6-8 hours, the most I get out of this is 4-5 if I'm lucky.

 

[begreen]

Another thing to add: I see online other people get burns of 6-8 hours, the most I get out of this is 4-5 if I'm lucky.

It sounds like the wood may not be fully seasoned. That will lead to poorer performance. Leave the secondary port open all the way and get some truly dry wood (seasoned for a couple years) from a friend if possible to test with. With good wood the stove should provide 6-8 hrs of good heat.

PS: I am assuming that the bypass is being closed once the wood is burning well, correct?