New member and a total noob when it comes to wood burning stoves.
I apologize for a long post.
This is my daughters stove. A VC wood burning vigilant.
She had it refurbished by a trustworthy old timer that retired right after he refurbished it.
She didn't use the stove much last winter because the chimney guy didn't install the flue until late winter.
We had a lot of problems with a chimney installer that we're still working out. Hopefully the install was done correctly, but our trust in this guy has deteriorated due to him having to come back and "fix" things. I can elaborate if needed. He did come back several times, didn't abandon us, so I'll give him that.
For reference:
The stove sits on wooden joists, plywood, 5/8" Durock and porcelain tile for a finished surface.
The wall behind it is the same.
The flue is black single wall up to a ceiling thimble box then double wall stainless out through the roof.
Anyway, I have some questions.
This guy states that there should be fire bricks sitting in the bottom of the stove. Is this correct? He wanted to pour fire rated cement in to cover the bottom. I told him no. Reading the manual, I can't find any reference to any fire bricks. It does state not to use any type of grating in the bottom, but no mention of bricks unless I somehow missed that.
Is single wall pipe OK from the stove to the ceiling box? This guy installed single wall, then replaced it with double wall which crushed in where he screwed it to the ceiling box. I assume the ceiling box was meant for single wall considering how it didn't mate well, causing it to crush. Then he came back and changed it back to single wall.
When one of his workers took the pipes apart, he said there was a chimney fire! He said it was due to the outside pipe not being high enough which inhibited proper drafting. They had installed just one section above the roof and did not extend it above the second story roof. They corrected that, but there was all kinds of build up in the pipes and even the stove.
The worker also noticed the gaskets around the three doors looked damaged. He said it was from the chimney fire. They pulled all the gaskets out. They installed new gaskets on the front doors but forgot the gaskets on the top door. They said it was OK to use it! I was about to start a fire when I noticed the missing gasket. They came back, took all three doors with them to thoroughly clean them and install all new gaskets. I hope they bring the doors back! Those things are expensive!
Anyway, Thanks for reading my lengthy post. I appreciate any help you experts can give.
Oh, this is located in northeastern Pennsylvania.
I apologize for a long post.
This is my daughters stove. A VC wood burning vigilant.
She had it refurbished by a trustworthy old timer that retired right after he refurbished it.
She didn't use the stove much last winter because the chimney guy didn't install the flue until late winter.
We had a lot of problems with a chimney installer that we're still working out. Hopefully the install was done correctly, but our trust in this guy has deteriorated due to him having to come back and "fix" things. I can elaborate if needed. He did come back several times, didn't abandon us, so I'll give him that.
For reference:
The stove sits on wooden joists, plywood, 5/8" Durock and porcelain tile for a finished surface.
The wall behind it is the same.
The flue is black single wall up to a ceiling thimble box then double wall stainless out through the roof.
Anyway, I have some questions.
This guy states that there should be fire bricks sitting in the bottom of the stove. Is this correct? He wanted to pour fire rated cement in to cover the bottom. I told him no. Reading the manual, I can't find any reference to any fire bricks. It does state not to use any type of grating in the bottom, but no mention of bricks unless I somehow missed that.
Is single wall pipe OK from the stove to the ceiling box? This guy installed single wall, then replaced it with double wall which crushed in where he screwed it to the ceiling box. I assume the ceiling box was meant for single wall considering how it didn't mate well, causing it to crush. Then he came back and changed it back to single wall.
When one of his workers took the pipes apart, he said there was a chimney fire! He said it was due to the outside pipe not being high enough which inhibited proper drafting. They had installed just one section above the roof and did not extend it above the second story roof. They corrected that, but there was all kinds of build up in the pipes and even the stove.
The worker also noticed the gaskets around the three doors looked damaged. He said it was from the chimney fire. They pulled all the gaskets out. They installed new gaskets on the front doors but forgot the gaskets on the top door. They said it was OK to use it! I was about to start a fire when I noticed the missing gasket. They came back, took all three doors with them to thoroughly clean them and install all new gaskets. I hope they bring the doors back! Those things are expensive!
Anyway, Thanks for reading my lengthy post. I appreciate any help you experts can give.
Oh, this is located in northeastern Pennsylvania.
