Vermont Castings 2310 Convert to Burning Wood??

[deckpros1776]

Hi All,

My buddy moved to FL and gave me his Vermont Castings Vigilant Model 2310. He used it to burn wood for several years.
After perusing the fine forums here, I found out this model is for coal! Now, it seems to burn wood fairly efficiently but can only hold a small amount for the size of the stove because of the 16 coal grates.
I saw some conflicting info on the 'net as to whether the grates can be removed to increase the wood capacity. Any solid advice?

P.S. I have no intention of burning coal. I am a building contractor and get free hardwood all year long.

 

[bholler]

Hi All,

My buddy moved to FL and gave me his Vermont Castings Vigilant Model 2310. He used it to burn wood for several years.
After perusing the fine forums here, I found out this model is for coal! Now, it seems to burn wood fairly efficiently but can only hold a small amount for the size of the stove because of the 16 coal grates.
I saw some conflicting info on the 'net as to whether the grates can be removed to increase the wood capacity. Any solid advice?

P.S. I have no intention of burning coal. I am a building contractor and get free hardwood all year long.

I don't remember if there is a wood conversion for that stove if there is any you can get one it wouldn't be a bad option but setup for burning coal it really isn't

 

[begreen]

Moved to the Classics/VC stove forum where there are some threads that go over this.
Search in this forum for Convert Vigilant Coal for more information.

Vermont Castings Vigilant 1 (1980) conversion

Hello. New here. I just bought a house and the wood stove was a big selling point. Upon inspection, I discovered that this stove is set up in the coal-burning configuration. The previous owners had been burning wood in it it would appear, but I've been doing a lot of research and it doesn't...

www.hearth.com

 

[Defiant 3]

It's true of the Vig Multi Fuel model 1400 yes, but the 2310 has a different bottom. You could remove everything, get the upper and lower firebacks along with cover plates A and B, and a damper retainer and primary air tube (of course.) to convert it to a conventional Vigilant 2 wood stove
The difficulty is that there is no grate made to fill the "hole" in the bottom above the ash pan. The older model had a solid bottom so this was not an issue.

 

[deckpros1776]

Thanks for the answers! I am just going to leave it as-is for now. It will burn for 3 hours without attention and it is a secondary heat source. Tried to convince the better half to give it away and get a real woodstove, but she loves the maroon color of the Vigilant!

 

[coal and wood man]

I find the issue with the 2310 burning wood is the grates have so much space between them the coals end up falling into the ash pan. The grates also allow a lot of air through so the wood burns fast and hot. Even with the secondary closed and the draft down a bit I can never get more than 4-6 hours with wood. Coal is another matter - it will go 8 hours no problem. But since this is one of the few stoves that can burn both wood and coal (even if the EPA ratings are for coal only) it makes it very flexible for either shoulder season or the middle of winter.

 

[Defiant 3]

Others have had some luck by covering the grates with steel or iron plare. Not completely covered as air comes from below, but it can help improve burn time a bit.