Vermont Castings Defiant Encore

[Sophie]

We have a Defiant Encore that we bought 20 years ago. We never used it as a primary heat source, and stopped using it completely when we had problems with it backpuffing. We just started using it again this year and intend to use wood heat as well as a newly purchased pellet stove.

Today we had a good bed of coals going and ran it all day with the catalytic converter. Tonight I went over to the stove and could hear a kind of rushing air sound and looked into the stove and it was glowing orange in the back of the stove.

We opened the catalytic converter damper and the griddle temperature eventually heated up to 900 degrees even though we had turned the temperature control to appx. 1/2 open. It is cooling off now.

Although I love wood stove fires, I am really starting to hate this stove - is this something we are doing wrong or is this a problem stove?

 

[Dill]

I'm guessing you lost a serious part of the gasket, check the doors and then check the glass.

 

[downeast]

There have been 3 cat Encores in our life. They can be fussy. One is still burning.
The smallest air leak can do what you have described.

1. Check all gaskets with a U.S. dollar bill--it should not pull out at all around the opening.
2. Is the primary air "flap" in the back opening and CLOSING FULLY ? Our out-of-the-crate 2001 Encore had serious leaks including a chunk of cement that blocked the primary air flap from closing.
3. Most air leaks seem to come from the ash pan door AND ash pan ass'y under the stove. Check all bolts. Is the door closing tightly ? There is a secret little hole in the pan ass'y--who knows why. Seal it if it is there.
4. Cast plate seams: look for loose furnace cement, empty spaces in the seams. In the dark, stick a drop light thru the top, looking for light leaks out of cracks on all sides.
5. Better: get a "smoke pellet" from a dealer. Seal the flue and look for smoke seeping out of any cracks.

The Encores built after the 1995 CFM Majestic buyout of VC had poor manufacturing quality control, if at all. But you said "20 years". The Encores weren't made until 1989. Said too many times then and now. When built right, and in spec shape with all maintenance done correctly, it is a super heater.

Look at your refractory package that surrounds and holds your cat....20 years is too long for this if the stove was used hard.

 

[Free Monomoy]

Good info. However, Encores came out in '86