Vermont Castings Vigilant

[Penny A]

I've just rented a house that comes with a Vermont Castings Vigilant wood stove. Although I'm familiar with wood stoves and have heated homes with wood as my primary heat, this wood stove is different, and glitchy. I want to be one of the people on here who say they love this stove so help me out! My main focus is being able to load the stove and go to bed or go to work and know that when I get up or get home this stove will still have some coals in it. This will be my primary heat this winter and they're calling for colder than normal temps so I want to know the tricks to this stove before it gets bad. Thanks!

 

[spolleypt]

Is this a newer VC or an older one. Company and stove have changed in the past ten to fifteen years.

 

[Penny A]

It's an older one with 1977 embossed on the back wall of the inbox.

 

[Toploader]

What do you mean by glitchy? It's a great stove but the bypass damper makes it slightly more complicated than other stoves. The basic way to run it is to get a good fire going with the firebox pretty full, leave the air wide open and then when the griddle temp comes up to 500 or 600 close the bypass damper. This reroutes the exhaust down through the coals and burns up some of the smoke and gives you the longer burn times you want. At this point if the temperature on the griddle maintains or increases start reducing the primary air down to a level where the temp seems right for you[ 500 is good for a long burn]. The lower the temp you burn at the longer the wood will last but the more inefficient and polluting it is. If you've got it dialled in the bypass should be closed, the stove should be cruising and you shouldn't see any smoke out the chimney.

 

[spolleypt]

Have mine in garage trying to sell. The Good: big mouth on this stove will take large 22" rounds/splits. Automatic damper on back is nice because as the stove cools the damper opens and allows continued hot burns. This usually means less coals in the morning compared to my new stove. I would get a fire going, get the stove top up to temp then shut the thermostatic damper on the back to just a wisker open. I left the small secondary damper on the left lower corner open about 1/4 to 1/8 all the time. I did not find a significant difference using the bypass damper (lever on side which closes large damper at top of stove) for longer burns at night as it was designed. My directions say it reroutes smoke through the back of stove allowing it to reburn before finding it's exit through stovepipe) I found it just caused more creosote buildup. I used a stove pipe damper to adjust as needed. I will say if the stove overfires on you the in stove damper will get it under control quickly.
I have the original instruction manual if your interested.

 

[begreen]

Penny. Have you read the manual for the Vigilant?
https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/vermont-castings-older-stove-models/

 

[Bassmantweed]

Have mine in garage trying to sell. The Good: big mouth on this stove will take large 22" rounds/splits. Automatic damper on back is nice because as the stove cools the damper opens and allows continued hot burns. This usually means less coals in the morning compared to my new stove. I would get a fire going, get the stove top up to temp then shut the thermostatic damper on the back to just a wisker open. I left the small secondary damper on the left lower corner open about 1/4 to 1/8 all the time. I did not find a significant difference using the bypass damper (lever on side which closes large damper at top of stove) for longer burns at night as it was designed. My directions say it reroutes smoke through the back of stove allowing it to reburn before finding it's exit through stovepipe) I found it just caused more creosote buildup. I used a stove pipe damper to adjust as needed. I will say if the stove overfires on you the in stove damper will get it under control quickly.
I have the original instruction manual if your interested.

How much and what finish?

 

[Penny A]

I haven't read the manual but I appreciate you guys putting up the link. Pretty much I rented this house and was given no information on this stove. Thanks
spolleypt for mentioning the small damper on the left side of the stove. I hadn't even noticed it yet. It was closed and just looked like a fancy decoration. I did what you said and opened it a bit. I've been fascinated with the thermostatic damper on the back. It does its thing on its own. Trust me I was a bit freaked out at first when I would try to set it and then I would check it later and it would be in a different position. I'm working it out with this stove.

 

[Kenster]

Penny, do a search on this forum and read everything you find. You'll get a great education. Make a list of questions and ask away. Everyone here will be happy to help you. I assure this is a great stove. We heat our 4000 sq foot house exclusively with our Vig.

 

[claydogg84]

I ran the Defiant (basically the Vigilants big brother) for a year and loved it. I only used the small air inlet to get the stove up to temp. My start up was the following - Loaded on coals, door and secondary air port open until you've got a blazing fire going, then door shut, once top hit 550 - 600 I closed secondary air port and closed the damper. At that point your air flap on the back should be barely open, maybe a 1/2" or so. You should only need to have that secondary air port open if you have weak draft.

 

[Kenster]

Clay, by "secondary air," are you referring to the little swivel 'tear drop' on the side of the stove? Primary being the air flap/thermostat in the back?

 

[claydogg84]

Clay, by "secondary air," are you referring to the little swivel 'tear drop' on the side of the stove? Primary being the air flap/thermostat in the back?

Yup.

 

[Penny A]

My main objective is figuring out how to keep a fire going during the night (without getting up) or when I'm away at work during the day. Even if I woke up or got home and had coals in the wood stove I would be thrilled but most times there is nothing but ash. Also the damper inside the stove will slam down (open) during the night or while I'm gone. I thought the purpose of this was to help the fire burn slowly and steadily and hopefully longer. I feel like I'm just sending my heat up the chimney.

I've read everything online I can find about this wood stove. Is it not designed to keep a fire for extended periods?

 

[claydogg84]

Did you read what I wrote? Try those steps and see how it works. You should be able to load the stove around 10:00 and wake up with enough coals to quickly re light around 6:00. The internal damper will extend burn time, as well as the creosote build up. If you're looking for overnight burns you will almost certainly have to use the damper.

 

[TooManyHobbies]

Penny, check into the damper opening on it's own problem. That shouldn't happen and if it happens when the stove is full the temperature could get extremely high. From what I've learned the problem can be cased by soot build up or a warped fireback.

 

[Penny A]

When I got up this morning the fire was totally out and the damper in the back was all the way open. I will clean the back damper area and see if that helps.

 

[TooManyHobbies]

I'm just learning and have not woken up to anything more than a few coals either. With that damper open, I be the wood burns up pretty quickly, and hopefully the stove isn't getting too hot. Mine did that once but I think I hadn't shut it properly and it hasn't happened again. Now I always close it quickly and listen for the mental on metal "clunk" sound. Since you are going for overnight burns, is it possible that some of your wood is leaning against the damper when you re-load?

 

[Penny A]

I've thought of that and make sure not to stack the wood high enough that it would interfere with the damper. I just read a thread on the interior damper and things that would cause it to fall into the open position. I've cleaned that area but can clean it again. I read something about a warped fireback. How would I tell if this is what's going on?

 

[TooManyHobbies]

It has been suggested that a strait edge can be used. I used an 18" metal ruler and put the edge against parts of the fireback. I did this from the top with a light on the floor of the stove so I could see how far the fireback deviated from the strait edge. Note that all these stoves, no matter what year they were made have that embossed 1977 on the fireback. However there are one piece and two piece firebacks. Obviously, the two piece has a seem. It might help others help you if we knew which fireback you have, one or two piece.

I've used a short length of pipe and a brick to fashion something that would not let the damper open unless I wanted to open it. Such solutions are probably frowned upon, but having a damper that opens when it wants to isn't good. Since you don't own the stove, I doubt you want to put money into it, so maybe something like what I did would help? I would first make sure that there isn't something simple wrong.

Kenster, who responded above, seems to be able to get over night burns and posted details of how he does it. However, it seems the consensus is that long burn times equal creosote. Maybe with the right wood, efficient stove loading, insulated chimney etc this isn't the case. Kenster's successes shows us that it is possible! Since both you and I are new to this and we are both looking for that over night burn, we should probably both keep a close eye on our chimneys. I ordered a SootEater chimney cleaning setup since I'd rather clean my chimney once a month that have to get up in the middle of the night to load the stove.

Kenster, can you tell us about your chimney cleaning practices, how much creosote you get, how often you clean etc.? Thanks.

 

[claydogg84]

You should be able to get by with a yearly cleaning as long as you aren't smothering the stove out. If you follow the procedure I listed above you should see mainly heat trails exiting your chimney when in the proper burn range. If you've got a lot of smoke, you're building creosote. its going to smoke, it's the nature of the beast.

 

[TooManyHobbies]

Kenster and Claydogg, thank you both for sharing your knowledge and experience. I've learned a great deal from reading your posts! Both of you have said that you close off the secondary air. Since that secondary combustion only happens under the right circumstances, maybe closing off secondary air doesn't change much. It is interesting to note that the Operation Manual for these stoves says, "Under normal conditions, this remains open at all times." Other's have stated that this air doesn't even enter the firebox which makes sense if there is a strong enough draft in your chimney. I was wondering why you both close this secondary air off?

 

[claydogg84]

The Vigilant doesn't really have a "Secondary Combustion" like new EPA stoves. It uses old technology that was actually pretty good for when it was invented. I use the term "secondary" to describe that air port because I consider the primary to be the thermostatic flap. A friend of mine also has the Defiant and he leaves the secondary port open at all times. I found with my setup I didn't need the extra air to maintain a good, semi-clean burn. You will have to try it different ways to really fine tune what works for your situation. I'm confused at how the damper plate is somehow opening during the night. Figure that out first, because you can for sure over fire this stove pretty easily with it wide open. My Defiant would cruise at a 550 griddle temp with the damper closed for nearly 2 hours and then start to slowly go down.

 

[spolleypt]

My internal damper sometimes opened on its own. I fixed this by threading a hook into the damper handle and adding a small 2.5 # weight from the hook. This added weight overcame the balance issue with damper. When I opened the damper I would just lift the weight off.

 

[spolleypt]

I also ran the secondary air port 3/4 closed to just open a crack most of time.

 

[G-dine]

My internal damper sometimes opened on its own. I fixed this by threading a hook into the damper handle and adding a small 2.5 # weight from the hook. This added weight overcame the balance issue with damper. When I opened the damper I would just lift the weight off.

Do you have a pic of this... I am having the same problem and I have a brick holding it down..I would love to see your weight and hook application.. G-dine