Who's bought a VC refractory?

[tiber]

My wife has taken a real shine to the stove and is now burning it almost 24/7 these last few days beause... it's been really freaking cold out.

However this means instead of repairing the old refractory and taking the stove apart 100 times to make sure it's holding together and otherwise happy, I started pricing out a new refractory.

It looks like $195.24, anyone got a better price or seen them cheaper? Local stove store wants $510.

 

[dougand3]

I haven't priced refractory box. When the time comes, I'll try what Brian VT did.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/42492/

 

[tiber]

While I love this effort, he didn't post measurements of the box.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Black Swan has it for about the same price. I will probably either chuck the Intrepid for a larger stove or make my own when it comes to replacing the refractory.

http://www.blackswanhome.com/product/refractory-assembly-body-only-various-models

 

[tiber]

Theirs doesn't include the stupid cover, which is actually probably the only serviceable part in my stove. (Why does it need a cover? I'm guessing to protect the side of the cat). But rather than buying one and going OH MY OLD AND CRAPPY PART DOESN'T FIT, I figured I would buy it part and parcel. I'm starting to think this is something I'm just going to have to bite the bullet on and take mine apart for the measurements.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Theirs doesn't include the stupid cover, which is actually probably the only serviceable part in my stove. (Why does it need a cover? I'm guessing to protect the side of the cat). But rather than buying one and going OH MY OLD AND CRAPPY PART DOESN'T FIT, I figured I would buy it part and parcel. I'm starting to think this is something I'm just going to have to bite the bullet on and take mine apart for the measurements.

Mine's been discontinued.

 

[elmoleaf]

I mucked about with a perlite/furnace cement mixture and metal pin repairs on mine for a year or two.
I considered making a new chamber, but in the end it wasn't worth the time it'd take to build proper forms to the correct tolerances etc. Also didn't want to get part way into the heating season only the find that the homemade effort had failed.
So, before last season, I finally bought a replacement from Black Swan. I simply used the chamber cover from the old one on the new chamber.
If you buy a new chamber, you could probably cut a new cover piece out of the old chamber's wall if it's not entirely crumbled. Or make a new cover from perlite/furnace cement.