# Vermont Castings Reliance



## drtnshtr (Oct 26, 2008)

Have searched for information on this stove and cannot find any info on it...I just bought one from a lady in my area and it appears to be a very nice stove. It is Dark Green in color and beautiful to say the least. I fired it up just to check it out when i bought it and everything works good on it. Any opinions on this stove?


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## rap69ri (Oct 26, 2008)

They are very nice looking stoves. VC hasn't made them in years and parts are very expensive when you can find them.


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## webbie (Oct 26, 2008)

The interior and control board were made by Harman - that does not mean that parts are the same, but it is possible that a lot are (from back then).

The question is always who knows....probably a VC long time dealer who also sells Harman.

I really liked that stove, BTW - one of the best pellet stoves of the time, IMHO.

Notice the similarity to the Harman Accentra.....


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## drtnshtr (Oct 26, 2008)

WOW yeh that looks just like my VC


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## rhag1128 (Oct 28, 2008)

Hello all - first post here.  Thanks for all the quality info.

I have a VC Reliance 2340 also that I just bought cheap that I am looking for parts/service on.  Wife said ' that is the best looking pellet stove so far, you can buy that one its pretty', so I did.  There is local VC dealer in Bennington (bpsh) that I may call for help.  The control board is a Harman f851A - which I have not been able to cross link to current Harman models.  I am going to remove/clean the thermocouple tonite and I am  looking for a backup thermocouple incase it is kaput.  My green start button is broken/missing it looks like the red switch underneath the panel needs to be replaced, simple 2 wire soldering, can anyone help with this part replacement?

My unit only runs on High until the overtemp kicks it off for a minute then restarts on high.  I can't control the feed rate, it is stuck on high.  the front blower works correctly, the rear exhaust is good and the intake air pulls good.  Is the intake air rate also set by the feed rate rheostat or is it constant draw at one cfm.  Could the feed rate rheo be the culprit of the single high setting?
I have not tried to control the unit with an external thermostat, it has 2 spade connectors on the main board for that but requires the feed rate to be set to min before it can be controlled.  any recommendations here.

The PO had the augur power wired to an external switch mounted on the side so it can be turned on/off separately from the other electronics, I am not sure how I feel about this.

Anyway--- I have the manual, parts diagram, VC dealer in my area, I have been working from these resources and I am asking for help here with parts and any advice or constructive criticism.

My St. Croix Prescott EXL runs like a top. And heats the main part of my 2200sqft house.  Fresh air intake on both, corner install going out 12" and then up 3' with PVP piping.

TIA

Randy

Vermont Castings Reliance 2340
St. Croix Prescott EXL


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## shovelhead773 (Nov 16, 2008)

Hi,  we just hooked up  a reliance pellet stove by vermont castings,  was wondering if anyone knows where the thermocouple is located on this stove ?  also looking for a parts diagram and list for this stove.  any help is greatly appreciated.  thank you


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## rhag1128 (Nov 17, 2008)

shovelhead773 said:
			
		

> Hi,  we just hooked up  a reliance pellet stove by vermont castings,  was wondering if anyone knows where the thermocouple is located on this stove ?  also looking for a parts diagram and list for this stove.  any help is greatly appreciated.  thank you



The thermocouple is attached on the combustion fan screwed into the hoousing lower right rear.  It is clipped to circuit board.  This is a standard type J thermocouple, you will have to make it from scratch as no parts are available for these stoves anywhere.....ask me how I know...............


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## rhag1128 (Nov 17, 2008)

shovelhead773 said:
			
		

> Hi,  we just hooked up  a reliance pellet stove by vermont castings,  was wondering if anyone knows where the thermocouple is located on this stove ?  also looking for a parts diagram and list for this stove.  any help is greatly appreciated.  thank you







are you sure your issue is the thermocouple?  have you measured its signal output?


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## shovelhead773 (Nov 17, 2008)

hi thanks for the reply, it was just one of the things the manual told us to check as the auger had stopped.  we cleaned the auger and now it seems to be working.  
Is it normal for the flame to get low (not reaching through the logs) or is this a sign that it is about to go out?  we had the fan control on about 3 o'clock posistion, and the thermostat was on 9 o'clock .  At that time when it looked like it was about to go out i turned the stove thermostat up to the 12 o'clock posistion and now the flame is up through the logs.  not sure is the flame automatically adjusts to the thermostat and just slows itself down automatically.  although it is not hooked up to a wall thermostat at this time.  again thanks for the help .


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## rhag1128 (Nov 17, 2008)

The right hand fan knob (room fan) does not impact flame, that is the left knob - combustion/augur rate.  If it is feeding too fast the flame will go down.  The thermostat at 9 o'clock is at the low end.  12 is medium and 3 at high speed.  If the combustion temp gets too high the thermocouple will automatically adjust the feed rate slower.  Don't let your pellets get up into the air holes on the burn pot.  Sounds like yours is working fine - which is rare for this pellet stove.  I would be interested in pics of your VC if you care to send some.

Good luck

Randy


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## shovelhead773 (Nov 17, 2008)

thanks for the info, i will try to get you some pictures.  it looks just like the picture of the red one a few posts up only it is a creamy tan color.   we bought this stove 10 years ago for cheapmoney as i am now sure that the woman we bought it from heard about the problems and offloaded it.  she bought it from a local stove shop it was their floor model so in all i am thinking that it only ran for about 3 or 4 years.  it will give us a chance to see if we like the pellet stove concept.   so far so good, early yet though its only on its 2nd bag of pellets.   I am a half full type of person 

again thanks for the info  it is nice to know for future questions.  

michele


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## rhag1128 (Nov 17, 2008)

Perhaps you can tell me what method or procedure you use for starting your fire.

Thanks

Randy


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## shovelhead773 (Nov 18, 2008)

Sure no problem, first my husband completely cleaned the stove as instructed in manual, then we put 2 to 3 handfuls of premium pellets into burn pot and put a generous amount of gel fuel that we bought at home depot, after lighting it we probably waited a good minute before starting the stove and put it at its lowest setting.  We left it on low for about 45 min to an hour then turned it up to the 9 to 10 o'clock range and left it their for about 2 hours, at that time it looked good (no overflowing pellets from the burn pot, good flame) so we turned it up to the 11 to 12 o'clock range  for about an hour, after that we turned it up to the 1o'clock posistion for the next 2 hours.   We have a 1860 square foot ranch and had not turned the heat on at all this season, very well insulated the house stayed at 58ish degrees, in the first 6 hours the stove ran it took the front part of the house to 67 degrees and the back bedroom to 62 degrees, at bed time we turned the stove back to the 11 o'clock posistion and at 6am the front of house had gone down to 64 degrees.  The stove is in a mud room and has to push through to get the heat to the main part of the house.  The next step is to remove 2 walls and make it open to the stove. We went through 1 bag in 18 hours and the highest we had the stove was the 1 o'clock posistion.  Knock on wood we hope it keeps going this good.  We seem to have a pretty good flame and I noticed that our stove did not come with a middle ceramic log, it just had the front log and the back wall log so there is nothing to slow the flame it has a strait shot to the top of the stove.  The top dos'nt seem to get hot though and the sides are warmer than the top.  Does your stove have the 3 logs?  And if so any ideas on where I could find a middle log?  
Thanks for all the info and looking forward to hearing from you,
Michele


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## rhag1128 (Nov 18, 2008)

That middle log gets a lot of punishment, mine finally broke this fall while cleaning.  There are no replacements for the log set available and generic ones wont fit.
From what I have seen, I consider myself lucky to have the front (door) and back one still intact.
I appreciate the time you take to reply, the VC Reliance has a very bad reputation - at least in my research/conversations with dealers that sold/serviced them.  they cost $3500 in the mid 90's were in production for 3 years 92-94, and a lot went unsold.  One dealer here gave away his last 3 to clear floor space and refused to service them.
Is your combustion fan at one flow rate regardless of augur feed rate?  When it is on the lowest setting does the augur feed very slowly or is it stopped altogether?
Are you running outside air for combustion or room air?  that 4" intake is huge volume increase compared to my 2" intake on my St. Croix.  I think the VC is a gorgeous stove and there are only 4-5 admitted owners on this board  I would like to make an effort to keep our Cast iron beasts running as long as possible.

Randy


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## shovelhead773 (Nov 19, 2008)

When the combustion is set to the absolute lowest the auger still feeds.  The fan seems to stay at whatever we set it on,( I have not noticed any diffrence of sounds or air output on the fan.)  We do not have a outside air source just the room it is in.  And the stove pipe is a horizontal set up.  Our dealer here has no use for them either.  She said that they were very problematic due to all of the electronics on them.  What is the general amount of pellets the stove or pellet stoves in general go through in a 24 hour period?  Today it was a little colder, temps in the mid to high 20's I loaded a full baq at @ 8:15 and turned the stove up to the 1 o'clock posistion when my husband came home it was just starting to run out of pellets and that was @ 6 o'clock, so a bag for roughly 10 hours  not sure if thats good or bad.  Do you  have it set up to a t-stat?   Also how big of an area are you trying to heat with yours ?  I  agree with you on the looks of this stove it is very beautiful.   We are so new at this so I appreciate also the time you take to reply.


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## shovelhead773 (Dec 23, 2008)

Hello  I am now looking for the information on replacing a thermocouple on a vermont castings pellet stove    the auger has stopped and the book pointed us in the direction of the thermocouplel.  any help would be appreciated  were getting cold   thanks   :bug:


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## shovelhead773 (Dec 23, 2008)

Hello again  also looking for info on why my auger would work as long as i only had a cups of pelets  in the feed bin  when i added 1/4 of a bag the auger made a grinding sound and stopped.   also looking for info on the pusher block race.  wondering  exactly where it is located and if this would have any bearing on the auger performance.  the book says to look at the thermocouple and pusher block race   looking for any answers.   we are new to this and know that we have the worst pellet stove known to the pellet world  (vermont castings reliance #2340)  thanks for any help    :red:


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## rhag1128 (Feb 18, 2009)

Have you gotten your VC running again?


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## deiselboy (Feb 23, 2009)

rhag1128 said:
			
		

> are you sure your issue is the thermocouple?  have you measured its signal output?



What would i want to look for?  I have a VC Reliance 2220 that came with the house. It works well most of the time, but occasionaly the room fans wont come up to speed, like the stove is cold, but flame is on and looks good.  Then "out of the blue", the auger stops and fans go to full output, like the thing suddenly realizes " hey! there's a fire in there!".  Then it might go back to cold mode again or start to work normal.

It just gets into a funk once in a while for no reason i can tell.  From what little I've found on these I think it might be the thermocouple sending incorrect signal. Sometimes.


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## rhag1128 (Feb 23, 2009)

That does sound like a thermocouple error, have you taken it out of the housing and cleaned it off with a brush?  
These are standard type J thermocouples rated for 450F I believe the threaded plug part is removable and so is the clip on the opposite end.  McMaster should have those or another vendor online, just google Type J Thermocouple.

Mine is not running yet, I have been mapping the main circuit board and have come to a dead end.  Without a schematic I dont think I can fix it.  If I had one that wasknown to be good I could just copy that board and repair mine easily.  The electrical engineer I work with said the person that designed this board was either a genius or criminaly insane.

Randy


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## deiselboy (Feb 24, 2009)

I'll try that when I get a chance.  The only electrical scem. I have run across is the one in the user's manual that covers the whole system. Very crude, almost hand drawn, and vague.


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