20+ year old Vermont Castings Encore

[WickedOldSaltbox1715]

I rebuilt my early 2000s Vermont Castings Encore stove last fall and it burns much better. However, it’s getting up there in age and I’m getting to the point where it’s time to make a call. We live in a 300+ year old house that has 4 fireplaces and one wood stove — needless to say we burn a significant about of wood to offset the cost of natural gas heat.

I buy my wood either by the grapple load or in large rounds and split a season ahead. I like the work and it saves me alot of money by using my log splitter and buying green wood. A “cord” and that’s a loose term based on what I’ve seen people try to sell me; goes for anywhere between $375 and $500 with delivery usually an extra $25-$75. No thanks.

I built a woodshed last year which can hold about 5 cords. Now, it’s alot of work to split that much wood and I’m wondering if a newer stove would be worth the investment rather than burning more wood with a less efficient, older stove like mine. Also, I’ve read some older threads on here about the Vermont Castings stoves and they aren’t great.

Our house was built in 1715 and has a huge central chimney like most first period homes — I’m wondering if there are better stoves that would heat more efficiently and not look too out of place. The one thing I like about the Vermont Castings is that it fits in with the style of the home.

Keep it or use it as a boat anchor (I believe that was on of the recommendations on an old post).

Thanks!

 

[Diabel]

Welcome to the forum. You just rebuilt the stove i.e. put $$ into it. I would run it until it needs major work again. With horizontal pipe outlet you are limited to very few stove manufacturers.

 

[Eman85]

If the stove works why replace it? What did you paint it with? My Encore is older and needs a repaint. How far down did you break it down to do a rebuild?

 

[WickedOldSaltbox1715]

Welcome to the forum. You just rebuilt the stove i.e. put $$ into it. I would run it until it needs major work again. With horizontal pipe outlet you are limited to very few stove manufacturers.

Thanks for the warm welcome! I’ve been reading these forums for years and finally broke down and decided to join — great information on this site.

You’re right about the 💲 and time spent doing the rebuild. Plus, you make an excellent point about the limitations of the horizontal pipe outlet. Living in an antique house I’m used to having to search high and low for solutions — just about everything is custom.

My main concern was with efficiency and burning through my stockpile, but I’ve looked at newer stoves and many either don’t get great reviews or they wouldn’t work in my particular application.

Good call on the constraints and helping me feel like I made the right choice to do the rebuild. Thanks, Diabel, I appreciate it.

 

[WickedOldSaltbox1715]

If the stove works why replace it? What did you paint it with? My Encore is older and needs a repaint. How far down did you break it down to do a rebuild?

Hi Eman85!

You’re right — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Luckily, I didn’t have to do any painting as the enamel is holding steady with just a few chips here and there.

I’ve found a few good places online to get parts and paint for the old Vermont Casting stoves. Not sure about the rules here so, I won’t call out the companies in this post but if you find your model stove via Google and get the manual you can get all the part numbers. I believe I got the idea to rebuild the stove from reading through some older posts in this forum.

Once I reviewed the manual, I was able to look at the parts online and determine what I would likely need to invest in the rebuild. Luckily, the only real expensive part was the damper chamber — from the pic attached you can see that it was in rough shape.

Parts I bought:
1. Damper chamber (full assembly)
2. Gasket kit (replaced all the dried out gaskets)
3. (1) firebrick to shore up some holes in the back of the stove near the pipe assembly
4. New glass mounting brackets (I had to drill out the old screws because they were welded into the cast iron — tapped new threads and replaced screws with hex head stainless steel)
5. Replaced a majority of the old screws and bolts and upgraded to stainless steel (a little more expensive but I splurged)
6. Replaced the damper handle with an OEM Vermont Castings wood handle
7. Replaced the griddle handle
8. Replaced the thermostat handle
9. Replaced one of the warming rack arm supports as the original one snapped off

Overall, it wasn’t a bad project. It took me about three weeks of working on it on/off. I also had to wait for parts to arrive but the vendor I found was really fast. The fountain assembly and shoe are still fairly solid, but those will likely need to be replaced down the road. We Typically burn 3-4 cords a season.

Last note: In the past I used to run the stove a bit too hot, once I replaced the damper assembly, I’ve been careful not to overfire the stove. I keep the temp gauge on the top of the stove and try to keep it in the burn zone as much as possible.

Good luck! Hope this helps.

 

[begreen]

There are some choices for rear-vent stoves from Woodstock, etc. if it comes down to having to make a change but it looks like the main factor is the fireplace lintel height. The Encore looks like it is vertical venting, not horizontal. If so, there are several choices that might work depending on that height.

 

[Eman85]

@WickedOldSaltbox1715 Did you disassemble the stove completely? Didn't realize your stove was enameled, mine isn't. What happened to your damper chamber? I've had mine 35 years and the damper section is fine.

 

[njk4o5]

I'm in the same boat as you, have an older VC Encore but looking to get into a newer Blazeking. Its hard for me to bite the bullet and drop $3500 on a new stove when the only things i dont like about my Encore is its kindof a pain to keep at the right temp and burn times. My refractory and CAT are likely due to be replaced so i have a decision to make this summer. Hard to beat the looks of a enameled VC Encore. Was your refractory still good when you took it all apart?

A newer stove wont be very much more efficient if any at all. It takes "X" amount of BTU to heat your home, swapping from one CAT stove to a newer CAT stove wont create BTU output, but if the newer stove is larger you can fit more wood in it to burn longer. And pretty much every other brand new stove out there is easier to run than the VC Encore.

 

[todd_ted]

Hi Eman85!

You’re right — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Luckily, I didn’t have to do any painting as the enamel is holding steady with just a few chips here and there.

I’ve found a few good places online to get parts and paint for the old Vermont Casting stoves. Not sure about the rules here so, I won’t call out the companies in this post but if you find your model stove via Google and get the manual you can get all the part numbers. I believe I got the idea to rebuild the stove from reading through some older posts in this forum.

Once I reviewed the manual, I was able to look at the parts online and determine what I would likely need to invest in the rebuild. Luckily, the only real expensive part was the damper chamber — from the pic attached you can see that it was in rough shape.

Parts I bought:
1. Damper chamber (full assembly)
2. Gasket kit (replaced all the dried out gaskets)
3. (1) firebrick to shore up some holes in the back of the stove near the pipe assembly
4. New glass mounting brackets (I had to drill out the old screws because they were welded into the cast iron — tapped new threads and replaced screws with hex head stainless steel)
5. Replaced a majority of the old screws and bolts and upgraded to stainless steel (a little more expensive but I splurged)
6. Replaced the damper handle with an OEM Vermont Castings wood handle
7. Replaced the griddle handle
8. Replaced the thermostat handle
9. Replaced one of the warming rack arm supports as the original one snapped off

Overall, it wasn’t a bad project. It took me about three weeks of working on it on/off. I also had to wait for parts to arrive but the vendor I found was really fast. The fountain assembly and shoe are still fairly solid, but those will likely need to be replaced down the road. We Typically burn 3-4 cords a season.

Last note: In the past I used to run the stove a bit too hot, once I replaced the damper assembly, I’ve been careful not to overfire the stove. I keep the temp gauge on the top of the stove and try to keep it in the burn zone as much as possible.

Good luck! Hope this helps.

I am also in need of a damper assembly, although mine isn't as bad as yours. Where did you find the bolts and screws (part number), those aren't listed in the parts diagram in the manual and I want to replace them since I have a lot of parts taken off to get the damper assembly out. I don't see them on the website I found the other parts on.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I am also in need of a damper assembly, although mine isn't as bad as yours. Where did you find the bolts and screws (part number), those aren't listed in the parts diagram in the manual and I want to replace them since I have a lot of parts taken off to get the damper assembly out. I don't see them on the website I found the other parts on.

Most if not all of the encore bolts are
1/4-20 and of various lengths.. use stainless steel and that will be a high enough grade bolt

 

[todd_ted]

Most if not all of the encore bolts are
1/4-20 and of various lengths.. use stainless steel and that will be a high enough grade bolt

Thanks.