2013 VC Burning Thread

[Reckless]

Does anyone elses door gasket start shredding way too early? The top notch on the left door seems to take alot of damage from the right airwash screw. Maybe slight misalignment?

 

[Burner]

Does anyone elses door gasket start shredding way too early? The top notch on the left door seems to take alot of damage from the right airwash screw. Maybe slight misalignment?

Mine seems ok. Don't know much about how to determine if it's misaligned though.

 

[jharkin]

Mine seems fine as well, however I don't use the front door much.

 

[Diabel]

I only use the front door on cold starts or when burning uglies that do not fit through the top. My griddle gasket is shredding however.

 

[jharkin]

OK, in the calm before the storm .... mid season pipe check. I have bout an inch of creosote chips fallen into the cleanout. Pipe has what looks to be about a 1/8" coating, mostly brownish at the bottom looking blacker up toward the top. I can see some flakes up top as well. This is after only 3/4 cord or so

This is worse than I was hoping for, but not as bad as last year. I hope that I can get Condar to exchange my steelcat for a ceramic and that cleans things up.

 

[Excavator]

jharkin I think you have no choice but change the cat to ceramic.
I pulled my cleanout last week and was surprised how little i had since changing the cat back to ceramic and no smoke even keeping my secondary at 3 oclock position

 

[Diabel]

OK, in the calm before the storm .... mid season pipe check. I have bout an inch of creosote chips fallen into the cleanout. Pipe has what looks to be about a 1/8" coating, mostly brownish at the bottom looking blacker up toward the top. I can see some flakes up top as well. This is after only 3/4 cord or so

This is worse than I was hoping for, but not as bad as last year. I hope that I can get Condar to exchange my steelcat for a ceramic and that cleans things up.

View attachment 122173 View attachment 122174

Jeremy
In my opinion the pipe looks ok. The bucket with the loose stuff on the other hand....
On my set up that loose stuff falls back on top of the refractory box and it just sits there. This year there is about 1/3 of a cup of the loose flakes. And this is on a limping stove needing a major overhaul.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Yes thanks Glenn Im getting very suspicious of the steelcat. This is the second one that's acted this way... Curios what BBar uses as he has the same smoke problems I do.

I tried calling Condar just now but they are closed through New Years. I am going to ask them to swap mine out for a Ceramic, see if that improves things. (fingers crossed).

Ceramic cats for both stoves. I would have responded sooner, but again, I was never alerted to this thread being updated.

 

[Diabel]

I am a bit worried about my cap. More black stuff this year than in previous years. It has been very cold here since the end of Nov. and that pipe is quite exposed to the elements. The wood I have used so far is a bit questionable as well.
Time to clean I think..... Will wait for this cold front to pass.

 

[BrowningBAR]

OK, in the calm before the storm .... mid season pipe check. I have bout an inch of creosote chips fallen into the cleanout. Pipe has what looks to be about a 1/8" coating, mostly brownish at the bottom looking blacker up toward the top. I can see some flakes up top as well. This is after only 3/4 cord or so

This is worse than I was hoping for, but not as bad as last year. I hope that I can get Condar to exchange my steelcat for a ceramic and that cleans things up.

I'm not sure how much I have burned in the Defiant since I run multiple stoves, but I had about 4" of build up at the bottom of the tee in the chimney when I cleaned last weekend. It was less than this point last year, but but still far too much. There was not much buildup on the pipe or the cap. I have no idea where the 4" of flaky crap is coming from

Ceramic cat. Cat glows. Stove runs hot. Using the best fuel I have ever had.

I still get smoke and I still get build up. The 30 had no build up and not much came out of the pipe. It uses the same fuel.

 

[jharkin]

jharkin I think you have no choice but change the cat to ceramic.
I pulled my cleanout last week and was surprised how little i had since changing the cat back to ceramic and no smoke even keeping my secondary at 3 oclock position

Jeremy
In my opinion the pipe looks ok. The bucket with the loose stuff on the other hand....
On my set up that loose stuff falls back on top of the refractory box and it just sits there. This year there is about 1/3 of a cup of the loose flakes. And this is on a limping stove needing a major overhaul.

Agreed. As soon as Condar reopens next week Im asking them to exchange mine for a ceramic.

The can of crap is the cleanout tee at the bottom of my stack. Its a rear exit setup into a steel lined brick chimney.

 

[grobinson2]

Good evening Guys,
I am trying to search these forums on my BlackBerry without much luck. Can one of you please provide a link to where a parts list is located or info on how to make your own CAT probe thermometer? I also wanted to see if any of you could answer the following questions: Why did VC build the Cat Encore's with the air wash system mounted to the doors and with the external door latch and the non-cat stoves with the same type of air wash that a Defiant 1645 or 1610 would have along with the internal type door latch? I ask because for one I always liked the look of the external door latch better and two it looks like the air wash system of the cat encores would just be more effeciant/better at keeping the glass clean as it would be forcing more of the primary combustion air over the glass as aposed to a Defiant or non-cat Encore. What I am thinking of trying is get one non-cat Encore in good condition (at least the castings are still good, I don't care about the ceramics) and find one cat-encore just for parts. Take both apart and mate the front door surround casting, doors and of course air wash system to the non-cat Encore. Then convert the newly built stove to the newer 2-1 system by replacing the old ever burn system. I know, I know... Kind of nuts. I work at a nuke plant and literally have twelve and a half hours to sit around and think about this kind of thing. Do you guys think it would work? Also as a side note, I just got my account with BAC so if you need any VC stuff let me know. I think I get 38% off book price and would be more then happy to help you with parts or a stove if I can.

Thanks again,
Glenn

 

[Diabel]

Good evening Guys,
I am trying to search these forums on my BlackBerry without much luck. Can one of you please provide a link to where a parts list is located or info on how to make your own CAT probe thermometer? I also wanted to see if any of you could answer the following questions: Why did VC build the Cat Encore's with the air wash system mounted to the doors and with the external door latch and the non-cat stoves with the same type of air wash that a Defiant 1645 or 1610 would have along with the internal type door latch? I ask because for one I always liked the look of the external door latch better and two it looks like the air wash system of the cat encores would just be more effeciant/better at keeping the glass clean as it would be forcing more of the primary combustion air over the glass as aposed to a Defiant or non-cat Encore. What I am thinking of trying is get one non-cat Encore in good condition (at least the castings are still good, I don't care about the ceramics) and find one cat-encore just for parts. Take both apart and mate the front door surround casting, doors and of course air wash system to the non-cat Encore. Then convert the newly built stove to the newer 2-1 system by replacing the old ever burn system. I know, I know... Kind of nuts. I work at a nuke plant and literally have twelve and a half hours to sit around and think about this kind of thing. Do you guys think it would work? Also as a side note, I just got my account with BAC so if you need any VC stuff let me know. I think I get 38% off book price and would be more then happy to help you with parts or a stove if I can.

Thanks again,
Glenn

None of the castings would fit. Each model (on purpose) had all the castings made slightly different. Marketing thing...

 

[grobinson2]

Well crap.

 

[jharkin]

Best way to start a cold NYE. 12f here this morning. Happy that my glass so clean from an overnight low burn now . Unhappy that I had another cat stall last night

Can't wait Condar to reopen and get a ceramic



Now all I have to do is motivate myself to go out, supposed to spend all day outside today...

 

[Excavator]

nice pic of that clean stove

 

[grobinson2]

Wow, your stove/fire looks great! I have to figure something out with this air wash. I unblocked the EPA air holes and have the stove running stock except for the secondary air being blocked off, and as soon as I close the damper the glass will be all blacked out except the very top in minutes. I am running griddle temp of 450-500. I still can't help but think that your air wash brackets located on the doors don't do a lot more to help keep soot off the glass then the way the Defiant or non-cat Encore's are designed. I wish there was some way to add them to my Defiant. I blew up the parts brake down of the Encore 2550 and my Defiant 1945 and the internal air wash system looks exactly the same. Thus according to the paper work anyway the only thing different is that the Defiant does not have the door brackets (I am assuming the two are different sizes due to the external dimensions being different on each stove).

Happy New Year,
Glenn

 

[jharkin]

With the snow and negative digits deep freeze approaching (-5f predicted Friday), i decided to break into the Hurricane Irene black locust stash.

Wow

As we put dinner in the oven this afternoon i put 4 small chunks/uglies in. Got a good lite off then had to go out. 3 hours later i still had an active cat over 1100 on whats equiv to a two med split load. Amazing.

I can't wait to run a full load of locust overnight!

 

[Charles1981]

Yea hrmm. When it is 20-25 degrees the stove (in the basement) has no problem keeping the upstairs ~70 which is great. This week it hasn't gotten above14 degrees during the day and tonight it is -5 degrees with a windchill of -15 and upstairs is only 66 Honestly though the baseboard heating if we had it on struggles to even keep the house at 63 degrees (and costs about 400$ a month) so can't complain much, but dang it is cold.

 

[jharkin]

Update:

Im LOVING the locust. I remember reading that it burns like coal but is really tought to get giong. I am seeing the former but not the latter so far I just kicked off a load with a couple oak splits and then all locust, cranking out the heat at 1350 cat temp 20 minutes later!

The one drawabck... That funky smell when you split it, even worse when it burns

Edit: 30 min later cat is up to 1600 on fully closed primary. Oh boy...........

Edit: 45 min we are at 1650 ooooooooooo

 

[jharkin]

Oh #&$%#%%# 1750 now.

Going on bypass to coo it off ....

 

[jharkin]

OK less then 5 min of bypass dropped to 1350, reengage and its now at 1400.. 1500. I'm going to stay up and watch it for a half hour to make sure it doesnt climb over 1700 again then hit thehay.

 

[Reckless]

OK less then 5 min of bypass dropped to 1350, reengage and its now at 1400.. 1500. I'm going to stay up and watch it for a half hour to make sure it doesnt climb over 1700 again then hit thehay.

Oh boy get that fire screen ready Im sure you'll be fine

 

[jharkin]

It went back to 1600 and climbing... So on a hunch I tried something.

Opened the bypass, lifted the lid and used my coal rake to kickdown the load. Now it settled in stable at 1200 ! But so much for slow burning locust, after 3 hr its half gone.

 

[BrowningBAR]

But so much for slow burning locust, after 3 hr its half gone.

These stoves should get much longer burn times than they do.