2015/2016 VC Owners thread

[droppinloads]

Well I'm in N VT only an hour from Quebec so it's quite possible the prior owner of my place bought this up there

 

[Diabel]

Hi all- I bought a house in this past spring that has a VC Encore 2250. I have no experience with VC stoves. The issue is that the damper won't close. I opened it up by taking off the flue collar & the damper bar doesn't really connect to the damper. It catches it for about 1/2in & then the damper just falls back. Is this bar warped possibly? I assume the previous owner over-burned this stove pretty often because a lot of the paint is peeling on the left side. Not sure whether or not to rebuild it or just look into getting a new stove. I'd like to hear thoughts. If all i have to do is fix the damper, i can probably do that on my own. But I have a feeling this thing will end up needing a full re-build. Nothing on the inside of the firebox appears to be warped. So far I bought a gasket kit to replace those, but that's it. Would like to get the damper situation squared away before winter in VT really gears up...

If the rod looks anything like this one, then it is more less straight and it should be eliminated as potential problem.

 

[jharkin]

Yep if the rod is straight either the upper fireback is warped or the damper plate itself is damaged and/or the tab that grabs the rod is missing.

The back of the damper plate should look like this - the tab with the screw in the middle is what grab the rod and looks it closed. The adjusting screw you can see on the front center of the damper presses on this tab to adjust the seal.

 

[droppinloads]

Yep if the rod is straight either the upper fireback is warped or the damper plate itself is damaged and/or the tab that grabs the rod is missing.

The back of the damper plate should look like this - the tab with the screw in the middle is what grab the rod and looks it closed. The adjusting screw you can see on the front center of the damper presses on this tab to adjust the seal.

I have to open it up again & take a closer look at that tab. The rod looks just like the one in the picture above. The tab may just be mis-aligned. what happens is the rod catches the damper at first & then slips off. Maybe the tab just needs to be adjusted

 

[MWelch2583]

Lit my new to me resolute acclaim that I got from my buddys father yesterday outside the house. Was in a barn for a while so lit it outside to burn some of the surface rust off. Already replaced the door and top lid gaskets and was planning on replacing the combuster, but yesterday I got a really good controlled burn even when in downdraft mode. He told me that he had replaced it the year before he put the stove in storage due to the fact of needing a larger one for his house. Should I still replace the combuster, or say the hell with it and run it for the season since it worked so well yesterday?? Thanks for the help

 

[jharkin]

Lit my new to me resolute acclaim that I got from my buddys father yesterday outside the house. Was in a barn for a while so lit it outside to burn some of the surface rust off. Already replaced the door and top lid gaskets and was planning on replacing the combuster, but yesterday I got a really good controlled burn even when in downdraft mode. He told me that he had replaced it the year before he put the stove in storage due to the fact of needing a larger one for his house. Should I still replace the combuster, or say the hell with it and run it for the season since it worked so well yesterday?? Thanks for the help

If the catalyst was replaced a year ago its probably fine. They are supposed to be good for about 10,000 hours use. As long as you are not seeing much smoke outside when its engaged it shoudl be working.

 

[droppinloads]

If the catalyst was replaced a year ago its probably fine. They are supposed to be good for about 10,000 hours use. As long as you are not seeing much smoke outside when its engaged it shoudl be working.

Jharkin- I read through your Encore rebuild thread- well done & thanks for documenting. I'm thinking I may just replace my upper fireback. Would you say this is a difficult job? It doesn't seem like it should be but then again...

 

[jharkin]

Jharkin- I read through your Encore rebuild thread- well done & thanks for documenting. I'm thinking I may just replace my upper fireback. Would you say this is a difficult job? It doesn't seem like it should be but then again...

It probably the most difficult thing to do short of a complete tear down but its certainly doable if you have good mechanical skills.

The problem is just that's its a fiddly, cramped, messy job. Getting it out is the worst since there is probably a lot of creosote built up around the top of it that's going to fight you as you try to pry it out... and then for a couple of steps it will seem like the darn thing is just not going to fit until you figure out a particular angle you need to move it to line things up.

Just keep at it, take your time and work slow and careful and it shouldn't be tooooooo bad.

 

[begreen]

If the catalyst was replaced a year ago its probably fine. They are supposed to be good for about 10,000 hours use. As long as you are not seeing much smoke outside when its engaged it shoudl be working.

I think he means the combustion package. The Acclaim is a downdraft unit. This usually has a 3-5 yr lifespan with good treatment. If it has been recently replaced it should be ok.

 

[jharkin]

I think he means the combustion package. The Acclaim is a downdraft unit. This usually has a 3-5 yr lifespan with good treatment. If it has been recently replaced it should be ok.

ooooooh the acclaim is an everburn non-cat. Gotcha.

 

[Diabel]

Finally I have a chance to get back to my rebuild of the 2550. Everything is stripped down ready for recementing and regasketing.
I understand 5/16 gasket will be required mostly.
3/8 for the ash pan door. Do the inner side panels use 5/16 as well?

Also, the damper assembly only has grooves for 5/16 gasket on the short sides, the is no groove along the upper side. Do I apply a bead of cement there or just leave it and hope for a tight cast iron fit?

 

[jharkin]

3/8 for the inner sides.

Differing opinions on upper back... @Defiant cements everything iirc. I used gaskets on the sides and a ton of furnace cement along the top. It won't fit tight enough for an airtight seal without it.

 

[Diabel]

3/8 for the inner sides.

Differing opinions on upper back... @Defiant cements everything iirc. I used gaskets on the sides and a ton of furnace cement along the top. It won't fit tight enough for an airtight seal without it.

Thanks Jeremy

 

[jharkin]

Changed the griddle gasket. Used some dense reading to hold it down while the glue set

 

[Diabel]

Nice.
I have been busy and unable to finish my 2550.
It is pretty much completely in pieces (will take some pics tomorrow).
Surprisingly, the 0028 is still running. The cat is so shot, refractory housing glued together last year with several small sections. A real piece meal job. I would say it put out about a 50% of the heat with the damper closed, yet very little smoke out the stack.

Last weekend, it was below zero here at night and the house needed more heat! It warmed up since...hence no urgency to put the 2550 in service.

I picked up more gasket yesterday (3/8) and I am hoping to start cementing the beast back together over the weekend.

 

[jharkin]

Last weekend, it was below zero here at night and the house needed more heat! It warmed up since...hence no urgency to put the 2550 in service.

Below zero C ?

On Sunday we had our first hard freeze, it went down to around 25F / -4C overnight. I turned on the gas and we lit the fireplace but not the stove yet. This years wood supply is limited so I am waiting for colder weather.

Today its back up to 70 (22C) again so who the heck knows when that will be...

 

[Diabel]

Below zero C ?

On Sunday we had our first hard freeze, it went down to around 25F / -4C overnight. I turned on the gas and we lit the fireplace but not the stove yet. This years wood supply is limited so I am waiting for colder weather.

Today its back up to 70 (22C) again so who the heck knows when that will be...

Yes Celsius, sorry
28f
Around 45f during the past few days and the 0028 is keeping the house warm.

 

[jharkin]

Quite alright Diabel - us yanks are the odd ones out in this regard after all

I'mpretty good at doing the conversion in my head and assumed you meant C; just wanted to make sure you hadn't already put it in F terms for our benefit - as that would be COLD!

 

[fireSteve]

So, I'm the new proud schmuck of an owner of an Encore 2550 that I purchased off Craigslist. As you'd probably guess, I bought it for it's looks...without knowing much more. It was not an easy process to pickup the stove, run a new liner (my flu was not approved), and work around the heatilator firebox that I ran the liner through, but that should probably be left to a separate thread all in its own right. I used a 10x6 rectangular liner to accommodate the 10x6 fireplace adapter that came with the Encore from the previous owner, which was not an easy thing to find (
https://www.firesidechimneysupply.com/).

When I first hooked this stove up, I fired it up and slowly added wood as to the manual instructions. It was everything I ever dreamed. After the first hour or so, I was cooking at about 500 and figured I'd load her up, shut the damper, and enjoy the heat. Well heat I did get but also more stress than enjoyment. The thermometer kept rising despite the air supply being shut. 600...700...750...800...850...900...s&$!... being new to wood stoves I was at least not stupid enough to think that this was okay (I did read the manual which is pretty slim on operating instructions but at least did tell me the normal operating temperatures). Sweating out some quick google searches led me to my son's sand box. Fortunately the sand did calm it down to about 650, crisis averted.

Upon inspection of the stove, I found that the gasket between the doors was completely missing (thanks jharkln for posting the pdf instructions of the gasket kit). So, I ordered a gasket kit, installed it, fixed my hack job of a liner connection, and fired the stove back up. With the new gasket, I couldn't even sniff 500 degrees with the doors closed. Apparently, these new gaskets really do the trick.

I was wondering what the operating procedure is for the everyone else to get a good fire going in these stoves. Do you use a lot of small stuff to get it going? Do you keep the ash pan open a crack? At what temp/coal level do you shut the damper? What is your typical operating temperature?

I'm sure that I'm going to run into a lot of other questions along the way. I was so glad to see this thread after realizing that my beautiful stove has a history of being rather finicky.

 

[begreen]

To start a fire keep the front door slightly ajar but don't use the ash pan door. That could damage the stove. Page 23 of the manual has detailed starting instructions.

 

[jharkin]

Agree with BeGreen - never use the ash door to help light off, it creates a blast furnace effect that can crack the stove bottom and get out of control in the blink of an eye.

If you had to replace the door gasket, check every other gasket as well (ash pan, griddle, damper, fire back.

If you dont have one, a probe thermometer for the catalyst is extremely helpful in operating the stove. Condar sells them: (broken link removed to http://www.condar.com/Digital_Thermometers.html)


Using both stove top and probe temp this is my routine:

1. Start the fire as a modified top down. I put in two large splits with a 1/4 super cedar or paper between then cris-cross kindling on top.
2. damper open, air wide open , door crack and light it
3. Once the flames are well established close the front door, keep air wide open
4. Once stop top thermometer reaches 500F+ you can close the damper
5. If all works well the catalyst will light off and probe temp should hit 500F and start climbing within a few minutes.. If ift doesnt open the damper again wait 5 minutes and retry
6. Once the probe temp crosses 1000F the catalyst is into the ideal zone and you can start closing down primary air in stages (close 1/4, wait 5 min, close 1/4 , repeat) till you get to your desired cruising temp
7. At the end of the burn cycle when the catalyst probe temp drops below 800F and you are down to a coal bed its safe to reload. Open the damper, add wood and repeat steps 4,5,6

A note on cruising temps - Where you need to run the stove will depend on how much heat you need. I find I use catalyst temp more than stove top temp to monitor it. The safe operating range for the catalyst is between 500F and 1700F... I find that trying to keep it in the 1100-1500 range is ideal , any lower and you are probably going to get some smoke from the stake, over 1500 and you have to be careful not to flirt with overfire. Over 1700 will damage the platinum coating and when you get over 1800 you may start to see glowing iron.

Stove top temp safe range is anything below 700 IIRC. For me generally staying between 400 and 600 is all I need on any but the coldest days. Most of the time mild days I am cruising with the air control only 1/8 open which will give me a 450-500 stove top and 1200 cat temp. For an overnight burn I fill to the brim with hardwood and run the air full closed which gets me 8-10 hours heat. During the day I cant remember ever cruising on more than 1/4-1/3 open even on the coldest days.

On cold days when you need to run the stove hard for a lot of heat I find its more manageable to load it halfway (maybe 3-4 large splits) more frequently and run the air a bit more open. Running hot on a full load raises the risk of overfiring the cat. I run full loads and low air on milder days and overnight.

Once you get a hang for it the 2550 is not a bad stove to operate, just high maintenance. The main thing to watch out for is catalyst temp runaway if you have a very strong draft or run a full load of fast burning woods like pine. If you do have the cat temp runaway on you, sometimes opening up the air control actually lowers it (counter intuitive, it creates more flame burning smoke up before the cat. It will raise stove top temp as it lowers cat temp). If that fails try opening the damper with the air shut to let it cool down then re-engage.

 

[Diabel]

Agree with BeGreen - never use the ash door to help light off, it creates a blast furnace effect that can crack the stove bottom and get out of control in the blink of an eye.

If you had to replace the door gasket, check every other gasket as well (ash pan, griddle, damper, fire back.

If you dont have one, a probe thermometer for the catalyst is extremely helpful in operating the stove. Condar sells them: (broken link removed to http://www.condar.com/Digital_Thermometers.html)


Using both stove top and probe temp this is my routine:

1. Start the fire as a modified top down. I put in two large splits with a 1/4 super cedar or paper between then cris-cross kindling on top.
2. damper open, air wide open , door crack and light it
3. Once the flames are well established close the front door, keep air wide open
4. Once stop top thermometer reaches 500F+ you can close the damper
5. If all works well the catalyst will light off and probe temp should hit 500F and start climbing within a few minutes.. If ift doesnt open the damper again wait 5 minutes and retry
6. Once the probe temp crosses 1000F the catalyst is into the ideal zone and you can start closing down primary air in stages (close 1/4, wait 5 min, close 1/4 , repeat) till you get to your desired cruising temp
7. At the end of the burn cycle when the catalyst probe temp drops below 800F and you are down to a coal bed its safe to reload. Open the damper, add wood and repeat steps 4,5,6

A note on cruising temps - Where you need to run the stove will depend on how much heat you need. I find I use catalyst temp more than stove top temp to monitor it. The safe operating range for the catalyst is between 500F and 1700F... I find that trying to keep it in the 1100-1500 range is ideal , any lower and you are probably going to get some smoke from the stake, over 1500 and you have to be careful not to flirt with overfire. Over 1700 will damage the platinum coating and when you get over 1800 you may start to see glowing iron.

Stove top temp safe range is anything below 700 IIRC. For me generally staying between 400 and 600 is all I need on any but the coldest days. Most of the time mild days I am cruising with the air control only 1/8 open which will give me a 450-500 stove top and 1200 cat temp. For an overnight burn I fill to the brim with hardwood and run the air full closed which gets me 8-10 hours heat. During the day I cant remember ever cruising on more than 1/4-1/3 open even on the coldest days.

On cold days when you need to run the stove hard for a lot of heat I find its more manageable to load it halfway (maybe 3-4 large splits) more frequently and run the air a bit more open. Running hot on a full load raises the risk of overfiring the cat. I run full loads and low air on milder days and overnight.

Once you get a hang for it the 2550 is not a bad stove to operate, just high maintenance. The main thing to watch out for is catalyst temp runaway if you have a very strong draft or run a full load of fast burning woods like pine. If you do have the cat temp runaway on you, sometimes opening up the air control actually lowers it (counter intuitive, it creates more flame burning smoke up before the cat. It will raise stove top temp as it lowers cat temp). If that fails try opening the damper with the air shut to let it cool down then re-engage.

Could not add more. Great operation summary.

 

[fireSteve]

Thanks BeGreen and jharkin! It's not too cold yet here in Ohio but I've been trying to make sure that this stove is ready to go for winter. I'm thinking that I'll do a more thorough break down of it next summer but I've missed the boat on that for this winter. I'll try following your process and see if I can get a good fire going. Tonight will be a pretty good test case. I don't have the catalytic thermometer yet, that's on the list as well as a fan. I'm thinking one of the heat powered Caframo fans unless you guys have a better suggestion.

 

[Diabel]

This is as far I am going with my rebuild. Next week I will have time to put the stove back together.

 

[droppinloads]

Well I decided to bail on my Encore 2250. Rather than spend the $700-1000 (not to mention my time) to replace the upper fireback & damper assembly I'm replacing the stove with an Woodstock Ideal Steel (totally different look obviously). I still may rebuild the stove for a project & then sell it, or just sell it as is.