2017/2018 VC owners thread

[RandyBoBandy]

Now, the 1100-degree silicone might work..
View attachment 218559 View attachment 218560

It's worth trying.

 

[Diabel]

I'm currently using a ceramic honeycomb a local dealer fold me. Works good. A little sluggish to start this year after I ran a qtip through each cell. I'm thinking of doing a cat boil if we get another warm spell. I just stumbled upon a different manufacturer last night and was interested in checking it out. Go to clearskiesunlimited.com or stovecombustors.com.

Few yrs back I picked one of the steel cats. I can not remember the manufacturer. It was one of the cats where it's can was made of the thin layer of steel.
I installed it in my old 0028 (badly needing rebuilding). The refractory was also in a bad shape.
At the beginning the ignition was excellent, after a month of usage I decided to check it out and maybe brush it. Well, the cat was totally deformed. I am sure it was mostly user error, putting a cat in a leaky stove which caused to run hot. But the design of the cat was not very smart at all, the can should be designed the same way as the ceramic cats.

I just went on Condar site and indeed the steel cats cans look the same as the ceramic.

Btw I just ordered a new Condar ceramic cat for next year.

 

[Diabel]

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Few yrs back I picked one of the steel cats. I can not remember the manufacturer. It was one of the cats where it's can was made of the thin layer of steel.
I installed it in my old 0028 (badly needing rebuilding). The refractory was also in a bad shape.
At the beginning the ignition was excellent, after a month of usage I decided to check it out and maybe brush it. Well, the cat was totally deformed. I am sure it was mostly user error, putting a cat in a leaky stove which caused to run hot. But the design of the cat was not very smart at all, the can should be designed the same way as the ceramic cats.

I just went on Condar site and indeed the steel cats cans look the same as the ceramic.

Btw I just ordered a new Condar ceramic cat for next year.[/QUOTE

 

[Woody Stover]

Few yrs back I picked one of the steel cats. I can not remember the manufacturer. It was one of the cats where it's can was made of the thin layer of steel.

That is a diesel-foil cat. I had a few in different stove belonging to family members. If you didn't fire them too hot, they held up OK. My one SIL fired hers pretty hot, and it deformed to the point where it was hard to seal between it and the cat frame. The ones Woodstock and BK use now are Durafoil; I don't think they are as likely to severely deform.
First pic is a diesel-foil cat, similar in appearance to yours. Second is the Durafoil.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

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Yikes

 

[ajayabb]

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Wow. I thought that was a charred piece of wood before I realized that it was the steel cat


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[Diabel]

Whenever I hear people say my cat disintegrated/failed/crumbled I believe it is 100% due to over fire caused by failing gaskets/seals therefore pure neglect of the user.

 

[defiant3]

Another common problem in V.C. Defiants , Encores, and Intrepid II's is the secondary air probe, which should be replaced at the same time as the cat. Dealers don't seem to know this so I don't know how stove owners are supposed to but it's definitely a thing. Without the probe functioning properly the secondary air gte remains OPEN and allows the cat. to overfire. Worse yet, you may not even know it as stovetop temp. may seem normal! Unless you have a probe thermos. for the cat. you may never know there's a problem.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

I had an incident a couple weeks ago where my secondary probe went past "center" and started opening again. When the stove went cold I found the timing around 3 o'clock. I don't know if the bimetallic coil sacks out over time or if the assembly slipped timing. The lock nut was a little loose. I retimed the probe to 1:30-2 and put a little magnet on the bottom of the stove to keep the flapper from going past completely closed.

 

[ajayabb]

Another common problem in V.C. Defiants , Encores, and Intrepid II's is the secondary air probe, which should be replaced at the same time as the cat. Dealers don't seem to know this so I don't know how stove owners are supposed to but it's definitely a thing. Without the probe functioning properly the secondary air gte remains OPEN and allows the cat. to overfire. Worse yet, you may not even know it as stovetop temp. may seem normal! Unless you have a probe thermos. for the cat. you may never know there's a problem.

Good to know. I'll have to take the panel off and check the probe when the stove cools down and make sure it works.


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[Reckless]

16F going down to 8...... Finally


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[RandyBoBandy]

getting chilly here to. Time to really crank up the heat.

 

[Reckless]

I want to say @jharkin had a steel cat. He has been quiet this year so hopefully he can chime in and share his thoughts. If you read through his rebuild thread I think he talks about his steel cat some.

He returned it and went back ceramic after poor performance if I remember correctly


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[RandyBoBandy]

 

[RandyBoBandy]

I wish my draft was this good all the time

 

[Reckless]

My first real overnight burn last night peaked at 1405 and just enough coals to get going this morning after 9hrs


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[Dobish]

Good morning to all my VC brothers. I am looking for a replacement cat. The one i just put in warped out in a weeks time... cheap cat on Amazon its a condar cc800.. stay away.. the metal frame warped.
I am looking for a better grade cat, but am having trouble getting info for a cat for the 2040 2in1 encore
Looking at both steal and ceramic
Some help would be awesome

John

i picked mine up from VC direct, and they have a warranty program which is pretty decent. I haven't really had any issues with it....

i did come back from 3 days away, and this is what my cat temp was though (the picture looks sort of like the first number is a 9, but it is a 3)

 

[RandyBoBandy]

My first real overnight burn last night peaked at 1405 and just enough coals to get going this morning after 9hrs


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First overnight burn? Wow. I've been running 24/7 for awhile now. Also been heating us out of the house a few times to.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

My first real overnight burn last night peaked at 1405 and just enough coals to get going this morning after 9hrs


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Are you shutting your primary all the way down? How are you keeping your peak at 1400? My oak and ash load peaked at 1460-1470 last night.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

That's some cold indoor temps.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

Drove up to the cabin today so now I get to play with the Difiant. Suppose to hit -5 tonight... should be some good secondaries to watch while I sip on some good whiskey.

 

[ajayabb]

Drove up to the cabin today so now I get to play with the Difiant. Suppose to hit -5 tonight... should be some good secondaries to watch while I sip on some good whiskey.

Looks fantastic. I guess these VC stoves do perform pretty well


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[RandyBoBandy]

Looks fantastic. I guess these VC stoves do perform pretty well


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I'm not going to lie. They do have their frustrations but when they run good it's beautiful thing.

 

[Reckless]

Are you shutting your primary all the way down? How are you keeping your peak at 1400? My oak and ash load peaked at 1460-1470 last night.

About 1/3 open which is the equivalent of most of everyone elses closed lol.
Ash and sugar maple roughly 3/4 full box


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[Reckless]

First overnight burn? Wow. I've been running 24/7 for awhile now. Also been heating us out of the house a few times to.

Been too warm to burn overnight or to burn at all really. This cold spell is just what the dr ordered.


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