2018/19 VC Owners Thread

[Gnanneb86]

While I'm on this thread, is anyone here still using the cat probe that was provided with the Encore 2040? Also has anyone determined if the factory cat probe is accurate? When mine hits the active range I do see a difference in the smoke coming out of the chimney at that point so it seems right and no reason to replace it for a different one. If I'm wrong no this please advise what probe would work better. Hopefully if another one better fits the bill, it can be inserted as is with no modification to the back of the stove. Thoughts/concerns. Kevin

I have the defiant 1975 but i assume it's the same probe. Mine never had any issues it's just slow to respond.

I switched mine out for the Auber AT100 digital one which has worked great and is very reasonably priced. I wouldn't say it's a necessity but I like having one that responds very quickly, shows exact temps, and records the highest temp hit.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Dobish]

1" from the top, man that's a lot wood in there. Is this what most folks with the 2040 are doing? I just have this fear of all that wood gassing off at once or bursting into flame all at once and over firing the stove. Maybe I just need to get past that and do it. Kevin

I will mention, that I also tend to have wood that is like a jenga puzzle, so I have a bit more air gaps in my stove than I would like, so I am less concerned. If i am optimizing space, then I will load about 3/4 of the way to the top.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

1" from the top, man that's a lot wood in there. Is this what most folks with the 2040 are doing? I just have this fear of all that wood gassing off at once or bursting into flame all at once and over firing the stove. Maybe I just need to get past that and do it. Kevin

Im all the way to the top.. hoping not to jam up the damper door when closing.. got a 12 hr burn the other night. .. cat temp was 850 during the burn ..griddle temp just droped to 280 after 12 hrs

 

[frased]

Im all the way to the top.. hoping not to jam up the damper door when closing.. got a 12 hr burn the other night. .. cat temp was 850 during the burn ..griddle temp just droped to 280 after 12 hrs

Is it me or doesn’t it seem ok to engage CAT at 450 griddle temp? I’ve tried that a couple times and my CAT has no problem hitting the desired 500 degree mark in no time.

Am I doing anything wrong?

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I will mention, that I also tend to have wood that is like a jenga puzzle, so I have a bit more air gaps in my stove than I would like, so I am less concerned. If i am optimizing space, then I will load about 3/4 of the way to the top.

I separat my wood when i bring it in the house.. I have 1 rack for overnigh and 1 rack for day time. When i bring my wood i put the really square stuff in the over night rack. When I load the stove for an overnight burn i put it all together and make one giant block of wood in the stove. My wood sits on a bed of coles. The only air that goes through the stove is between the glass and andirons and along the sides and into the cat.. vetty little to no air makes it through the middle of the block..

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Is it me or doesn’t it seem ok to engage CAT at 450 griddle temp? I’ve tried that a couple times and my CAT has no problem hitting the desired 500 degree mark in no time.

Am I doing anything wrong?

Im not sure what your asking

 

[frased]

Im not sure what your asking

Ok to engage CAT at 450 griddle instead of 500?

 

[Dobish]

Ok to engage CAT at 450 griddle instead of 500?

this is not a problem

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Ok to engage CAT at 450 griddle instead of 500?

450 is ok.. that being said it will take a little longer for the cat to light off.. not like 30 minutes difference but it will be a little slower . I engage mine at 450 and let it get up to temp.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

1" from the top, man that's a lot wood in there. Is this what most folks with the 2040 are doing? I just have this fear of all that wood gassing off at once or bursting into flame all at once and over firing the stove. Maybe I just need to get past that and do it. Kevin

I load my 2550 like Dobish loads his. Sometimes I have to big of a split on top and can’t close the GT. I keep two stove loads next to the stove so I can find the right top piece.

 

[Dobish]

I load my 2550 like Dobish loads his. Sometimes I have to big of a split on top and can’t close the GT. I keep two stove loads next to the stove so I can find the right top piece.

my current stack of wood that I brought in is roughly 1/2" longer than it should be, so I have to load up a little one first, then angle a big one diagonal, then work around it. Super annoying, but if I remember correctly, it was only 2 or 3 sections that were cut a little long. I'm hoping when i bring up the next few loads, they are just the right size.

*note- this was all stuff that was cut a few years ago, before I was particular about the lengths of cuts. a lot of it was scrounged or dumped from tree services.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

As far as choosing when to close damper, I use flue temps as my determining factor. Most of the time GT is about 400 when I close damper. I let the flue get up to 600(internal temp) before I close the damper. This usually promotes fast cat light off. I then start closing primary air around 700. I changed my alarm from 900 to 1525 because I’ve never been able to get both alarms to work, only one or the other.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

my current stack of wood that I brought in is roughly 1/2" longer than it should be, so I have to load up a little one first, then angle a big one diagonal, then work around it. Super annoying, but if I remember correctly, it was only 2 or 3 sections that were cut a little long. I'm hoping when i bring up the next few loads, they are just the right size.

*note- this was all stuff that was cut a few years ago, before I was particular about the lengths of cuts. a lot of it was scrounged or dumped from tree services.

I to didn’t care much about wood length until I started trying to fill every square inch of the firebox. I have had to throw a few splits in the yard because they just wouldn’t fit right in the stove. The other size that bothers me are the short ones that are to tall to stand vertically on the sides.

 

[Dobish]

I to didn’t care much about wood length until I started trying to fill every square inch of the firebox. I have had to throw a few splits in the yard because they just wouldn’t fit right in the stove. The other size that bothers me are the short ones that are to tall to stand vertically on the sides.

yeah, i hear that. I need to get rid of this pine at some point, so i figure I may as well do it while it is not super cold. The stuff that I have been cutting lately is all pretty consistent. I do have a stack of super short pieces that fit N/S, those are pretty nice when the puzzle comes together.

 

[Diabel]

Ok to engage CAT at 450 griddle instead of 500?

I have a griddle thermometer but seldom look at it. I run the stove by paying attention to the flue probe and the cat probe only. Even if the cat probe is at 250 but the flue around 375 I close the by pass.

Oh and I stuff the firebox to the max. Try not to leave any gaps

 

[frased]

I have a griddle thermometer but seldom look at it. I run the stove by paying attention to the flue probe and the cat probe only. Even if the cat probe is at 250 but the flue around 375 I close the by pass.

Oh and I stuff the firebox to the max. Try not to leave any gaps

I am going do that more. I did start closing my damper at griddle 450 now instead of the 500 and my CAT is up to 500 no problem in a couple minutes. And eventually stabilizes over 1000 somewhere.

I’ll focus on flue temp 375. Seems to get there sooner than griddle reaches 450 too.

 

[frased]

I load my 2550 like Dobish loads his. Sometimes I have to big of a split on top and can’t close the GT. I keep two stove loads next to the stove so I can find the right top piece.

I stuffed my 2550 last night. Seemed to work great! After 8 hours I still had coals glowing.

I will get better at stuffing it. There were some air gaps on the sides. That’s the hardest part when stuffing it for me.

 

[Kevin Weis]

On the Encore with the factory supplied cat probe, when it reaches "active" zone (white area), in theory what would the degree reading be? I'm thinking 500 based on information in the manual but not sure I'm right on this. Kevin

 

[Dobish]

On the Encore with the factory supplied cat probe, when it reaches "active" zone (white area), in theory what would the degree reading be? I'm thinking 500 based on information in the manual but not sure I'm right on this. Kevin

yes, it is 500. the top is 1500
based on my tests, it is very similar to this one:

 

[Woodsplitter67]

On the Encore with the factory supplied cat probe, when it reaches "active" zone (white area), in theory what would the degree reading be? I'm thinking 500 based on information in the manual but not sure I'm right on this. Kevin

I found the factory probe to be finicky over a couple years of use. It seemed to me that the cat would light off a little different some times. This may be due to the cat it's self eather with the amount of use or needing a cleaning. Sometimes i thought it was the bi-metal probe showing wear. I feel after time it becomes less accurate. An actual digital probe takes out some of the variables in the equation. The digital meter will show you with in a minute exactly what the cat temperature is, unlike the factory probe where you have to wait 5 to 10 minutes. Here is something else. When i had the factory probe in sometime it would be in the white.. the active zone.. but I wasn't convinced my cat was actually running. Other times i could hear the cat light off and the probe want even in the white yet.. 5 minutes later it was.. most of the time my probe had to reach a certain letter to kick off rather than just be in the white area.. its super hard to say for certain exactly where 500 is on each probe.. i would guess that each one would be a little different. .. and i would hope other people would chime in on this and give there thoughts ..

 

[RandyBoBandy]

I stuffed my 2550 last night. Seemed to work great! After 8 hours I still had coals glowing.

I will get better at stuffing it. There were some air gaps on the sides. That’s the hardest part when stuffing it for me.

Glad things are coming around for you. In the future you will now know how long to cut your firewood

 

[Dobish]

I found the factory probe to be finicky over a couple years of use. It seemed to me that the cat would light off a little different some times. This may be due to the cat it's self eather with the amount of use or needing a cleaning. Sometimes i thought it was the bi-metal probe showing wear. I feel after time it becomes less accurate. An actual digital probe takes out some of the variables in the equation. The digital meter will show you with in a minute exactly what the cat temperature is, unlike the factory probe where you have to wait 5 to 10 minutes. Here is something else. When i had the factory probe in sometime it would be in the white.. the active zone.. but I wasn't convinced my cat was actually running. Other times i could hear the cat light off and the probe want even in the white yet.. 5 minutes later it was.. most of the time my probe had to reach a certain letter to kick off rather than just be in the white area.. its super hard to say for certain exactly where 500 is on each probe.. i would guess that each one would be a little different. .. and i would hope other people would chime in on this and give there thoughts ..

agree 100%. The digitial is 1000x times faster. sometimes i like to watch it start rising and see if it will light off at 504º or 505º. You can tell when it lights off when the numbers start climbing. I can also tell if it has too little air, or the wood is a little wet based upon where it stalls out....

 

[Turfguy]

Seen a bunch of talk about temps on the stove. For those of us with inserts could we be more efficient and use temps to help us? I’m running a Montpelier

 

[Kevin Weis]

Is there a digital out there that will take the place of the factory probe with no modification whatsoever? In other words just pull it out of the hole in the back and insert the digital probe in its place. No drilling, no nothing save for maybe attaching it to the back shield. Kevin

 

[Dobish]

Is there a digital out there that will take the place of the factory probe with no modification whatsoever? In other words just pull it out of the hole in the back and insert the digital probe in its place. No drilling, no nothing save for maybe attaching it to the back shield. Kevin

Auber instruments at100 6" high temp probe