2020/21 VC Owners thread

[RandyBoBandy]

My house is in southeastern Michigan and I’m burning oak, ash, maple, locust, hickory, cherry, elm
My cabin is 220 miles north in Atlanta MI. I’m burning maple, beech, birch and sometimes hemlock and fir. If I buy firewood up here I get oak, however, I haven’t bought firewood in years. Just been pulling it off the property.

 

[Rusty18]

South east ohio
Yellow pine, cutting trees off of the house so it’s either split and burn or let the worms get it. And anything else that happens to fall.

 

[Jimmy C]

So definitely better results since letting the stove come up to temp on reloads before closing bypass. I was consulting the original manual which said to close bypass right away on reloads. I usually would let it burn open for a while because things didn't seem right when closing bypass right away. It only takes about 5 mins to get all the way back to temp so sticking with this will be easy.

As for when to start shutting air down, I usually need to start much sooner and definitely need to close air all the way well before 1300. Usually by the time CAT is at 600 I have to shut 1/4 then by 800 primary air needs to be at 1/2. Usually momentum starts to slow a little by then (jumping by 3 degrees at a time instead of 5) so depending on how fast temp is increasing, I have it completely closed anywhere between 1000 and 1150. It will usually carry over into the 1200 - 1300's and stay there for a while. It seems like every burn I hit a second gear at one point where it jumps up to 1400-1600 and then slowly goes back down to 1200 to the remainder of the burn. I rarely ever have the air open any more than a slight crack. I have about 26' or 28' from top of stove to cap so this may be why it does not need much air. Sometimes I wonder if I should be leaving the air only closed 1/2 or 3/4 because the increased amount of smoke is causing CAT to hit those high temps, but this usually causes the stove to get real hot and heat the house like a sauna. So I guess its a question of what's the lesser of two evils.

 

[Jimmy C]

Southern CT here.

Burning a lot of red and white oak. Maple, Poplar, Ash and Black and Honey Locust mixed in as well.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

So definitely better results since letting the stove come up to temp on reloads before closing bypass. I was consulting the original manual which said to close bypass right away on reloads. I usually would let it burn open for a while because things didn't seem right when closing bypass right away. It only takes about 5 mins to get all the way back to temp so sticking with this will be easy.

As for when to start shutting air down, I usually need to start much sooner and definitely need to close air all the way well before 1300. Usually by the time CAT is at 600 I have to shut 1/4 then by 800 primary air needs to be at 1/2. Usually momentum starts to slow a little by then (jumping by 3 degrees at a time instead of 5) so depending on how fast temp is increasing, I have it completely closed anywhere between 1000 and 1150. It will usually carry over into the 1200 - 1300's and stay there for a while. It seems like every burn I hit a second gear at one point where it jumps up to 1400-1600 and then slowly goes back down to 1200 to the remainder of the burn. I rarely ever have the air open any more than a slight crack. I have about 26' or 28' from top of stove to cap so this may be why it does not need much air. Sometimes I wonder if I should be leaving the air only closed 1/2 or 3/4 because the increased amount of smoke is causing CAT to hit those high temps, but this usually causes the stove to get real hot and heat the house like a sauna. So I guess its a question of what's the lesser of two evils.

Sounds like you are finding your rhythm. Yeah the manual for my defiant is garbage as well. I didn’t really start running my VC stoves correctly until I started lurking around this forum. I will also get a mid burn spike in cat temps sometimes. It’s weird, the stove will be cruising along and all of a sudden she goes into a steady climb to around 1500-1600 and then gradually falls. If I’m looking to put the stove in “auto pilot” for whatever reason I will find where the primary flapper is fully shut at that given point in the burn by jiggling the handle a little bit and listening for the “clank” sorta speak. Then I will just back it off a little bit leaving the primary slightly open. This will keep the cat above 1200 but below 1500 and the GT cruising around 400.

 

[Jimmy C]

How many splits do you use on a full load?

I'm sorry for the barrage of basic (dumb) questions this year, but I ask because I am splitting wood for the season after next. With the average size of the wood I am currently burning I can fit as many as 6 or 7 splits on a full load. If I pick out the biggest pieces I can still usually get at least 5. I have had some issues with overfiring the CAT on full loads and figured it was because of too many splits off gassing.

The wood I am splitting currently, I have been keeping average piece fairly large to avoid this. Almost looks like boiler wood. I have heard people on here talking about adding 3 or 4 splits only, but even with large pieces, that would only fill my fire box 2/3 of the way at most. Do you guys still consider this a full load?

 

[Diabel]

Sounds like you are finding your rhythm. Yeah the manual for my defiant is garbage as well. I didn’t really start running my VC stoves correctly until I started lurking around this forum. I will also get a mid burn spike in cat temps sometimes. It’s weird, the stove will be cruising along and all of a sudden she goes into a steady climb to around 1500-1600 and then gradually falls. If I’m looking to put the stove in “auto pilot” for whatever reason I will find where the primary flapper is fully shut at that given point in the burn by jiggling the handle a little bit and listening for the “clank” sorta speak. Then I will just back it off a little bit leaving the primary slightly open. This will keep the cat above 1200 but below 1500 and the GT cruising around 400.

I also see the mid burn spike in the cat temp regularly.

 

[Diabel]

How many splits do you use on a full load?

I'm sorry for the barrage of basic (dumb) questions this year, but I ask because I am splitting wood for the season after next. With the average size of the wood I am currently burning I can fit as many as 6 or 7 splits on a full load. If I pick out the biggest pieces I can still usually get at least 5. I have had some issues with overfiring the CAT on full loads and figured it was because of too many splits off gassing.

The wood I am splitting currently, I have been keeping average piece fairly large to avoid this. Almost looks like boiler wood. I have heard people on here talking about adding 3 or 4 splits only, but even with large pieces, that would only fill my fire box 2/3 of the way at most. Do you guys still consider this a full load?

My splits are big. Usually, I fit three of them and maybe one small filler split.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

How many splits do you use on a full load?

I'm sorry for the barrage of basic (dumb) questions this year, but I ask because I am splitting wood for the season after next. With the average size of the wood I am currently burning I can fit as many as 6 or 7 splits on a full load. If I pick out the biggest pieces I can still usually get at least 5. I have had some issues with overfiring the CAT on full loads and figured it was because of too many splits off gassing.

The wood I am splitting currently, I have been keeping average piece fairly large to avoid this. Almost looks like boiler wood. I have heard people on here talking about adding 3 or 4 splits only, but even with large pieces, that would only fill my fire box 2/3 of the way at most. Do you guys still consider this a full load?

My fire box is 2.3 cuft I I split specifically for overnight. I split square and rectangle pieces. I will normally fit about 5 splits in the bod and its packed tightly. It forms 1 giant pice of wood with no air gaps in between the wood. Believe me when I say I need to let the load catch before shutting it down. To me it sounds like you have have space between your splits and your getting hot and gassing off at the same time. Each setup is a little different. The way I'm running mine my cat never gets above 1480.. Normally I'm at 1200 to 1250. Sometimes I get a spike getting into the 1400s or it may dip as low as 900 if I shut it down without it fully catching. It will take a bit for it to jup back up to the 1200 range. I find it unreasonable to have the expectation that the stove will behave the same every night. It will vary some due to some user error like shutting the air down to quickly or running it to hot, letting to much catch. Are u splitting your own wood..

 

[Reckless]

My fire box is 2.3 cuft I I split specifically for overnight. I split square and rectangle pieces. I will normally fit about 5 splits in the bod and its packed tightly. It forms 1 giant pice of wood with no air gaps in between the wood. Believe me when I say I need to let the load catch before shutting it down. To me it sounds like you have have space between your splits and your getting hot and gassing off at the same time. Each setup is a little different. The way I'm running mine my cat never gets above 1480.. Normally I'm at 1200 to 1250. Sometimes I get a spike getting into the 1400s or it may dip as low as 900 if I shut it down without it fully catching. It will take a bit for it to jup back up to the 1200 range. I find it unreasonable to have the expectation that the stove will behave the same every night. It will vary some due to some user error like shutting the air down to quickly or running it to hot, letting to much catch. Are u splitting your own wood..

I have these monster red oak 6x6x18 splits I’ve been sitting on for about 6 years now, opened one up the other day to check moisture and they are 12-14. just waiting for a single digit night to toss 1 in on top of some smaller splits. My stove may occasionally get up to 1500s mid burn but usually doesn’tpeak much above 1450s normally.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I have these monster red oak 6x6x18 splits I’ve been sitting on for about 6 years now, opened one up the other day to check moisture and they are 12-14. just waiting for a single digit night to toss 1 in on top of some smaller splits. My stove may occasionally get up to 1500s mid burn but usually doesn’tpeak much above 1450s normally.

Your lenth of wood is the same as me. I this lenth leaves just below 2 inches on either side. You and I are probably stacking the box the same. In my stove I usually start shutting down when the 2nd tear wood starts to catch. Do you split square ish also

 

[Rusty18]

Loading is something I’m still perfecting but I think I’ve come up with a different way to look at it. Feel free to tell me to keep my crazy ideas to myself but it seems to work pretty well with my stove. I can load approximately 600 sq in’s worth of splits (yes I meant to say square inches) and have a repeatable reaction. A particular load may be 4-5 small splits or 1-2 big ones that I have to shoe horn in. The catching and turning down time changes obviously but I’m able to turn stove down without back-puffing or having a run away. Once I go over 700 sq in’s it seems like all bets are off, big splits are easier shut down than little ones but 600-700 sq in’s worth of split surface area seems to be the sweet spot for my stove.

just an observation...

 

[Woodsplitter67]

How many splits do you use on a full load?

I'm sorry for the barrage of basic (dumb) questions this year, but I ask because I am splitting wood for the season after next. With the average size of the wood I am currently burning I can fit as many as 6 or 7 splits on a full load. If I pick out the biggest pieces I can still usually get at least 5. I have had some issues with overfiring the CAT on full loads and figured it was because of too many splits off gassing.

The wood I am splitting currently, I have been keeping average piece fairly large to avoid this. Almost looks like boiler wood. I have heard people on here talking about adding 3 or 4 splits only, but even with large pieces, that would only fill my fire box 2/3 of the way at most. Do you guys still consider this a full load?

Here is a picture of some of the ones that I would use for overnight. While I am splitting I will split specifically for overnight. The rest will be regular splits and will be any shape.. pie shaped it doesn't matter to me its for the day and during the day the stove burns more evenly because the air is not turned down more than half way until the coaling stage.
Today I woke up and lit the stove. It was to warm yesterday so I let it go out.
I lit the stove at 5am and got it up to temp and got the cat engaged. and added 2splits of wood and l let it run for a bit letting the cat run like 900+ a little bit about 6.15am
Then I added alot of wood big splits and filled the box almost to the top.
I let it catch a little and closed the damper let it run for 5 minutes and then turned the air back to half way and let the stove go till all the wood went almost to coals. The box is filled almost half way with coals at this point. At about 11am with the box filled with coals I turned the air down all the way as my house was warm enough like 75 in the stove room.. 71 in the hall to the kids bedrooms. its is now 4.12pm and the temp in my house has dropped some as it went down to 22 degrees at my house this morning. There are still active coals at the bottom of my stove and my cat temp is 228 degrees. I will soon rake the ash, drop some small splits on the coals get my cat going and then load it up for the night and let it go. There are a number of ways to run this stove, this is just how I run it sometimes. You will need to use different techniques based on how cold it its outside and the amount of heat required.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

I also focus on square splits for the over night and morning loads when I am working. I shoot for 3-5 inch squares or rectangles. I tend to keep my oak in the 4” range so it doesn’t take half a decade to dry. I use the the smaller triangles and whatever’s to fill in the air gaps. My target length is 18”, however, not everyone I cut with pays attention to lengths. When I do get a batch of shorts I stack them all to one side of the stove and slide a split in vertically. When it’s actual winter out I fill my stove to the brim twice a day. Sometimes I have to switch out my top piece because I can’t shut the griddle top. Teens on down and and I have to do a helper load mid day. This load is either shorts or uglies that don’t stack well. Weekends and days off are also days where I burn up all the uglies, shorties, and chunks.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

This is a typical stove load for me.

 

[Reckless]

Loading is something I’m still perfecting but I think I’ve come up with a different way to look at it. Feel free to tell me to keep my crazy ideas to myself but it seems to work pretty well with my stove. I can load approximately 600 sq in’s worth of splits (yes I meant to say square inches) and have a repeatable reaction. A particular load may be 4-5 small splits or 1-2 big ones that I have to shoe horn in. The catching and turning down time changes obviously but I’m able to turn stove down without back-puffing or having a run away. Once I go over 700 sq in’s it seems like all bets are off, big splits are easier shut down than little ones but 600-700 sq in’s worth of split surface area seems to be the sweet spot for my stove.

just an observation...

I cannot stuff my stove to the gills either or I will go nuclear or it will back puff with the amount of wood gassing off there seems to be no sweet spot. I tend to only load the box 1/2 full and towards the glass away from the fire back. I like the smaller loads anyway I feel like I can keep the house warmer since I’m not always trying to turn the stove down.

 

[Reckless]

Your lenth of wood is the same as me. I this lenth leaves just below 2 inches on either side. You and I are probably stacking the box the same. In my stove I usually start shutting down when the 2nd tear wood starts to catch. Do you split square ish also

I aim for squares but don’t always work out. Since the inside of the firebox is tapered if you go larger than 18 you’ll have a tough time to get it in once you’re past the andirons. I always get snagged around the air wash since I refuse to top load.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I aim for squares but don’t always work out. Since the inside of the firebox is tapered if you go larger than 18 you’ll have a tough time to get it in once you’re past the andirons. I always get snagged around the air wash since I refuse to top load.

Its funny how we are all different.. I totally refuse to load from the front.. I bought a top loading stove to load from the top and avoid be on my knees.. Hardwood floors are exactly that... hard.. wood.. floors.. and are rough when kneeling down.. Like randy posted.. We load to the bottom of the griddle..

 

[Jimmy C]

Thanks for all the responses, they have been very helpful...

So this morning i started up the stove as usual and after closing bypass, right as cat temp was coming up to 500, my thermometer went. Or at least that's what seems to have happened. My Auber AT100 is now just reading "EEEE". I'm assuming I need a new thermometer. Has anyone gotten this error message before?

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Thanks for all the responses, they have been very helpful...

So this morning i started up the stove as usual and after closing bypass, right as cat temp was coming up to 500, my thermometer went. Or at least that's what seems to have happened. My Auber AT100 is now just reading "EEEE". I'm assuming I need a new thermometer. Has anyone gotten this error message before?

Check the wire going into the auber.. my probe is 3 years old and is still reading fine..

 

[Jimmy C]

Check the wire going into the auber.. my probe is 3 years old and is still reading fine..

I replaced the thermocouple connectors because I had an extra set and even checked the settings to make sure it was still on K-type, still nothing. I have the worst luck. Back to operating blindly until I can figure this out... Thinking of just ordering a new k type probe.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

 

[Jimmy C]

View attachment 271102

Yea I saw that and changed out the connectors that you crimp over the wires with new ones. The setting is still on "k type" so its got to be the probe right?

 

[Jimmy C]

unless its this thing i need:

Three-pin connector for AT100 series thermometers [TPinCON] - $1.60 : Auber Instruments, Inc., Temperature control solutions for home and industry

Auber Instruments, Inc. Three-pin connector for AT100 series thermometers [TPinCON] - This 3-pin male connector fits the connectors on our AT100 series thermometers. Six wiring ferrules are provided. Specifications: Voltage rating: 120 V Current rating: 8 A Width: 12.4mm (0.49'') Height...

www.auberins.com

 

[Woodsplitter67]

unless its this thing i need:

Three-pin connector for AT100 series thermometers [TPinCON] - $1.60 : Auber Instruments, Inc., Temperature control solutions for home and industry

Auber Instruments, Inc. Three-pin connector for AT100 series thermometers [TPinCON] - This 3-pin male connector fits the connectors on our AT100 series thermometers. Six wiring ferrules are provided. Specifications: Voltage rating: 120 V Current rating: 8 A Width: 12.4mm (0.49'') Height...

www.auberins.com

I didn't use and connectors I just cut off what was there and stripped the wire and screwed it down