2022/23 VC Owner thread

[arnermd]

Ummm what? Seriously? You guys are cutting grass? I still got piles of snow here.... First cutting might be early mid April.....

 

[GrumpyDad]

I let the stove go out last night.... it was 80 deg in the house.

This morning lit it off (with a match), 3 smaller splits (~3x5 wedges), and one 2.5" round.
Ran 100% air, cat engaged at STT = 275 but flue gas was at 800.
Cat climbed to 1200 (STT=600) hung there for 20 min and is now slowly decaying, air still wide open.
3 hours from match strike I have a nice bed of coals, no flames, STT = 430, Cat= 708, flue = 466, air wide open.

Here is my point.... I ran barely a 1/4 load of smaller pieces, air wide open the whole time and got 3+ hours out of it....

I can't imagine how @wolfize69 is getting 3-4 hour burns on a full load.... something is really wrong.

Same. 2 splits yesterday morning last 3 hours. Put off good heat on lowish.

 

[NewGuy132]

Ummm what? Seriously? You guys are cutting grass? I still got piles of snow here.... First cutting might be early mid April.....

Exactly my thoughts. we have 12-18 inches coming tomorrow depending on who you ask.

 

[Eman85]

Daffodills have bloomed and are withering, Magnolias have blossomed out and so have the Bradford Pears and fruit trees. other trees are leafing out and now this week it's going to dip into the 20's. Temps have been all over the board this winter from 0-80. I can't imagine what this is going to do to agriculture if this keeps up. I can't keep up with the dead trees on my property from previous stress and disease.

 

[arnermd]

Jerky batch #2.... 😋

7 lbs of marinated eye round.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Ummm what? Seriously? You guys are cutting grass? I still got piles of snow here.... First cutting might be early mid April.....

It was one of my first cleanups.. of the year also blew the lawn... the grasses need to be cut back, I sprayed the beds for weeds and my son started the garden, raking cutting back the asparagus.

Honestly I dont like it to wait to long as things get harder to work on. Im transferring all my plants to the greenhouse this weekend and should be planting in a month or so. I would have done it this past weekend but its super cloudy this week so Ill wait a few days

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Daffodills have bloomed and are withering, Magnolias have blossomed out and so have the Bradford Pears and fruit trees. other trees are leafing out and now this week it's going to dip into the 20's. Temps have been all over the board this winter from 0-80. I can't imagine what this is going to do to agriculture if this keeps up. I can't keep up with the dead trees on my property from previous stress and disease.

Your way ahead.. Only forsythia is starting to bloom here.. got some small signs of life.. like buds really swelling, but this is it.. couple weeks and we'll see some real change

 

[arnermd]

Had a string of really nice burns lately.... plot below.

Key damper has been full open the entire time
Generally air is set to 100% till cat >1000 then I cut it back to 40-45% for cruise. Minimal adjustments once up to temp.

What changed?
Wood: I finally got through my junk wood (stuff that came from neighbor and was sitting on ground for 3-4 years) It is 2 years dry but definitely a bit light. So now I am into some fresher stuff, heavier and bigger splits (some barely go through the griddle opening)

Also coming up on 1 month on the metal cat, maybe it is calming down a bit?

Ready for winter now.... bring it on.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Had a string of really nice burns lately.... plot below.

Key damper has been full open the entire time
Generally air is set to 100% till cat >1000 then I cut it back to 40-45% for cruise. Minimal adjustments once up to temp.

What changed?
Wood: I finally got through my junk wood (stuff that came from neighbor and was sitting on ground for 3-4 years) It is 2 years dry but definitely a bit light. So now I am into some fresher stuff, heavier and bigger splits (some barely go through the griddle opening)

Also coming up on 1 month on the metal cat, maybe it is calming down a bit?

Ready for winter now.... bring it on.

View attachment 310975

Totally awesome... Wood has a lot to do with the burn.. I fined that the really large splits like 5x5 kinda stuff offgass a little slower and dont dump all at once. Having alot of small in sometimes wreaks Havoc. The temperatures have been warmer lately so Iv been trying to slow the burn down.. not letting as much catch and using large splits.. lastnighs cruise was 925 on the cat.. and believe it or not.. the glass was extremely clean .. the box wasn't filled neither

 

[Stevepupnorth]

30” snow on the ground here in north central Wisconsin. I went to the dark side and put a catalyst in my intrepid flexburn and like it a lot. Got it from condar. Yeah, there’s some learning involved but no tragedies yet. Burning red oak that was harvested three years ago, cut two years ago, and split last spring, measuring mid to upper teens for moisture content. I’m definitely burning less wood and making it overnigh a bit easier now. It’s been up around 1700 a time or two but the catalyst looked fine last time I cleaned things. So, very low-drama here. I guess once in a while things work as expected.

 

[GrumpyDad]

30” snow on the ground here in north central Wisconsin. I went to the dark side and put a catalyst in my intrepid flexburn and like it a lot. Got it from condar. Yeah, there’s some learning involved but no tragedies yet. Burning red oak that was harvested three years ago, cut two years ago, and split last spring, measuring mid to upper teens for moisture content. I’m definitely burning less wood and making it overnigh a bit easier now. It’s been up around 1700 a time or two but the catalyst looked fine last time I cleaned things. So, very low-drama here. I guess once in a while things work as expected. View attachment 311026

I get spikes too and I stopped caring or looking honestly. I took the cat out to save it for shoulder season as I never burn below 450 or 475. Aside from the last gasps of a full load but by then I'm on coals , my glass is clean with white flakes on it, and my room is toasty. Reload, refire, kick over to secondary when the time is right. Boom.
Of course I say that and just a few days ago I left a reload take off on high for over and hour and I overheated my stove pipe a bit. I overheat my stove pipe more than the cat area.
Stove looks great there btw. Love the color.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

30” snow on the ground here in north central Wisconsin. I went to the dark side and put a catalyst in my intrepid flexburn and like it a lot. Got it from condar. Yeah, there’s some learning involved but no tragedies yet. Burning red oak that was harvested three years ago, cut two years ago, and split last spring, measuring mid to upper teens for moisture content. I’m definitely burning less wood and making it overnigh a bit easier now. It’s been up around 1700 a time or two but the catalyst looked fine last time I cleaned things. So, very low-drama here. I guess once in a while things work as expected. View attachment 311026

Stove looking good, I hsve a similar drystack mine is a little more gray in it. The catalyst is a good 5hing to have installed, keeping the stack cleaner, the stove will burn longer and have a more even heat distribution.. Good job putting it in, you'll certainly see the difference also when it warms.up outside and you dont need as much heat

 

[NewGuy132]

30” snow on the ground here in north central Wisconsin. I went to the dark side and put a catalyst in my intrepid flexburn and like it a lot. Got it from condar. Yeah, there’s some learning involved but no tragedies yet. Burning red oak that was harvested three years ago, cut two years ago, and split last spring, measuring mid to upper teens for moisture content. I’m definitely burning less wood and making it overnigh a bit easier now. It’s been up around 1700 a time or two but the catalyst looked fine last time I cleaned things. So, very low-drama here. I guess once in a while things work as expected. View attachment 311026

Do you have a link to the CAT that you bought? I'm thinking that its time to replace mine on my Intrepid.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Do you have a link to the CAT that you bought? I'm thinking that its time to replace mine on my Intrepid.

You can just go on amazon.. they have most of the vc catalyst it will be a midway hearth brand.. in the description.. will be the models of the stove

 

[Stevepupnorth]

From the condar website I ordered what they listed for the intrepid flexburn and it wasn’t right so they hooked me up with a CC-802 used in the dauntless. The correct dimensions are around 6x2x1. I shoved a little rope gasket material around it to fill the minor gap and everything works. Condar was super to work with.

 

[NewGuy132]

From the condar website I ordered what they listed for the intrepid flexburn and it wasn’t right so they hooked me up with a CC-802 used in the dauntless. The correct dimensions are around 6x2x1. I shoved a little rope gasket material around it to fill the minor gap and everything works. Condar was super yo work with.

Excellent. I'll measure mine when I get a chance and see what is closest. Seems like the ones specifically for the Intrepid Flexburn are hard to come by.

 

[Eman85]

Excellent. I'll measure mine when I get a chance and see what is closest. Seems like the ones specifically for the Intrepid Flexburn are hard to come by.

Applied Ceramics makes the ceramic part of the cat for some and the whole cat for VC and Midwest Hearth. MW Hearth is great to deal with and fast shipping, they also sell on Amazon.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I did some burning without the cat in today.. this is what it looked like .. clean...

 

[GrumpyDad]

I'm an idiot.
Cold start , hour or so later I packed it fairly full with smalls and mediums. Had it cranking nicely then I smelled the smell.
Walked into the stove room and noticed it was at 600 so I turned it down and walked away. 600. Wow it's kinda hard for me to get there without letting it go a long time but I'm into some dryer stuff now so.
About twenty minutes later I went to check on the stove. Wow. Big flames. Kick over to secondary and lower the air down to three from lowest.
Another twenty minutes later wow. We are at 650 now. Flames galore . Lower air more. No effect.

Oh no my air flapper is stuck again,...where's the aluminum foil!

Honey I'm going to crawl behind stove you move the flapper to low.

Wtf it's closing all the way. What is going on?

650 and slowly climbing.

I left the front door slightly cracked from cold start.

Idiot.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Saturday mornings burn... with no cat.. I took the cat out the beginning of the week knowing it would be fire here and there with no overnight burns.. heres what it looked like.. the white things are clouds

 

[arnermd]

I'm an idiot.
Cold start , hour or so later I packed it fairly full with smalls and mediums. Had it cranking nicely then I smelled the smell.
Walked into the stove room and noticed it was at 600 so I turned it down and walked away. 600. Wow it's kinda hard for me to get there without letting it go a long time but I'm into some dryer stuff now so.
About twenty minutes later I went to check on the stove. Wow. Big flames. Kick over to secondary and lower the air down to three from lowest.
Another twenty minutes later wow. We are at 650 now. Flames galore . Lower air more. No effect.

Oh no my air flapper is stuck again,...where's the aluminum foil!

Honey I'm going to crawl behind stove you move the flapper to low.

Wtf it's closing all the way. What is going on?

650 and slowly climbing.

I left the front door slightly cracked from cold start.

Idiot.

It happens.... I have done it more than once. Welcome to the club.
This is where a second alarm on the flue gas temp is helpful.

 

[arnermd]

Saturday mornings burn... with no cat.. I took the cat out the beginning of the week knowing it would be fire here and there with no overnight burns.. heres what it looked like.. the white things are clouds

What are you seeing for secondary temps?

 

[Woodsplitter67]

What are you seeing for secondary temps?

That is a good question I don't remember looking at it I set the air and just went outside to see what was coming out of the stack... The next time I do this which will probably be mid week I'll post some pictures of what my cat temperature is

 

[GrumpyDad]

Approx 1400

 

[Eman85]

Saturday mornings burn... with no cat.. I took the cat out the beginning of the week knowing it would be fire here and there with no overnight burns.. heres what it looked like.. the white things are clouds

View attachment 311219 View attachment 311220 View attachment 311221

When you burnt without the cat in did you flip the bypass damper?
So much for warm temps here I've been burning solid for almost a week. I have had white smoke from the chimney even with the cat at 1400 after hot reloads and very dry small splits, kind of surprised me. smoke kept up for an hour or so.
The weather has seen large swings in temps. From Christmas to the end of February the swing was 0-80 degrees! Last night was high teens to 20 and we'll be back to 70's this week.