2023/24 VC owners thread general discussion

[Woodsplitter67]

Its snowing out and Im sitting in my living room in shorts and a t-shirt.. watching playoff football.. feeling good

 

[Eman85]

Snowing a lot here! I've been out in it and it's sloppy. Stove is rockin today just put the second load in, didn't fill it I'll make my last reload at 10 again.

 

[arnermd]

Its snowing out and Im sitting in my living room in shorts and a t-shirt.. watching playoff football.. feeling good

Life's simple pleasures.... enjoy. As a Giants fan I took great pleasure in watching Dallas get spanked yesterday.

No snow here yet.... but winter is coming.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Life's simple pleasures.... enjoy. As a Giants fan I took great pleasure in watching Dallas get spanked yesterday.

No snow here yet.... but winter is coming.

wasn't that awesome.. both my cousins are Dallas fans.. another year of 1 and done.. both went to work with their heads hung low

 

[arnermd]

As a Giants fan I have had my head hung low most of the year. My condolences to your cousins....

 

[JohnDaileyNH]

This will be one of the tougher weeks we have had in a while..

Ill be cleaning the stove later today and Ill be switching back to the steel cat.. Iv pretty much been burning overnight and thats it.. letting the stove go out.. It loods to be 24/7 for the next 10/12 days

Cold here all week. Stoves working hard. Going to need some furnace help this week at night probably. Sucks and I hate it but has to happen. Only used about 1/8th of a tank this winter so I can't complain. Come along way from a tank every 5 weeks

 

[JohnDaileyNH]

As a Giants fan I have had my head hung low most of the year. My condolences to your cousins....

Try being a Jets fan...

 

[arnermd]

Cold here all week. Stoves working hard. Going to need some furnace help this week at night probably. Sucks and I hate it but has to happen. Only used about 1/8th of a tank this winter so I can't complain. Come along way from a tank every 5 weeks

You too need a bigger stove..... I got one for you, shipping cost will be less for you fellow east coaster.

Jets: OMG thats rough..... We all have our cross to bear. Mine is a VC defiant, but I'll take that over being a Jets fan in the heart of Patriots country....

 

[Woodsplitter67]

woke up this morning.. temperature outside is 13 with a windchill of like 9.. at the end of my 10.5 hour burn the house this morning was 65 inside.. stove temperature was 331.. dripped some medium splits on the coals and got it cruising again.. cats settled in at 1033

 

[Eman85]

13? I'm still waiting for 13 this morning! Loaded last night at 10PM which has become my routine, still enjoying the heat from that load. Opened the air to 1/2 when I got up and now have it wide open to burn down the coals further, Cat is still at 600.

 

[Rusty18]

Got up in the 20’s here today. Was 8F this morning, my heat pump lost the battle and had 5k worth of heat strips backing it up. Still not bad though. The encore has been working its way through a mix of maple and pine this evening. Had two big uglies out of a fork that got tossed on hot coals at 500 stt and 1000 cat. The second one is in now and should run the stove into morning.

 

[JohnDaileyNH]

You too need a bigger stove..... I got one for you, shipping cost will be less for you fellow east coaster.

Jets: OMG thats rough..... We all have our cross to bear. Mine is a VC defiant, but I'll take that over being a Jets fan in the heart of Patriots country....

I was actually looking at a defiant before I got the Encore. 95% of the time the Encore does a fantastic job. That one week a year we get a cold snap it needs a little help. I think the Defiant would heat me out.

I would take back puffs and out of control cat temps for a Jets Super Bowl in a heatbeat

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I was actually looking at a defiant before I got the Encore. 95% of the time the Encore does a fantastic job. That one week a year we get a cold snap it needs a little help. I think the Defiant would heat me out.

I would take back puffs and out of control cat temps for a Jets Super Bowl in a heatbeat

I actually had money down on an defiant. The sales person said that that was the one for me. It was in the beginning of my stove search. After researching I was convinced that it would be to big.. and I was correct.. I couldn't imagine having that in my house and trying to heat in shoulder season. even burning overnight.. my house would be to hot.. all the time

 

[JohnDaileyNH]

Pretty sure my Auber probe died this morning. Working fine no issues, took the dog out. No smoke from my cap. Came back in cat reads 300 and it was 1100 3 minutes before. Opened bypass and it jumped around then started dropping from 900. Stirred the wood everything looked good closed the bypass. Cat immediately back up to 1100 then plummeted to -275, then went EEEE and that's it. Reconnected it all pulled the plug and still EEEE. RIP K-Probe

 

[Rusty18]

Hopefully you have a spare on the shelf!

 

[Rusty18]

Not sure method to call this but I think I’ve found a winner for my setup. Those 4&1/2 “splits” got everything up to temp and cat to 1000 in about 20 mins. The paper towel was from wiping the glass and was about 5 mins after hitting the wood with a torch…

 

[JohnDaileyNH]

Hopefully you have a spare on the shelf!

Nope. Need to order a couple of them. Supposed to get a warm day next week I can swap it out

 

[GrumpyDad]

Not sure method to call this but I think I’ve found a winner for my setup. Those 4&1/2 “splits” got everything up to temp and cat to 1000 in about 20 mins. The paper towel was from wiping the glass and was about 5 mins after hitting the wood with a torch…
View attachment 323196

are you saying this is your startup method?

I cant get my cat up to temp that fast.

 

[Rusty18]

are you saying this is your startup method?

I cant get my cat up to temp that fast.

Yep, I’ve started it that way the last couple times. 20 mins is by far the quickest it has went (those were all “preheated” splits of pine from last nights burn so they went up like they were soaked in gasoline. And to be honest 20 mins from cold to an active cat is probably too quick. But that stagger with plenty of open area is my variant on some of what I have read about on here. Small splits with plenty of surface air and room for air flow but close enough to burn and it falls in on itself as it coals.

 

[GrumpyDad]

Yep, I’ve started it that way the last couple times. 20 mins is by far the quickest it has went (those were all “preheated” splits of pine from last nights burn so they went up like they were soaked in gasoline. And to be honest 20 mins from cold to an active cat is probably too quick. But that stagger with plenty of open area is my variant on some of what I have read about on here. Small splits with plenty of surface air and room for air flow but close enough to burn and it falls in on itself as it coals.

Well I must say that is quite impressive. I havent really timed it to be honest. But it takes me much longer than that. I would assume it's probably taking me hours from a completely cold stove to the cat probe showing the cat is singing. I will say that thankfully I've never exceeded the recommended operating temps of the cat. Once I was riding the edge for a period of time but honestly I had such a giant bed of coals I could barely stand in front of the stove without burning my legs and I was going through a pile of pieces that I would normally deem as too small for longer sustain heat.

 

[Kevin Weis]

Usually takes me about 30 minutes from cold to get the cat to operating temp. Does vary though depending on the species of wood.

 

[GrumpyDad]

Usually takes me about 30 minutes from cold to get the cat to operating temp. Does vary though depending on the species of wood.

Now I have to test during my next cold restart. Probably going to be awhile!

 

[sargeott]

So I did my 42 day stove and chimney inspection today. The ice on the roof thawed and temps got up to 35f outside.
Chimney system looks fine see photos. I'm not even going to sweep it.

The cap however..... good grief. All gummed up with tar and creosote. This is after 42 days of solid burning and the catalyst engaged all the time. I scrubbed the heck out of it with acid last time and again today.

 

[Rusty18]

You call it creosote and tar…just looks like oil/electric/gas company tears to me
Not bad for 42 days straight, not bad at all.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

So I did my 42 day stove and chimney inspection today. The ice on the roof thawed and temps got up to 35f outside.
Chimney system looks fine see photos. I'm not even going to sweep it. View attachment 323366View attachment 323365
The cap however..... good grief. All gummed up with tar and creosote. This is after 42 days of solid burning and the catalyst engaged all the time. I scrubbed the heck out of it with acid last time and again today.
View attachment 323363View attachment 323364

Im not being a dick by any means.. and im not starting anything.. Have you checked the MC of your wood lately. I say this because that cap looks like it has had higher MC wood run through it.. Im not suggesting extremely bad wood but maybe you have some wood here and there thats gotten a little wet.. leaking tarp or something

Looking at bottom up.. the bottom is always the best looking as thats the hotter area.. the top tells the story of the moisture in the wood cooling.