2024/25 VC performance discussion thread

[arnermd]

1.1" wc is strong draft, especially if that was measured with the key damper closed.

The stove will need to be in top condition with the door and ash pan gaskets sealing tightly. Check to confirm the primary air flapper is closing completely and not sticking.

I agree 1.1 iwc is extremely strong.... fortunately mine is only 0.11 iwc which I would consider to be typical (decimal places matter, lol #DPM)

Key damper was full open, air at 100% although I checked it with air full closed and it did not change, probably does not change much as the secondary flow path is wide open even with the flapper full closed.

You mentioned the air flapper, I did some work on it a few weeks back to make it seal better. But... if the flapper were leaking I would expect a robust primary burn, lots of yellow flames, that's not what I saw. The primary burn was nothing, no flames no glow and STT was very low, just a smokey, smoldering mess. To me that indicates no air leaks on the primary side anyway....

Installed a new metal cat today.... first burn was awesome, full load. Cat went to 1200 - 1250 peak with 50% air and hung in there for hours. Will post a plot tomorrow.

 

[weee123]

So you would keep it at 50% air instead of cutting it back further? Im used to using tube stoves where it runs most of the time around 10% open

 

[Woodsplitter67]

That looks familiar.....

So I did something I never do. I was lazy and loaded the box wrong. My son didn't bring in any overnight splits. I didn't feel like going out back. So I loaded with all smalls and some mediums, on a good bed of coals. By the time I got the box loaded alot of wood had caught fire. I closed the bypass and turned the air all the way back and everything seemed ok. The cat settled in around 1350 and the STT was hanging in at 450.. In an hour it all off gassed at once and the cat actually went to 1730.. A new hearth record I believe. The STT never went above 570 and the flue coller never got above 700. It peaked at 1730 sat there for a bit then slowly went back down the the 1300s

Total rookie mistake..

 

[dmccoole]

So I did something I never do. I was lazy and loaded the box wrong. My son didn't bring in any overnight splits. I didn't feel like going out back. So I loaded with all smalls and some mediums, on a good bed of coals. By the time I got the box loaded alot of wood had caught fire. I closed the bypass and turned the air all the way back and everything seemed ok. The cat settled in around 1350 and the STT was hanging in at 450.. In an hour it all off gassed at once and the cat actually went to 1730.. A new hearth record I believe. The STT never went above 570 and the flue coller never got above 700. It peaked at 1730 sat there for a bit then slowly went back down the the 1300s

Total rookie mistake..

What temp did you first notice it at and did you do anything to try to stop/slow it? That all at once off gassing seems to cause many a panics.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

What temp did you first notice it at and did you do anything to try to stop/slow it? That all at once off gassing seems to cause many a panics.

I dont do anything I just monitor the stove a little more. If the catalyst gets to 1600 or higher and the STT is 650 or below and the stovepipe is is a good range I just leave it alone.

If the catalyst melts, warps, or goes bad.. so be it

 

[Eman85]

I don't have any "overnight splits". Overall I split small, easier to handle and dry and my wife likes loading the stove with smaller pieces. I'm into a section of my wood pile that is all limbs so they are small rounds, not split, of oak. If I cut it I burn it so I don't waste wood.

 

[arnermd]

Couple plots from my overnight burns this week. Generally these are larger splits, red oak, full loads, air set to 40-50%. This is with a new metal cat installed.

Per usual as winter settles in I have begun rasing my cat alarms, it was 1450, now its at 1550. It will end up at 1650 by mid Jan I expect.

This one peaked at 1721F, not sure why... I did not do anything to it, I was sleeping.

This one peaked at 1550F and hung up there for a while.

 

[Eman85]

I just had 2 burns where the cat decided it was time to get very hot. Mid 1500's last night and today we rang the bell at 1650. When mine gets hot it makes a whooshing sound in the stove, not pleasant. I know I'm not the only one to stare at the meter and try to wish it to stop climbing and start dropping. Great feeling when it stalls and starts dropping that first degree.

 

[arnermd]

I just had 2 burns where the cat decided it was time to get very hot. Mid 1500's last night and today we rang the bell at 1650. When mine gets hot it makes a whooshing sound in the stove, not pleasant. I know I'm not the only one to stare at the meter and try to wish it to stop climbing and start dropping. Great feeling when it stalls and starts dropping that first degree.

I know that sound well. One degree on mine does not seem to matter, it will turn back up again several times before finally running out of gas....

 

[skb31]

It’s very cold here this weekend. We got down into the low single digits and with the wind it’s a noticeable effect on the draft but stove is running well. I am selective about my splits and plan reloads like woodsplitter mentioned above. Ever since I closely followed the instructions on hot reloads I am able to keep the STT temps reasonable.

Last season I had a hard time understanding how people ran it based off the cat temps but this season I get it. Good cat temps keeps STT and flue temps under control for me.

 

[Megunticook]

When mine gets hot it makes a whooshing sound in the stove, not pleasant. I know I'm not the only one to stare at the meter and try to wish it to stop climbing and start dropping. Great feeling when it stalls and starts dropping that first degree.

After my dawn reload this morning (5 degrees here in Maine), I noticed that sound but it was very quiet and the cat was at 1150. Guessing it was much louder in your case. Kind of like a blowtorch?

This year I'm experimenting with leaving the ash tray in my Encore full in order to reduce the amount of air coming in from under the grate (was having issues damping the fire down as much as I wanted to even with the primary air fully closed). Had a great overnight burn last night with just 2 big hardwood splits, plenty of coals in the morning to rekindle today's fire.

Guests arrived yesterday "traumatized" from sleeping in a home two nights ago where the furnace malfunctioned on a 4 degree night. Needless to say they were delighted with our stove!

 

[Eman85]

Yes. blowtorch type sound in the stove is the sound. Funny how one day it just decides to go crazy and then it's fine again. Been cold stove running continuous with the same mix of wood. Have a large section of my pile that is small rounds from branches too small to split and very dry oak. Mixing it in with the other splits which are mixed locust oak and some walnut. Never have a problem getting 12+ hour burns and a nice hot glow when I open the air in the morning. Have had the cat drop low into the 3-400's during a long burn and have seen smoke from the chimney with the cat in the 800's.

 

[AsylumResident]

Couple plots from my overnight burns this week. Generally these are larger splits, red oak, full loads, air set to 40-50%. This is with a new metal cat installed.

Per usual as winter settles in I have begun rasing my cat alarms, it was 1450, now its at 1550. It will end up at 1650 by mid Jan I expect.

This one peaked at 1721F, not sure why... I did not do anything to it, I was sleeping.
View attachment 333835

This one peaked at 1550F and hung up there for a while.
View attachment 333836

I have definitely been less stressed about CAT temps this year. So far I have been running smaller loads which keeps it more manageable but with obvious trade offs. The temps that get me twitchy are the flue temps. If I have my cat engaged and my flue gets over 800, my stress levels rise in direct correlation. When my CAT is cruising 1,000-1,200, my flue is usually around 600-650. Once my flue hits 900 I start to smell it. I don't like that.

 

[arnermd]

Merry Christmas to all you fine folks. I hope your glass is clean, your burns are smokeless and your cats are>1000 but <1500....

 

[E_Z_Wind]

Hey all!! I have an original VC Montpelier. Burning 95% red maple so far this year. Started off the season with 3.5 cords of the maple seasoned since 5/23 and 2 cords of red oak and a little cherry seasoned since 3/22. Figured I’d burn maybe 1 cord or oak Oct-Dec, 2 cords oak Jan - Feb and another 1
cord maple Mar - Apr with some maple left for next year (also have about 7.5 cords of oak/black birch/hickory/locust that was css 5/24). Anyway, the red maple is better than I expected. It leaves some clunkers, probably about 2 gallons worth from about a cord that I’ve burnt, but hardly no ash. Other than that, I can maintain avg stt around 400 loading 3-4 splits every 5-6 hrs. May just burn all the maple and leave the oak alone to next year.

Also, I replaced the noisy blower with an AirBlaze and I recommend those blowers- 1/3 price oem replacement and way quieter/stronger/more energy efficient. Rated for I think it is 60000 hrs.

 

[E_Z_Wind]

Hey all!! I have an original VC Montpelier. Burning 95% red maple so far this year. Started off the season with 3.5 cords of the maple seasoned since 5/23 and 2 cords of red oak and a little cherry seasoned since 3/22. Figured I’d burn maybe 1 cord or oak Oct-Dec, 2 cords oak Jan - Feb and another 1
cord maple Mar - Apr with some maple left for next year (also have about 7.5 cords of oak/black birch/hickory/locust that was css 5/24). Anyway, the red maple is better than I expected. It leaves some clunkers, probably about 2 gallons worth from about a cord that I’ve burnt, but hardly no ash. Other than that, I can maintain avg stt around 400 loading 3-4 splits every 5-6 hrs. May just burn all the maple and leave the oak alone to next year.

Also, I replaced the noisy blower with an AirBlaze and I recommend those blowers- 1/3 price oem replacement and way quieter/stronger/more energy efficient. Rated for I think it is 60000 hrs.

Oh yea I have all new refractory panels and insulation on the way, $650- can’t wait bc the originals are way past prime. Only maintenance I’ve done other than gaskets, one baffle board and the blower. Probably gonna burn better…

 

[Eman85]

Back to burning, had the stove shut down with warmer temps just let the heat pump do it's thing.
Same mix of wood from the same pile and now I've had 3 loads where the cat went in the 1600's after a hot reload. Times where it's unnerving, and then this morning it's well behaved so far after the hot reload. Been running on 2 loads a day if I fill the box, if I don't fill it completely in the AM I add some in late afternoon to get me through until my overnight load at about 9-10 PM.

My blowtorch sound doesn't happen until around 1500.

 

[Eman85]

So much for a well behaved cat, went out and when I got back cat was high 1400's. Not a real problem but took quite some time before it went from cruising in the 1,000's to go that . One thing was when I pulled in I noticed smoke from the chimney. saw this the other day when the cat was in the 1500's. I have a magnetic thermometer on the flue outlet adapter and it never gets past 400. It's accurate as I've put it next to my STT one and checked with my IF gun.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Stoves been running alot.. 24/7 for I cant remember now and probably for the next 10-12 days as its going to be cold. Stove performance has been off the charts, running on low all day and night.. getting 12 to 14 hour burns regularly. Running the stove hot at 5am to burn off the glass and to get the house back up to temp

Burning all oak with the occasional cherry for the smell when I get outside

 

[JohnDaileyNH]

This is the best time of year for this stove. It just cruises for 10 hours at a time. House is 68. Had like 12 days in a row for Christmas and New Years when I was home

 

[weee123]

Stoves been running alot.. 24/7 for I cant remember now and probably for the next 10-12 days as its going to be cold. Stove performance has been off the charts, running on low all day and night.. getting 12 to 14 hour burns regularly. Running the stove hot at 5am to burn off the glass and to get the house back up to temp

Burning all oak with the occasional cherry for the smell when I get outside

Ready for monday and upcoming Saturday?

 

[Eman85]

I'm home every day and stove has been running continuously, 2 12 hour loads a day has worked well. Hot reloads every time and filling the box.
Best results has been open air completely and let the box and cat get hot, usually in the 8-900's before opening the bypass. Load the box, give it a minute and close the bypass. Usually cat will drop a little then rise nicely, cut air to 1/2 about 950 and let it go until mid 100's and then close air. This seems to keep the max temps in the 13-1400's instead of the OMG 1600 range.

 

[GrumpyDad]

Going on year 3 with the Dauntless. All of my experience prior has been on old stoves, home made stoves, fire places and fire pits.
I can't say that other modern stoves are easier or harder to operate than the Dauntless, but I will say that I can't figure out why, at times, the stove performs differently from one day to another.

My stove sits in a corner, about 16" from a wood wall to the right air control side, and 16" from the back wall. Sometimes that wall gets so warm you can keep your hand on it but it's darn hot, and you can stand in front of the stove glass no problem. Other times, standing in front of the stove glass will burn your legs, while the wall is barely warm to the touch.

I have a ceiling fan about 10' away and 12' up that operates on medium all winter.
The stove is putting out heat in the 670 sq ft room that it is in with open ceilings. The challenge is getting the heat into the adjacent areas with an opening of 4' x 8'. Ive tried fan pointed into the stove room, pointing out, completely off. It's always the same. The adjacent room is 10 degrees colder and the rooms after that even colder without supplemental heat.

My clean out this year resulted in me pondering if Im actually getting the 45 degree elbow corners. Im probably going to take apart all of my stove pipe this summer just to inspect it carefully and determine if my cleaning techniques are working. I got about 3 cups of crud from cleaning. (again I dont burn like you all do) I really dislike the design of the cat chamber and getting a thin flexible hose in there to clean that out. I wonder how that affects performance throughout the year as that area gets filled in.

My start up now is a medium split on the base, 1/4 super cedar, a few pieces of sharded off junk, then I pack the stove 3/4 the way with medium/small splits and just let it rip wide open on high, damper open. Maybe 20 minutes in I might back off the air a bit, pack in more wood, let that catch then close the damper regardless of what the cat temps are. Maybe an hour later I'll back the air off a notch or two, and let that cruise for a few hours, then I'll pack it tight w/ wood and let that load cruise for however long it takes until the next reload. This method has been working very well for me. Very little babysitting. I really dont try to operate it low anymore, nor do I let the STT get into the red.

Worth noting, I try to reload the stove with mostly larger pieces of mediums tightly packed. It seems to operate better and longer this way.

I enjoy sitting near the stove and looking outside as my view is a fairly good wooded mountain valley. Not as great as some of my neighbors who have water outside their windows but hey, it's what I have. I honestly built this place around the stove, however in hindsight I would have made the stove area a bit wider so that I could fit more chairs around the stove. The stove room is also the main entrance. It's great to come in from 12" of snow, to that warmth and to see the big bed of embers and slow wicking flames. For awhile there I was pretty certain I was going to switch to a jotul that would fit in this space, now I think I'm just going to stick with the Dauntless.
My damper door gets stuck sometimes, I have to wiggle the door back and forth. Not sure why. But aside from that everything seems to be operating properly. I havent adjusted any of the doors, ash pan etc since purchase and dollar bill testing.

 

[Eman85]

Been cold and staying cold so stove has stayed hot. I have been loading at around 9-10 PM every night for the overnight burn. Cat will rise to 900 t0 1000 and I shut the air 1/2 and then it will cruise there and when it starts rising over 1150 I'll close the air. The cat will drop a little then rise and usually at 1200 when I go to bed. Temps in the stove area rooms will drop to low 60's overnight and into the AM, outdoors low 20's. Mixed wood hit a section of locust mixed with oak and a little walnut. Past 2 days I've let the coals really burn down with the air wide open in the AM and it's 14-15 hours before I reload. When I wake and look at the stove the cat is low, usually in the 400 range. When I open the air there is a lot of glowing wood still in the stove, they are just coals but you can see the shape of the splits. The cat will go into the 1000 range as the coals burn down.
It would be real nice if @arnermd would come up with the stepper motor to open the air control for the overnight burn. It seems that the ideal would be to keep the cat and the box hotter giving up a couple of hours total burn.

 

[56knoise]

It would be real nice if @arnermd would come up with the stepper motor to open the air control for the overnight burn. It seems that the ideal would be to keep the cat and the box hotter giving up a couple of hours total burn.

I've been meaning to report back here with my little project and this seems like a good time. I owe you guys big for helping me completely rebuild this stove several years ago. It was completely disassembled down to the smallest part and completely rebuilt by my hand.

So, I've been using an ESP32 and a few other parts to constantly monitor and control my stove.

The thermocouples in the flue, catalytic converter and griddle monitor everything and keep the temperature within safe limits. The potentiometer adjusts the desired cat temp (900 to 1500 degrees).

There's a soft overheat limit where the butterfly valve on the air intake will shut and a hard overheat where a very loud peizo alarm starts going off. I can monitor the temperatures and see graphs on my phone and it will (soon) send me texts if it overheats or if I need to add wood (The variable for "FEED ME SEYMOUR" is triggered when catalytic temp drops below 800). The numbers on the displays will also start to blink as it approaches the overheat limits.

The adapter for the butterfly valve is 3d printed out of ASA and uses a servo for positioning. The valve has a silicon seal on the inside and seals very well. I also had to weld together an adapter to go from the square air intake to the round butterfly valve housing which turned into me drilling a hole in the wall and turning it into an outside air intake.

I also have it hooked up to a backup battery in case the power goes out. I usually leave the air flow on the stove at the half way mark just so if something goes terribly wrong it doesn't get full airflow but it has now been 3 years with no maintenance and it has worked flawlessly after some PID loop tuning and firmware fixes.

There's plenty of room for improvements and size reduction but I haven't seen a need to rebuild the thing just yet. This is version 2, version 1 was purely monitoring. The big red button silences the piezo alarm for 30 seconds, the led with a piece of paper taped over it is lit when it has an active internet connection and the switch to the right is a hard override and completely shuts down the air supply. The center is just a potentiometer for setting the target cat temperature with a silly oversized knob.