I have a VC Vigilant 1977 stove and love it. I've been burning going on four winters now and have learned much the past year after discovering this website.
I would like to hear from all of you as to your techniques for lighting, reloading, ash depth, temp control, air adjustments, vertical vs horizontal burn, E/W or N/S, and any hints or tweaks you have discovered for the perfect burns.
My set up: Large house (almost 4000 sq feet). Stove in very large room (about 25 x 60) with full cathedral ceiling. Open lofts upstairs on both sides of the room.
Flue goes straight up about 15 feet through roof, totals about 25 feet to cap. Just had the system professionally cleaned last week. This is the first year I feel I've got top notch wood. Hickory at about 11% MC, and water oak at 18%) I am now using a top down start with two or three splits of hickory on the bottom, topped with several small oak splits, topped with a handful pencil size cedar sticks for kindling and 6-8 newspaper knots. One match, and leaving the doors cracked about an inch will give me a roaring fire in a few minutes. Once the smaller stuff is burned down to good coals and the bottom hickory is well burned and hot I add a few more splits of hickory and oak and keep it on vertical burn with air open, door closed, until it has been cruising for a while and the stove top reaches at least 550. Sometimes it gets hotter than that. When all the wood is roaring ablaze, I switch to horizontal burn, still with the air open all the way and watch for the stove top temp to settle in to about 500 or so. Then I close the thermostat flap down to about a quarter open, and the secondary peephole to about half. At bed time, I will completely fill the box from the top door, then switch to vertical burn for a while to get everything burning.
Then I switch back to horizontal, close the back flap to where it's just barely open and go to bed. If I happen to wake up in the middle of the night I may go in and add two or three splits.
When I get up in the morning Usually everything is burned down though this year, since I started letting the ash bed build up, I'm getting some really great coals in the morning. I can throw on a few of the smaller oak splits to build up a little heat so we can sit nearby with our morning tea and newspapers. If it's going to be cold all day, I will then add some larger splits and let it run in the low 400s during the day. We don't like a really hot house. If it's going to warm up during the day I let fire go out. I typically only burn if the overnight lows are going to be below 40. We've rarely turned on our two heat pumps in the past several years.
So... how am I doing? What should I change?
Tell me your stories.
Thanks!
Ken
I would like to hear from all of you as to your techniques for lighting, reloading, ash depth, temp control, air adjustments, vertical vs horizontal burn, E/W or N/S, and any hints or tweaks you have discovered for the perfect burns.
My set up: Large house (almost 4000 sq feet). Stove in very large room (about 25 x 60) with full cathedral ceiling. Open lofts upstairs on both sides of the room.
Flue goes straight up about 15 feet through roof, totals about 25 feet to cap. Just had the system professionally cleaned last week. This is the first year I feel I've got top notch wood. Hickory at about 11% MC, and water oak at 18%) I am now using a top down start with two or three splits of hickory on the bottom, topped with several small oak splits, topped with a handful pencil size cedar sticks for kindling and 6-8 newspaper knots. One match, and leaving the doors cracked about an inch will give me a roaring fire in a few minutes. Once the smaller stuff is burned down to good coals and the bottom hickory is well burned and hot I add a few more splits of hickory and oak and keep it on vertical burn with air open, door closed, until it has been cruising for a while and the stove top reaches at least 550. Sometimes it gets hotter than that. When all the wood is roaring ablaze, I switch to horizontal burn, still with the air open all the way and watch for the stove top temp to settle in to about 500 or so. Then I close the thermostat flap down to about a quarter open, and the secondary peephole to about half. At bed time, I will completely fill the box from the top door, then switch to vertical burn for a while to get everything burning.
Then I switch back to horizontal, close the back flap to where it's just barely open and go to bed. If I happen to wake up in the middle of the night I may go in and add two or three splits.
When I get up in the morning Usually everything is burned down though this year, since I started letting the ash bed build up, I'm getting some really great coals in the morning. I can throw on a few of the smaller oak splits to build up a little heat so we can sit nearby with our morning tea and newspapers. If it's going to be cold all day, I will then add some larger splits and let it run in the low 400s during the day. We don't like a really hot house. If it's going to warm up during the day I let fire go out. I typically only burn if the overnight lows are going to be below 40. We've rarely turned on our two heat pumps in the past several years.
So... how am I doing? What should I change?
Tell me your stories.
Thanks!
Ken