Encore 2550 rebuild... start to finish

[Reckless]

If anyone is rebuilding a VC and needs extra hardware I'll send you some for the price of a stamp!

Ill take some of those glass bolts Window gaskets are next for me.

 

[Defiant]

So instead I will but them from Amazon Supply a.k.a smallparts.com. I have to buy in lots of 100, but 100 screws are $6, with free 2 day shipping to prime members. I'm getting new glass screws and new 1/4 bolts for the sides and fireback. All in plain steel black oxide. If anyone is rebuilding a VC and needs extra hardware I'll send you some for the price of a stamp!

Sorry guys, another off shore fishing trip coming up, I'll take some screws. I have plenty of gasket I could send in return. I have about 300 ft of 5/16ths, 500 ft of 3/8ths and about 200 ft of 3/16ths that I use for glass.
Sorry for my absence the season (fishing) will end too soon.

 

[begreen]

You'll want to use a flat bottom tap instead of a taper tap for those screws.

 

[Reckless]

Sorry guys, another off shore fishing trip coming up, I'll take some screws. I have plenty of gasket I could send in return. I have about 300 ft of 5/16ths, 500 ft of 3/8ths and about 200 ft of 3/16ths that I use for glass.
Sorry for my absence the season (fishing) will end too soon.

Which gasket have you used most? 5/16 Im guessing?

 

[jharkin]

You'll want to use a flat bottom tap instead of a taper tap for those screws.

Doh! Excellent point BG. I was thinking only in terms of fitting taper tap's because those are all that my local hardware keeps in stock.


Defiant, Reckless I'll send a pm

 

[jharkin]

Took a break last night to catch up watching all the recorded back episodes of Top gear on the DVR. Kids decided to sleep.

Tonight I'm back at the stove. Spent time cleaning out the gasket channels on the doors. I hadn't intended to do the door gasket at first (only 2yr old) but its lifting in a few spots and Defiant was kind enough to trade me extra for some bolts so what the heck. In removing it I found that what I thought was a bolt stub in one hole was actually gasket glue - a couple of the window bolt holes are through drilled into the center gasket channel.

This work went fast. Unlike the inner side gasket channels that took hours, these door gaskets I had done before with just enough glue and it only took 5 min each to clean them up.



The door is marked up a bit at the front and I took off some paint around the edges cleaning it so decided it would be a good idea to give it a fresh coat of paint while the glass is out. A quick wipe down and coat of paint only took ~10 min. Much easier and less messy to brush it on.... and man this has got to be the fastest drying paint Ive ever seen.



Tomorrow the new hardware arrives to I'm hoping to get the glass reinstalled, gasket the doors and put them back on the stove before the long weekend. After that family will be arriving and I need to start building the kids swingset so this might be it till I get back from my work trip.

 

[Reckless]

Flue collar supposed to look like this or should I wire wheel more?

 

[jharkin]

Flue collar supposed to look like this or should I wire wheel more?

Can you back up the camera and take a picture showing the entire part? Hard to tell what Im looking at...

Sure I see a lot of rust scale there, but it shouldn't be a problem as long as its not a mating surface where it fits against another part or gasket.

 

[Reckless]

Can you back up the camera and take a picture showing the entire part? Hard to tell what Im looking at...

Sure I see a lot of rust scale there, but it shouldn't be a problem as long as its not a mating surface where it fits against another part or gasket.

It mates against nothing but dry side gasket. I also noticed a crack on the back of the stove where the flue collar attaches. I guess when I go to rebuild this I will be spending some cash

 

[jharkin]

It mates against nothing but dry side gasket. I also noticed a crack on the back of the stove where the flue collar attaches. I guess when I go to rebuild this I will be spending some cash

The cracked back casting is definitely a problem, sorry to hear that. If you can find a good welding shop that knows how to weld cast iron it might be fixable, but then your enamel needs work too. Might be easier to just replace it?

For the flue collar i'd try to grind that rust scale down as smooth as you can without digging into clean metal too much and then try it. The gasket probably will deform to the texture and seal ok.

What year is your stove? The nameplate on mine and the installers report the previous owners left says 1997. Seeing the rust on yours and some other big rebuilds Ive seen posted in the past mine look a lot better than average wear wise. The old owners must not have used it that much. Interesting thing is when we bought the place they told me they "burned 5 cords a year" but in this tiny house and considering how small their woodshed was I think they were confused and talking face cords.

 

[Reckless]

The cracked back casting is definitely a problem, sorry to hear that. If you can find a good welding shop that knows how to weld cast iron it might be fixable, but then your enamel needs work too. Might be easier to just replace it?

For the flue collar i'd try to grind that rust scale down as smooth as you can without digging into clean metal too much and then try it. The gasket probably will deform to the texture and seal ok.

What year is your stove? The nameplate on mine and the installers report the previous owners left says 1997. Seeing the rust on yours and some other big rebuilds Ive seen posted in the past mine look a lot better than average wear wise. The old owners must not have used it that much. Interesting thing is when we bought the place they told me they "burned 5 cords a year" but in this tiny house and considering how small their woodshed was I think they were confused and talking face cords.

Well the enamel is terrible because no chimney cap and no block off plate so once the piece of insulation he had stuffed in the fireplace flue got wet it dripped on the stove, and the crack I think has been that way. You think it will be ok for this season? The gasket and flue collar covers almost most all the crack .... I know I probably shouldn't

 

[jharkin]

You think it will be ok for this season? The gasket and flue collar covers almost most all the crack .... I know I probably shouldn't

To be honest I haven't dealt with cracks before so I dont know..... Maybe defiant can give us an opinion..

 

[jharkin]

So, things have been busy around here, The holiday long weekend started off great, I built the swingset for the kids, but then everything went downhill - the kids got sick, then I got sick, and its been a monsoon rain for 3 days

On top of that my order for new door hardware got messed up by amazon... twice... Now I have 200 10-24x1 screws and no 10-24x3/8 which is the size I most need. They are promising to overnight the right stuff to me tomorrow, so I'm still hoping to get the windows and doors gasketed and back on the stove before I get on the plane to China this weekend.

Maybe.

On a positive note, Defiant was very kind to send me some 3/8 gasket and I did make a little progress today, getting the side panels gasketed. I also did rip out and redo the damper gasket. Unfired gasket glue is a real pain to remove!

 

[begreen]

Sorry to hear the family got sick. Hope you all get better soon.

You can cut the screws down to size with a stripper/screw cutter like this tool.

http://www.amazon.com/Irwin-Industrial-Tools-2078309-Stripper/dp/B000JNNWQ2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1378146403&sr=8-2&keywords=wire strippers

 

[jharkin]

Not a bad idea, I have one of those... I've also used dremel cutoff wheels to cut screws before... I just though (silly me ) that for $5 i d just buy the right screws.. If I had known..........

 

[fortuna1]

Removed the old Fisher Grandpa, replaced the brick floor with slate, covered brick wall with American Clay, and installed the regasketed Encore last week. Thanks everyone for your help.

 

[ToltingColtAcres]

I also noticed a crack on the back of the stove where the flue collar attaches.

Interesting. I ran into a similar issue w/ my non-cat Encore earlier this summer, which prompted me to decide to ditch the stove and go w/ a Jotul F55 instead. See my thread at https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/defiant-encore-1450-non-cat-repair.110926

Near as I can tell, my refractory started to disintegrate -- especially on the left side of the stove (as you face the doors) which exposed the rear cast iron directly to combustion flame. Since it was covered by a heat-shield I never saw it getting excessively hot in that particular corner -- as far as I know the stove was never overfired, but I inherited it.

Now my 1450 sits in pieces and I may expend money at some point to rebuild it on my own time, but with the refractory replacement costing $300 and the rear casting likely costing $300, I think it'll be a while before I dump any significant cash into it.

Anyway, sorry for the thread hijack, was wondering if the source of your crack was likewise a disintegrating refractory.

 

[Reckless]

Interesting. I ran into a similar issue w/ my non-cat Encore earlier this summer, which prompted me to decide to ditch the stove and go w/ a Jotul F55 instead. See my thread at https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/defiant-encore-1450-non-cat-repair.110926

Near as I can tell, my refractory started to disintegrate -- especially on the left side of the stove (as you face the doors) which exposed the rear cast iron directly to combustion flame. Since it was covered by a heat-shield I never saw it getting excessively hot in that particular corner -- as far as I know the stove was never overfired, but I inherited it.

Now my 1450 sits in pieces and I may expend money at some point to rebuild it on my own time, but with the refractory replacement costing $300 and the rear casting likely costing $300, I think it'll be a while before I dump any significant cash into it.

Anyway, sorry for the thread hijack, was wondering if the source of your crack was likewise a disintegrating refractory.

I don't think so, but cant be certain either. My refractory does need to be replaced but it is still in useable shape. I think the cracks are from the previous owner over firing the stove personally.

 

[fortuna1]

When I replaced the catalyst, I noticed one of the refractory side walls where it sits was a bit unstable. I don't think it's going to affect the stove function because of where it is, but I'll keep an eye on it. I was surprised the front of the refractory was held in by what seemed like drywall screws (!). Anyway, I'm excited to fire it up in a month or so.

I'm new to this stove and never burned with a catalyst. Do you find it functions better with smaller splits? Or larger logs/pieces?

Also, when I open the ash door, it doesn't open how I would expect. Kind of flops down and out, but when I close it after lifting it and adjusting, it's solid against the gasket and tight. Normal?

 

[Reckless]

When I replaced the catalyst, I noticed one of the refractory side walls where it sits was a bit unstable. I don't think it's going to affect the stove function because of where it is, but I'll keep an eye on it. I was surprised the front of the refractory was held in by what seemed like drywall screws (!). Anyway, I'm excited to fire it up in a month or so.

I'm new to this stove and never burned with a catalyst. Do you find it functions better with smaller splits? Or larger logs/pieces?

Also, when I open the ash door, it doesn't open how I would expect. Kind of flops down and out, but when I close it after lifting it and adjusting, it's solid against the gasket and tight. Normal?

That's kind of how my ash door is too, I have to push up on the ash pan a little to clear the lip to close. This stove will run on anything you throw at it as long as it has low moisture content, but the thing I found is that the longer the splits the better burn times you will get (stove can take up to 20" length). If youre forced to use shorter splits (like I did last year 14") then pile it to one side of the box up against the wall and it will help extend your overnight times.

 

[jharkin]

That's kind of how my ash door is too, I have to push up on the ash pan a little to clear the lip to close.

Same experience, I have to push up on the handle very slightly to fully seat the door as I latch it. Its just an artifact of the way the weight of that long door hangs of the very short hinge.

I'm new to this stove and never burned with a catalyst. Do you find it functions better with smaller splits? Or larger logs/pieces?

This stove will run on anything you throw at it as long as it has low moisture content, but the thing I found is that the longer the splits the better burn times you will get (stove can take up to 20" length).

Yeah, I like to have either a mix of 20s and 16s or all 16s. If you have the 20s they will fill the lower box nicely but then you'll need a couple shorter splits to top off the box for an overnight load. If you have only 16s, do like Reckless, start loading everything to one side, then you can put a couple 16s in vertical on the opposite side to fill the unused space. Its also good to keep a pile of shorts and uglies around for this stove, to fill all the nooks and crannies of the unusual shaped firebox.

Don't be afraid to fill it to within 1/2inch of the top load door for an overnight load, once you are comfortable with how it burns on medium loads and have confirmed everything is tight. One rule of thumb I follow however is - bigger the load, bigger the splits. This is not a blaze king , filling it to the roof with kindling size pieces or 2x4s will overwhelm the cat with too much off-gassing and overfire.

If you want max heat output run half loads or less of smaller pieces so you can keep the air open and get more flame without overfiring the cat. Long term slow burns, pack as tight as you can with the largest splits you have.

 

[CTPipeDream]

The stove is designed so the ash door drops down. It is a type of built in safety mechanism. The seal between the ash door and the drop is very important, if that seal is not very good the stove could overfire. The door dropping down forces you to lift up and tighten the door securely every time. This is how the stove was engineered. Every encore does this not just yours.

 

[Reckless]

Another question on the flue collar. I am in the process of sanding and painting my chimney pipe and I think I need to replace it. Will this one work? http://www.amazon.com/Heat-fab-Stovepipe-Straight-Vermont-Castings/dp/B002VFEB7K
I measure 10.25 x 5.25 on my collar opening..... anyone one know of a better oval to round pipe?

 

[jharkin]

Another question on the flue collar. I am in the process of sanding and painting my chimney pipe and I think I need to replace it. Will this one work? http://www.amazon.com/Heat-fab-Stovepipe-Straight-Vermont-Castings/dp/B002VFEB7K
I measure 10.25 x 5.25 on my collar opening..... anyone one know of a better oval to round pipe?

Are you running 8 inch pipe all the way to the cap? If the main chimney were 6 inch you can get an alternate iron flue collar to connect directly without the oval to round adapter. That is how my stove is setup.

(broken link removed)

 

[Reckless]

Are you running 8 inch pipe all the way to the cap? If the main chimney were 6 inch you can get an alternate iron flue collar to connect directly without the oval to round adapter. That is how my stove is setup.

(broken link removed)

The pipe goes up the open chimney about 3' no liner.... that's the way I inherited it and the way it will stay till next year when I replace the stove. Im just looking for an oval to round adaptor for cheap so I don't have to waste $80-90.