New VC Encore 2040

[Antaigh]

Hi folks,

I’m a relatively new owner of a VC encore 2040 (2 months) and struggling. The guys who installed it handed me the manual and pointed out the two levers and told me “good luck!” I’ve been paging through your forum here and am astonished at the wealth of information you all possess. Where did you all learn all these specifics of temp monitoring?

I’m not new to heating with wood. My previous home had an older non-cat stove and I never thought twice about it. I just watched the flames and felt the temp and burned wood in blissful ignorance.

This new beast will not coexist so peacefully with me.

I bough a magnetic bimetallic thermometer for the griddle, as detailed in the manual, placed it on the griddle, and found I’m almost always burning hotter than recommended. But the white catalyst box in the back and the glass get covered in soot when I turn down the air intake so the temp remains in a safe range. There no visible flame when I do this, except sometimes I can see a band of flame through the crack in the top of the catalyst box in the back. Additionally, the stove isn’t actually making much heat. For example, this morning the room temp was 55 and I built up the fire. It’s been burning 8 hours now and twice in that time I’ve had to completely shut the air intake because the STT is 700 or higher, but the room temp measured just a few feet from the stove is still only 66. It’s not a large room. This morning I went by the local hardware store and bought another thermometer to check the accuracy of the one I have. This one reads 50 degrees cooler than the first, but still not a big enough difference to account for this discrepancy in what the stove looks like and the temps I’m reading.
I only have the stock cat thermometer, which shows I’ve been in operating range all day since coming up to temperature.
I’m confused by the readings I’m getting compared with ideal operation as described in the manual that came with my stove. I seem to be unable to meet both ideal operating temp and ideal creosote deposition amounts on the same days. This is my primary source of heat and I’m becoming increasingly concerned I will never be able to leave this stove unattended and attain the 12 hour burn as advertised by the folks who sold it to me.
I’m very worried I’ll be coming home to a burning home or frozen pipes one day soon if I can’t get this dialed in.
Can anyone point me toward better instructions/troubleshooting?

Many thanks

P.S. I’ve added a photo of the band of flame visible in the back of the stove. I haven’t been able to determine if this is the normal “glow” others describe

 

[begreen]

Welcome. It sounds like there are two separate issues. One is stove control and the other is room heating.
The first issue may be draft related or the firewood, or both. Describe the flue system on this stove in as much detail as possible including pipe diameter and total height. How fully is the stove being loaded and how thick are the wood splits? Do you know what species of firewood this is?

The room heating sounds like either the heat is not staying in the room or there is a lot of heat loss. A 700º stove should make quite a difference in an insulated area. We need more information about the house. What is the stove room's ceiling height? Is it wide open to other areas of the house? Is there a stairwell going upstairs near the stove location?

 

[Antaigh]

Thanks for your questions begreen,

The chimney is clay tile and masonry. I’m guessing around 24 ft (?). The stove is installed into a fireplace where the previous owners had modified to install a different stove. The VC was really the only stove I could find in my area that would fit the chimney location. Pipe diameter is 6” into the chimney and I’m not certain of the diameter in the masonry part. I’ve had a couple of days where the cold exterior chimney gave me trouble establishing a draft, but once the stove is going I haven’t observed any back puffing or other obvious issues.

The firewood I brought with me from my previous home. It’s 2-3 years seasoned. Stored in the barn. Mostly beech and oak I think with some birch mixed in. Splits are a mix of 4” quarters to 6” diameter halves. Today when temps went too high I had about 4 splits in there I think. The firebox was maybe just over half full. I had emptied the ash pan in the morning and started from cold. The first full load of splits got too hot almost right away. It happened again after my first post. I reloaded with 3 splits after the first load had turned to embers, pushed them to the back, loaded, reengaged the bypass for the cat, and waited 45 minutes, turning the air intake down early on. It looked stable at 450 so I left to get lunch and when I returned an hour later the STT was 700 on one thermometer and 950 on the other. I’m definitely ordering a digital thermometer as I’ve seen recommended by many who post here.

The issue of heating the room is secondary. I brought it up to illustrate my confusion because I agree with you: a 700 degree stove ought to heat this space more than I’m experiencing. In fact, when I first started out burning this stove it heated the house nicely. Trouble is, I was probably over firing it by a lot based on the numbers I’m seeing now. It looked right to me: low quiet flames, no soot buildup on the glass or white ceramic, but apparently I was way off.

It’s a 1600 sq ft house with many of the upstairs rooms closed off. The room with the stove is 8x10 and open to two 10x12 rooms. There’s a ceiling fan in the room with the stove and there’s an air intake for a furnace that heats only the other end of the house in one of the communicating rooms. When the stove is hot that furnace doesn’t run, it’s only functioning as a backup to keep kitchen pipes from freezing. Today was warm, with temps above freezing most of the day and these rooms received a good bit of sun as well.

 

[begreen]

It would be good to determine the size of the liner in the chimney. The next time it is cleaned, be sure to ask. By the description, the problem may be that once the chimney has heated up, the draft becomes excessive. This will not be apparent with a cold chimney. With a cold chimney, the opposite may be true. Draft may be weak then. The solution sometimes is adding a key damper to the stove pipe to regulate down the draft once the chimney has warmed up and draft is too strong.

How tall are the ceilings in this end of the house? Is there a stairwell in this area?

 

[Antaigh]

9 foot ceilings and yes, there’s a stairwell with a door opening to each of the adjoining rooms. Does this affect the draft as well? Please forgive my ignorance.

If I’m understanding you right, it sounds like I’m having to overcompensate for too strong a draft by shutting down the air supply more than is ideal for the stove. Is adding a key damper something I can do myself?