VC Resolute 1979 (III?)

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Looks sharp! This is really motivating me to rebuild my old defiant. I'm jealous of the window on the resolute.
 
My house came with a beautiful, but broken, 1975 VC Defiant I. It's too much stove for our house regardless and we put it in the corner after it filled our house with smoke, due to a cracked Fireback and high winds. Anyway, it will get rebuilt and put in a future building or addition.

I love these 70's VC products, you will enjoy this stove. These old VC stoves are some very willing heaters, and I think ED is right on and you won't need any OAK. Worst case scenario you will have to cut a hole in your house somewhere not directly across from the stove, but this is unlikely. Even though this is an old stove, it will want seasoned firewood. This was an effort to build a more efficient stove before the EPA forced people to do it.

The real treat with these old Vermont Casting stoves is the screen for open door use. This is obviously very inefficient, but you can use it this way in the shoulder season when you don't need the full heat of the stove. Ultimately this is why I want to rebuild my old busted stove. Eventually we want to build a summer sun room on the north side of our house. It will be a three season room with the old stove for chilly nights. The defiant has huge doors and this will be great as a free standing fireplace.
Send some photos on the porch and stove please.
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Thanks for the comments, I had cleaned the glass with a razor and the glass only stayed kinda clean for 3-4 hours... So I started my first fire at 8:00 in the evening and loaded it up to the top. Left the vent on bottom left open and closed the damper after fire got hot and 11 hours later had a good bed of coals and only needed to add logs with damper open for 35-40 minutes and back to heat, at 8:00 when I started it was 43F now 60F basement ceiling is R25, now at top of staircase I have door open and PATC ( Hotel type heat/AC) is turns off.
So happy with this wood stove and like the way it looks. Very surprised it burns for 11 hours! Well seasoned wood I guess. Now to seal the slate and grout.
Used a nice leather sling for the first time and like how much wood I can bring in with one load , enough for a night and morning start up. Came with the stove. Froze my butt off putting down the slate, was even colder then at 40F. Wish I did this 3 years ago when I poured the basement floor. Going to get another porcelain enamel one too. So nice looking compared to the boiler plate models. I am in Mid Michigan on Lake Huron 20 degrees cooler here then 1000 feet away. I will get a local insurance agent to insure the place and find out the extra cost.
We don’t get permits around here, for the most part, Electrition type items we do. And a guy down the street is cutting down a big white berch tree and giving it to me so better start that wood shed.
 
Where are you supposed to put the Handle?
Burning now for an hour and temps went from 44 to 47F. I am very happy.
No OAK hooked up, seems I don’t need it. So far I left the dryer hoes open. I have a flap that will blow inside or outside. Going to close it in a minute and see what happens.
The handle is stored in the hole in the metal bracket attached to the leg as shown in your pic in post 14.
 
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The handle is stored in the hole in the metal bracket attached to the leg as shown in your pic in post 14.
Good tip! I wonder, is that bracket standard equipment, or something that was added later? Neither one of the two Resolutes I've had came with it.
 
Ahhh, so that’s what that bracket is for. Thanks for that info. Burning nice, but I really don’t know anything about theses stoves. So I bought a flue thermometer on line form Hong Kong China and never got it, asking for a refund. Not shure what the temp is but I know it’s not hot hot. I am getting a friends thermometer and use for a few days. All my heat is off in the cottage and the temperature went down to 30F was a little cool in the place at 64F at 5 feet. I really like the leather wood sling.
Starting on the wood shed today. Photo of the bracket for handle hold coming soon.
 
You dont need a fresh air intake for this stove.

It looks like it's in great shape from the small areas you are posting pictures of. How about a full frontal?

That 1979 tells me a it's a III.

You are gonna love it.
The 1979 is a casting date. It's in all the original Resolutes from 1979 to mid 1980s.
 
That is the secondary air port. There is no outside air connection for this stove. One might be able to fab an adapter that screwed on to the primary air intake (the flapper at the bottom back left). But a fresh air intake in a basement can be quite problematic. It is supposed to be level with or below the stove to prevent reverse drafting out the outside air pipe. You would be better off with an air gap between the outside air pipe and the stove intake.
 
Got it, great explaining that. So seems to be drawing air in for somewhere. The photo of the fireplace up stairs (first floor) has a metal lip on top that I installed to help keep the smoke in the firebox, was leaking out and filling up the room. That lip that’s painted gold , part of the new metal roof I put on did not work and will come off. What did work was opening up a window, darn smoke stain on the stone above is as image.jpg clean as I can get. Wire brush is what I used. Since there is no 6” flex pipe running up the 13X13” flue the back of the fireplace flue is nice and warm. This is the back of the upstairs fireplace.
Oh darn, forgot to install the bracket to hold the handle!!! Tomorrow.
 
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Got it, great explaining that. So seems to be drawing air in for somewhere. The photo of the fireplace up stairs (first floor) has a metal lip on top that I installed to help keep the smoke in the firebox, was leaking out and filling up the room. That lip that’s painted gold , part of the new metal roof I put on did not work and will come off. What did work was opening up a window, darn smoke stain on the stone above is as View attachment 243047 clean as I can get. Wire brush is what I used. Since there is no 6” flex pipe running up the 13X13” flue the back of the fireplace flue is nice and warm. This is the back of the upstairs fireplace.
Oh darn, forgot to install the bracket to hold the handle!!! Tomorrow.
Where do you think it's getting air from? You mentioned the dryer vent in another post. Have you tried with that closed?
 
Here is a photo of the drier vent that’s closed. I am going to open because my fire is going out in the stove, but with the stove flue open and door cracked it starts right up. I am thinking I need to get it hotter and then shut the in side stove flue. The air intake on the bottom left is wide open always. And the flap on the back is open too. so now going to let it get hot say 35 minutes and then shut down. The flap thermomastate is in the all the way open. I did remove the ash this morning. And wood is from the same pile. 3 year seasoned. I got impatient and didn’t get it hot enough.
Or holes are plugged on the afterburner...
I have a basement door that has a little leak at the top and I drove a screw in and use 2 wood shims to hold tight. I was watching the fire and listened to it as I opened the door, I didn’t noticed a change in sound or flames. I am going to light a smoke stick and see if I can find some leaks. I am posting a few pictures of the drier vent and door with shims, I do hate an air leak. By the way my stove hood vents outside and so do the bathrooms. I bought the heavy duty steel discharge vents with flaps that do close. Guess I could turn on a vent and watch the fire...
 
I am sure I am getting air leak from the PATC unit, I remember on a very windy day hearing and feeling some air coming through it. I did an a better day stuff plastic grocery bags in there to stop it using chopsticks and think I got most of it stopped. That other photo is the boiler 9K for in the floor pex. Hence the 2” fome all around the fireplace and in the one photo. Smoke stick and handle bracket photo.
 
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This is on the a Detroit C/L for $500.00 in the listing he states that he does not know the model or year. Easy to find on CL Detroit, Vermont Castings wood stove. My question is can this stove be vented out the back? Thinking this might be good for the first floor. Don’t want a Dutchwest stove.
 
My handle bracket came with the stove I bought 2 months ago and when loading it in the 2014 Escape I noticed it on the right hand leg and asked the guy I bought from ; what was that for and he didn’t know. I am so used to putting on the mantle an it’s easy to grab I use that. I read the back heat sheald is an option. I want to sell mine so will list on eBay. I don’t think your missing out on the bracket, I am keeping mine but not easy to slip in the hole. I think I would have the hole in a vertical position with rough locators to Aline handle with hole so handle would fall in with gravity.
 
I got this stove couple years ago and like it a lot. I have few questions:

How do you guys get 11hr burns? Even with damper down and running it around 400⁰ stove top temp, I get max 6 hrs.

I have a small air gap between on the top part of the front doors, can this be fixed with new gaskets and would that contribute to burn time?

How hot can you burn this stove? Stove top temp has been 700⁰ sometimes.

The inside damper must be bent a little bit, when i push the lever down it sometimes pops back up. I usually rest a metal fire-poker on the lever so it stays down.

I love this stove apart from the glass getting pitch black from soot once damper has been pushed down, i wish it stayed clear.

Have any of you gotten another stove for that reason alone?

What is a good comparable stove to buy that keeps the glass clear even after damper has been deployed?

Thanks for all the discussion on jere, I've learned a lot.

Can someone tell me what model resolute this stove is, l/ll or lll?
 

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The 1979 is a casting date. It's in all the original Resolutes from 1979 to mid 1980s.
true, the "1979" is not related to the date or specific model year. a lot of people assume the stove is a '79!. i tell them to look at the stamped dates on the stove parts.