VC Vigilant Rebuild

[landrand]

After reading Elk's and Struggle's post on rebuilding a VC Vigilant, I think I'm going to take the stove rebuilding plunge. I have an opportunity to buy a used VC Vigilant for about $250. I don't know the exact shape of the stove, but the owner says it's in excellent condition. I'll find out tomorrow when I go take a look. Not sure how much the parts will be to rebuild, but it may be worthwhile to do so. My only difficulty will be the 8" exhaust exit size. I'm all setup for a 6" stove. Can this stove be reduced from an 8" pipe to a 6" pipe?

 

[struggle]

This is where I ordered my parts from..... http://www.discountstove.com/

As for the pipe sizing I asked that at our local VC dealer as were considering relining our current 8x8 tile flue with a flex liner and he said it would work, but after I did some tinkering I my solution was just a mater off installing a different chimeny cap as I was having a terrible down draft problem.

Others I am sure will chime in if it will work or the problems that might arise with a 6" situation.

 

[hardwood715]

Dylan, Did you notice an increase in draft?

 

[elkimmeg]

I just read the entire manual for pre 1988 Vilgant There is no option to reduce the flue collar requirement like the Encore. It is clearly states
the 8" requirement. and do not reduce it in the connector run. Reading the suplemental part of the manual, in the pages 20 and beyond,
it does point out venting into an 8/8 clay liner is aceptable.

Please explain your current flue and venting setup.

Did you see Struggle's finished product photo damn it looks brand new

how old is the villigant you are looking at.

After reading the VC pre 88 manual they provide a good description of secondary burn, thermotatically control, and horrizontal burning
man these mid 80's VC stoves had the Everburn technology back then, the secondary burn and draft chamber paths.

Little know info: In anticipation to the EPA 1990 requirements VC started the research sooner than many other manufactures
Even before the EPA mandates, the state of Oregon imposed similar requirements, which eventually mirrored the EPA
In the ladder part of 1985 VC tested and certified their stove to the Oregon standards These are the same stoves designs that passed the 1990 EPA
requirements. For all practical purposes, the Oregon tested certified stoves are EPA compliant. they achieved the 63% effeciencies and the grams discharge requirments

Read this (broken link removed to http://www.vermontcastings.com/catalog/elements/files/Defiant_Vig_Res_Intre_Pre88-0226.pdf)

 

[landrand]

I have a couple of situations for the use of this stove. My goal is to completely heat with wood and have an oil furnace backup. I'm currently planning for a complete remodel of my house. Increasing the 1600 sq. ft. house to somewhere around 2,500 sq ft. I plan to add a second story as well as a log or timberframe greatroom. Currently, in a 16'x20' room I have a brick fireplace with a 12"x12" flue that I'm getting ready to retrofit to use with a standalone stove. I just bought a Hearthstone Heritage for this purpose. Here's a couple pics of my fireplace and chimney. I was planning to line the chimney with a 6" insulated SS rigid liner and use 6" SS flex through the damper area. Since the chimney is only 10' from damper to top of flue, I will probably need to extend the chimney. At the moment, using this site to research the best method to extend it. Either extend the chimney with masonary and liner, or attach a Class A chimney to the top of the liner using an adapter plate. Another possibility is to use the "extend a flue" product. When the new greatroom is built, I'd like to include a stove in there as well. Another possiblity for the stove would be in a finished (livable) basement. Don't have the chimneys build for these areas yet, but I'm in the process of planning for them. This site has been a great help for that. As you can see, if I standardized on a 6" pipe size, everything would be much easier. Having the VC vigilant with an 8" pipe requirement would make things a tad more difficult.

I currently don't know the year of the stove nor the shape. I'm going to go look at it later today.

 

[elkimmeg]

Here is a posibility: forget the smooth ss liner and insulate an 8" flex liner then either stove can use it. Its ok to go into an incesased area vent up to 2x your cross-sectional area
but reduction is not allowed. 6" round = 26.25" X 2 + 56.5" 8" round is about 50"sq Smaller than 56.5" is ok
using the money for smooth ss to 8" flex to make up the aditional cost. Having it insulated will work better even connected to a 6" stove vent.

I'm still impressed with Struggle's stove the finished product looks new Technology wise not all that much behind the newer stoves of today.

Better yet this, was when VC had the best craftsmen building these stoves Alsway said from the mid 80' to early 90's were the best quality products produced by VC.

Now if you hold of on the Viligant and pick up an Encore or Defiant Encore. They can be reduced to a 6" Vent. but not used in the open fire screen option.
Really a simmilar stove but even cleaner burning with a Cat Combustor. Same proceedure bring it up to temps get a decent bed of coals get the wood well into the burn cycle
Activate the damper except this time the smoke goes threw the combustor. The same routine. no different than dampering down for a non cat stove

 

[elkimmeg]

I’ve posted it three times and don’t wanna get ‘run outta Dodge’ for sounding any more like a broken record than I already do.

Humor me one more time again especially so that he can confirm the year then we can confirm the model run

 

[landrand]

I spent the last couple of days reading your posts and knew what to look for with the Vigilant stove. The date on the door is 1982. The stove looks brand new. No signs of overfiring. Very clean. Has the heat shields and glass doors. I didn't do the light test or the dollar test . Thought it would look corny. The owner of the stove is an old friend I graduated from High School with. She says it works fine and had no problems. The top griddle has a little discoloration and surface rust, but very minor. I bought it. Heck, by the looks of it I wouldn't be suprised if it works fine without rebuilding it. I'll find out when I get it home. Even if I have to rebuild it, I like doing stuff like that. I'm an engineer and I like to see how things work.

 

[landrand]

A couple of weeks ago, I almost bought a VC Encore. I spent considerable time researching stoves and decided the encore would be the stove that would go on my fireplace hearth. Called the dealer, said they had a red one on the showroom, with warming shelves. Quoted me a price of $1,757. Great price I thought. Hopped in my truck, drove and hour and a half to pick it up. Got there, looked at the stove, and quickly noticed it wasn't an Encore. It was a Resolute Acclaim. I couldn't live with the 16" max log lengths. Oh well...couple of days later I bought the Hearthstone Heritage from another dealer.

 

[begreen]

The old Vigilants that I remember were excellent heaters. I think you just scored, congratulations.

 

[landrand]

It's Lake Michigamme in Northern Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We get lots of snow... and severely cold weather. Already have a few inches of snow on the ground. In the dead of winter, I get 5' to 6' of snow on the back side of the roof. It's a groan to shovel off cause the snow banks sometimes come over the house eaves. I know one guy who keeps a snowblower on his roof all winter. Not sure how he gets his machine up there.

 

[elkimmeg]

the light test when dark is the first indication of its condition. I have had sucess with re caulking the seams inside without an entire tear down
the easiest way to do this is to remove the top .

Basically I would suspect gaskets like the damper the griddle the door ask door and glass there is a kit gasket sold for your stove that covers it also the same kit as for the Encore

The griddle top I remove them and wire wheel ba off all rust and return some shine.

Sounds like you got a perfect canidate to only do a limited rehab as I said and gasketing.

When I did the manual review, I also picked up another point, 16' minium verticle chimney requirement, but you knew the chimney height was an issue

 

[landrand]

Brought the stove home today. Here's a couple of pics. I cleaned it out with a leaf blower. Worked well. I looked the stove over well and did the light test. I see a couple of area's where light protrudes. See pics and you can see where I'm pointing to. Inside on the lower left hand corner there's a cylindrical tube where air enters from the outside and is brought to the front of the stove. When I have the light inside and look through the thermostat controllled air entrance plate, I see a little hole where air would bypass the cylinder and go to the back of the stove. Is this the way it's supposed to be or should this be sealed?

When I put the light in the smoke outlet area, I can see light on two areas where the plates meet on both sides of the pipe outlet. Should this be sealed or is it supposed to be like that? Other than that, I don't see any other cracks for light.

I'm going to order the gasket kit and change the gaskets.

 

[elkimmeg]

picture 3 requires a new gasket for the flue collar I believe that is 5/16" or 3/8" gasket Once yo take the flue collar g plate off two bolts it is real easy o do the damper plate gasket also check the controls Inside the stove back cornors are common leak areas scrape out as much ask as you dan and use a small wire brush and work it clean. then dab a good bead of refractory cement / gasket cement there and that should solve it. Again a hole is needed in the cast to work the handle it is common to see a bit of light there

Stove looks real good

Middle picture: Those holes are very important to secondary combustion. Ff you can remove the bottom grate ther will be a fair anount of fly ash in there and work to slean out that area from underneath the holes in the back. The key to secondary burn is a clear air passage threw those holes

 

[begreen]

Brought the stove home today. Here's a couple of pics. I cleaned it out with a leaf blower. Worked well.

I love it! Yankee ingenuity at it's best. The stove looks really nice. Loks like you may have a winner there. Once it's fully cleaned out and sealed well it should give you some real good heat.

 

[landrand]

For the time being, I installed the stove at my hunting camp. The camp is 20'x24' with cathedral ceilings, no insulation, and air leaks everywhere. The stove really heats the place up. I was using a VC Aspen, but I didn't like the 5 hour burn time and the 16" log limit. It was a chore to get out of bed in the morning in subfreezing temps and get the place warm. With the Vigilant, the stove has coals and the place was still warm in the morning with outside temps 18-22 degrees.

The VC Vigilant stove appears to work perfectly. I haven't installed any gaskets yet. Not sure if I have to. I can get the fire going and by turning down the air inlet, I can nearly put the fire out in 10-20 seconds. Turn up the air intake and the fire instantly roars back to life. Last night I got about a 6-7 hour burn using pine slabs and one hardwood split. I also like the Vigilant damper controls. Damper open and secondary air inlet closed for a quick hot fire. Damper closed and secondary air inlet open for a cooler, more effecient horizontal burn.

Everything works flawlessly except the front glass. Couldn't keep the Vigilant's glass clean from soot. Now I know why the stove had solid doors with the glass option. After burning the stove, my front glass was so black, it looked like solid doors. Even a hot vertical fire wouldn't burn off the soot. Looks like if I want to watch the fire, I'll have to use a rag often to clean the glass. One good thing about the VC Aspen. The glass stayed mostly clean. If it did soot up, a hot burn would often clean up the glass.