Cfind19 said:
I bought the stove through a local Building supply - they are not knowledgable at all about the stove. I will try a few more burns and see what hapens. The manual says nothing about color changes.
Thanks for the help
Do you know why it roars with the damper closed? I loaded it 1/2 hour ago before turning in and it is just roaring with the damper closed and the thermostat all the way back. I pushed the ash door in hard and that helped a bit. It seems to be sucking a lot of air from somewhere. Hot as heck now and the metal is clicking and snapping - can't slow it down. I am really starting to wish I had not bought this stove.
Was the stove on clearance? Some other great deal? Why did you buy from a source that is "not knowledgable" about the stove? Are you a confident DIYer?
If you are already regretting your purchase I have to wonder what you were expecting to begin with. I'm not trying to pick a fight. Please forgive me for being so forward. I am merely seeing what is playing out many times over in the stove market.
Many of my customers are quick to blame either the stove or me, or the manufacturer, when things are not as they expect. I recently completed a service call where I checked the stove over very carefully, right in front of the customer, showing them the stove design as I went along. (A modern VC non-cat model). They could clearly see that the stove itself was in perfect condition and that there was no defect. I put it back together, as they watched. We talked about how it works and they seemed to accept that the stove was in perfect working order.
Before I started the troubleshooting I asked some questions and inspected their wood pile and chimney, etc. I knew the wood was the problem but I also knew they would not accept a simple "it's your wood" answer. They were already convinced the stove had a problem. I felt it would be a good idea to check out the possibility they were right before blaming their wood and fire starting techniques. After I was done with the stove I suggested they start a fire so we could all see what they were experiencing first hand. As I watched the process I knew immediately I was right about the wood. They said they only use the dead trees on the property. The wood pile was full of punky, fungus filled, wet wood. The "kindling" was wet, dead, fungus filled branches. We ended up conversing about the wood and how they start and build the fire. The stove was not at fault.
Just a week before I serviced another VC Encore Cat where the customer claimed it "never worked right" and they can't get the stove to burn below 700 degrees. I promised to check the stove over carefully. I checked the seals and verified all the internal parts were installed correctly. However, I found two problems, one, the stove top thermometer they were using was reading 200 degrees at room temperature. Second, the ash pan door gasket was hanging out loose and draped over the ash pan. I replaced the thermometer with a new one and re-installed the gasket. The stove was in perfect working order. The defect was the customer, in this case (not maintaining the gaskets).
In both these cases the customer was quite irritated and convinced that the stove was bad. They also complained about the service they were getting. Neither of them considered that they might be the problem. And I can say that this is the normal reaction. Very few of my customers believe that their own knowledge is lacking or that they could be in any way contributing to the problems they are experiencing.
Again, please don't take this personally. I don't know enough yet to say whether you are, or are not, giving fair consideration to your own lack of knowledge. My point is that these stoves require a fair amount of maintenance and the user has to pay attention to make sure the stove is ready for use and that they are given a good fuel. If you buy from a source that is "not knowledgable" about your stove you will have to go through the learning curve yourself. We cannot be quick to blame the stove until our own knowledge about how things work comes into line with how the manufacturer intends for the stove to be used. With these VC models it is especially necessary to get help from a good VC technician when things aren't going right.
I'm sure we can help you get the kinks worked out. I hope you will end up being a cheerleader for the stove once you get to know it a little better. The VC Encore is one of the best designed stoves available.
And yes, the red enamel changes to a deep dark red when hot.
Sean
