Virgin iron ore - or recycled?

[Simonkenton]

I don't know anything about the manufacture of iron ore, but I know what a great stove you have. I bought a VC Resolute in 1988 for a log cabin I had just built. What a great stove! I learned that new EPA specs would soon turn the wood stove industry upside down. I had plans to build my mom a log cabin and she wanted a wood stove. I talked her into buying a VC Resolute then and there. She bought one and put it on payments.

I sold my house in 1995 and the stove stayed with it.
I built her the cabin ten years later up in the N. Georgia mountains and I installed that wood stove on a nice hearth made of 2 inch thick rocks. She still burns that old Vermont Castings stove every day in the winter. Never has had any problems with it, it is easy to light and will burn dry wood, green wood, whatever you got.

It saddens me very much to read about the decline in quality of Vermont Castings stoves these days because they were the best back then.

 

[Dakotas Dad]

Real men just heat up rocks, and let them radiate the heat out into our homes. We don't care about round wheels or inclines. Except when moving 600lb rocks into our living rooms.

 

[dmmoss51]

Virgin vs. recycled matters little. They can adjust composition as they please. My understanding is that VC was well respected for casting back in da day.

I know some well respected knife makers that occasionally use leaf springs for very high quality blades. I have serious doubts that old stoves are better quality metal than is used in fine blades (albeit different compositions required).

I have watched the whole process of a metelergist create some very nice high carbon steel knives out of leaf springs from a junk yard it was very cool. Plus he did it in a homemade outdoor foundary that was repurposed from a 20lb propane tank.

 

[dmmoss51]

I think some of the point of this thread maybe "they don't make them like they used to" planned obsolescence is partly to blame. If you make a product that doesn't need to be replaced for 30 years and you sell one to everyone that desires one, what do you do to stay in business for the next 30 years??? When cars started running longer without regular maintenance, the manufacturers programmed the check engine light to come on after 80,000 miles just to try to get you in the shop. My grandparents has a refridgerator that lasted nearly 40 years, might have been an energy hog with poluting gases inside, but it lasted and lasted, my parents have gone through a refridgerator a decade and my wife and I are already on our second one.

 

[BrotherBart]

Vermont Castings' foundry has used scrap as feedstock from day one. Wish I had the pic of the huge pile of brake drums and disks waiting to be melted down that used to be around.

 

[Simonkenton]

Real men just heat up rocks, and let them radiate the heat out into our homes. We don't care about round wheels or inclines. Except when moving 600lb rocks into our living rooms.

Yes, all you need is a fire and some warm rocks. That is how we did it in the old days!

 

[ddahlgren]

I suspect in the end they are casting with a lot less iron as energy is expensive and if you make it like the 'good old days' it is very heavy. Heavy is bad in a residential boiler because it wastes energy getting it up to temp and the standby losses are a lot greater. On top of that you have to move it into a basement most of the time down a flight of stairs though I would never own a house that did not have a walk out basement. Back in the 'good old days' to install a boiler took 2 men several days rather than an afternoon to change one. To install you had to be a mason plumber millwright and a oil burner tech as well. The steps were set cement blocks in mortar and if a dirt floor dig footings make forms mix cement and pour. Then assemble boiler as it comes in sections. insulate and install sheet metal plumb build firebox. Then install controls burner wire it install stack pipe. Install and pipe and tank if needed etc. You could easily be there a week with 2 guys for a lot of the time. Now they are smaller and lighter and come assembled in a crate and done in an afternoon sometime with only 1 man. Lightweight made it more affordable to install.