Why do people trash VC?

[RustyShackleford]

Of all the available cat stoves, the VC dutchwest cat stoves seem to be the most complicated to run with multiple air inlet controls ...

I have had no problem running mine (Dutchwest Federal large catalytic) for
the last 20 years. Maybe that's not exactly true, because I tend to overfire
it, cracking the baffle below the cat.

I just don't want to spring $1500 for a new one and have it be an inferior
product to the one I already have ...

Starting to look at the Woodstock Fireview, highly-regarded here it would
seem, but it's mighty expenisve (at least compared to the DW).

 

[stoveguy2esw]

I've been burning a VC Madison in a ~2000 sqft house with poorly installed R7 insulation since the fall of 2004.

I've had several disappointments with it.


First of all, I need to fill it with wood every few hours and empty the ash drawer every morning. It doesn't do it itself.

Second of all, it overfires. For example, when my wife stuffed it full of very dry silver maple on top of 2" of hot coals when it was below zero outside last week and left air intake 1/2 way open the griddle temperature shot from 300 degrees to 900 degrees while she took a shower. Any other brand wouldn't have done that. Right?

Third, it doesn't always produce the amount of heat I want. The above incident was the only time last week the thing heated most of the house to 70. The rest of the time the furnace (set for 68) would kick on for 5-10 minutes every hour while the stove top was between 500 and 600 degrees. I think a non-VC stove would be able to heat my entire house when the outdoor temperatures are -6 to +10 for days on end and yet not overheat the living room when its 40+ outside. Right?

Fourth, the payback was a long time. With 3-6 loadings of (almost) free wood a day it only cuts the gas bill (hot water, dryer, oven, furnace) in half. At that rate, it took one and a half heating seasons to pay for itself, the connector pipes, and the hearth pad. It took another year to pay for the chainsaw (that I needed anyway) and 30 ton splitter through natural gas savings.

You also can't forget that VCs are ugly. Mine looks like this in flat black paint -
(broken image removed)

The wife would much prefer one of these in the living room -

Finally, VC has stopped making this stove a couple years ago. They are getting hard to find new so I might not be able to get an identical one to replace it if I needed to. Which I would otherwise do without hesitation.

looking at your thread i'd have to suspect you are sucking air from somewhere. i could be wrong but you have the symptoms. you shouldnt be going through wood like that and certainly should not hit 900 on the top with half draft. im looking at any joint gasket or seal on the stove , also , watch the fire look for "pockets" in the flame like air is blowing at it can give clues as to where to look hardest for that leak im thinking you have. im not saying "you got a leak" im suspecting its possible(along with some other less common things) i hope this is helpful to you. other than that personally i have a lot of respect for VC units especially the older ones and cat units(which are among the best ever made) the non-cat "everburn" units i think were a little too engineered to the test, and really needed a perfect setup and great wood to excell. they have made a change from what i hear to ease that a bit though you get a little higher PM reading at test its still very clean and not somthing that the average customer would or should have to worry about.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

I bought a Vermont Castings Large Winterwarm Insert in December 2006, installed January 2007 ($4500). Linkage to damper broke in November 2008. Stove was supposed to have a 3 year warranty but company refused to honor it claiming that, according to the serial number, the stove was "manufactured" beyond 3 years ago. My original dealer has since closed shop and I'm SOL to the tune of $1600 for the repairs. I can only hope VC crashes and burns!

now that you can fight! a stove's warranty doesnt begin until purchase, was it registered? do you have a reciept showing actual purchase date (cc reciept etc) just because a stove sat in a dealers warehouse a couple years doesnt mean it isnt "brand new" thats BS that they told you that! push them on it HARD!

teaching moment; gang , i cannot stress enough that warranties on stoves should be registered do NOT rely on the dealer to do it for you its YOUR responsability as its your stove. we at ESW stress, beg , even ask for warranty card info to register it when folks call in with questions, issues whatever and do it over the phone.

its important both to you as a customer and us as a manufacturer. and keep your reciept, if a copy is requested with the mail in form , make a copy , we (and any other manufacturer) do not want the origional , we will not keep it it gets tossed after the warranty is scanned into our database.