Woo hoo! VC Montpelier Installation and first break in fire pictures

[av8roc]

After a month or so of research and about 3 weeks after ordering we had our new VC Montpelier insert installed today. I am very happy with the installation, the guys did an excellent job (Have been doing this for 20 years and were very knowledgeable). I have a large damper and chimney so the liner install went very smooth.

Despite is being about 60 degrees here today I had to have the first break in fire. I loaded 2 small splits with a couple of pieces of pallets and kindling, lit a quarter of a super cedar and closed the door. It built up slow and steady and to my surprise the blower even kicked on after about 70 minutes. What really impressed me was that it stayed on for almost 3 hours (I lit it at 3:30p) Even now I still feel radiant heat and there is some very faint embers still burning.

The temps reached 200 degrees on the glass and about 130 degrees on the top of the door (cast iron) so I don't think I over fired it on the first burn.

Anyway thanks all for the help so far.. I'm sure I will have plenty more questions now that I'm burning.

On with the pictures!

Cleaning fireplace:

Prepping the liner:

Feeding it up:

Getting into position:

This is a custom piece they use that transitions to Oval and makes passing smaller dampers easier. You can see some of the Kaowool I stuffed up there:

All finished:

Go Super Cedar go!!

Now where's my beer?

 

[szmaine]

Hey there! I was wondering what the story was with you.
That looks terrific! What does your wife thinks of it?

What is the size of the fire box on that thing? Looks big.

 

[av8roc]

Hey there! I was wondering what the story was with you.
That looks terrific! What does your wife thinks of it?

What is the size of the fire box on that thing? Looks big.

Thanks!

VC is weird with the way the measure the firebox.. they say it can hold "30 pounds" of fuel. Somewhere on here I read what that translates to in cubic feet but have forgotten. It is considered a medium sized insert rated to 1500' sq. feet. It can hold a split up to 22" (although that seems aweful big). The heat output is rated up to 50,000 btu with normal op's from 10,000 to 28,000.

Once It gets cold enough, hopefully Saturday I will get a good fire going and we'll see if I went with a good size unit.

 

[av8roc]

Oh and my wife is very happy with the way it looks. She is still concerned that it will be too warm in the living room so the jury is still out on that one.

 

[YZF1R]

Looks great! The firebox is supposed to be 1.5 square feet. 20lb of wood per square foot. The 22 inch thing is a bit misleading. It's only that wide at the front. Don't force a too long split in there or you risk breaking the cast masonry lining or whatever it's called. (I forget.) It goes down to 18 inch in the rear, so I cut my wood no longer than that as that is the true useful size of a split that will readily fit. For the too warm in the room thing, I use a small fan on the floor blowing cool air into the stove room. Learned that on here. The heat will then flow out the upper part towards the rest of the house.

Steve

On edit: The first picture of fire with the door closed it looks like you may have the primary air control off. To the left is open. Closed will probably work with the pallet wood in there but once you go to splits you'll want to get her going well with the primary open until the secondary’s get going. Then you'll be able to back the air down. If my older eyes are deceiving me and it is open, disregard what I just said. %-P

 

[av8roc]

Looks great! The firebox is supposed to be 1.5 square feet. 20lb of wood per square foot. The 22 inch thing is a bit misleading. It's only that wide at the front. Don't force a too long split in there or you risk breaking the cast masonry lining or whatever it's called. (I forget.) It goes down to 18 inch in the rear, so I cut my wood no longer than that as that is the true useful size of a split that will readily fit. For the too warm in the room thing, I use a small fan on the floor blowing cool air into the stove room. Learned that on here. The heat will then flow out the upper part towards the rest of the house.

Steve

On edit: The first picture of fire with the door closed it looks like you may have the primary air control off. To the left is open. Closed will probably work with the pallet wood in there but once you go to splits you'll want to get her going well with the primary open until the secondary’s get going. Then you'll be able to back the air down. If my older eyes are deceiving me and it is open, disregard what I just said. %-P

Thanks Steve! 20lbs per SF makes sense.

Crappy cell phone pictures I think. I know for sure I had the air control all the way left. After about 30 mins I was concerned fire was growing too fast for a break-in so I choked it down for a little while.

 

[cycloxer]

That is a nice looking insert. The front glass size is huge. I believe the firebox size on that one is 1.5 cubic feet. It'll put out some decent heat.

 

[rdust]

Oh and my wife is very happy with the way it looks. She is still concerned that it will be too warm in the living room so the jury is still out on that one.

Looks great! Your wife will get over the room being warm in no time. My wife used to be worried about it but you get spoiled by the 75*+ temps. very quickly. I tell everybody it's like the southwest, it's a dry heat. It's not just hot air, everything gets warm, the floor, the walls, the furniture in the rooms, it's really hard to beat! Now if we leave for the day and we come home with the temp. in the low 70's my wife's first comments will be how cold it is. Before the stove our thermostat was set at 66*, it would cost me a small fortune to keep the house in the mid 70's with propane.

Today my wife e-mailed me at work telling me she was kicking a** with the stove, she had the lower level at 78* and the upstairs at 71*, she was pretty proud of herself. :lol: As others have said blowing cold air into the stove room makes a huge difference.

 

[szmaine]

Yes, that is very true. The first couple days with our stove I felt over-heated.
You get acclimated very quickly and feel chilly at what used to be comfortable temps
Basically, you get turned into sissy hot house flower.

 

[Fod01]

Good luck with the stove. Season 2 for mine. The only complaint is a squeaking door latch which I'll fix with some graphite powder.
Going to be a nice burning day tomorrow!

Gabe

 

[Dix]

Yeah Congrats

And just in time for this weekend, too !

 

[av8roc]

Yeah Congrats

And just in time for this weekend, too !

Yeah cold and rainy today and are now saying 2-4 inches overnight. Perfect timing!

 

[av8roc]

Oh and my wife is very happy with the way it looks. She is still concerned that it will be too warm in the living room so the jury is still out on that one.

Looks great! Your wife will get over the room being warm in no time. My wife used to be worried about it but you get spoiled by the 75*+ temps. very quickly. I tell everybody it's like the southwest, it's a dry heat. It's not just hot air, everything gets warm, the floor, the walls, the furniture in the rooms, it's really hard to beat! Now if we leave for the day and we come home with the temp. in the low 70's my wife's first comments will be how cold it is. Before the stove our thermostat was set at 66*, it would cost me a small fortune to keep the house in the mid 70's with propane.

Today my wife e-mailed me at work telling me she was kicking a** with the stove, she had the lower level at 78* and the upstairs at 71*, she was pretty proud of herself. :lol: As others have said blowing cold air into the stove room makes a huge difference.

I hope my wife gets involved as well because my job takes me away for days, sometimes even a week at a time. It wasn't all that cold last night but I got a medium sized fire going and was able to push the thermostat in the back hallway up to 71 and she loved it. I can tell already it's going to be a big hit this winter!