2014 VC Owners discussion thread...

Got down to 4 degrees last night. Loaded up the three stoves last night at 10 PM. Come down at 6 with the VCs both sitting at 400 with a good bed of coals. Master bedroom was 69 degrees this morning.

Finally winning the war with this house. This was the first real test this winter since I made more improvements.

 

Good to hear!! Still burning dirty? Seems my stove won't burn clean unless its up above 1400 CT otherwise I have some smoke output.

 

I don't have a cat probe on either stove. The Encore is crammed into a fireplace into the kitchen and the back half is not easily accessible. The Defiant can have a glowing cat with stove top temps at 600 or more and I will still see smoke.

I've accepted it at this point and both stoves are temporary. I'm hoping the Encore, at least, will be gone by next winter.

 

Back in business. It was a clean break. The hardest part was extracting the stub of the old rod. Luckily I was able to do it without pulling the unit or removing the front plates. A week's lead time to get the OEM replacement so I made one out of hardened drill rod. A little stove black and you can't tell the difference.

KaptJaq

 

I can also report Im back in business. I got the debris in the primary cleaned up without taking it all apart and its back to operating normal.. But it still wants to run away on cat temps in these really cold temps now that Im working through the dense cold season wood (BL).

In an interesting change of heart... you might all remember all the struggles Ive had with the Mrs who doesn't like the uneven heat of the stove and wont learn to work it.... Well today she got the natgas bill.. Biggest one yet in 5 years in this house and she calls me at work "maybe I should learn how to use the stove"

 

Ive never been able to get mine to burn clean either. I have seen smoke as high as 1100 cat temp or higher... but the more telling thing is the amount of creosote I get at the clean out every year.

 

Wheres the "LOVE" button?!?!?! Great news!!

 

Only time I dont see smoke is 1400+ but even 1100 smoke output is pretty minimal.

 

Dirty sonsabitches, is what they are. Especially when compared to the 30.

 

Biggest load of the winter just went in. Loaded to the gills 60/40 BL and ash on a deep coal bed. Expecting a low around 10f tonight.

Here's hoping my issues are fixed and it cruises nicely

 

And we are cruising along nicely. 90 minutes into the burn and its sitting there happy at 1200F cat probe temp. just a glowing coal bed with some small flames in the box.

The secret, i forgot, on these real cold days is to go ahead and hot reload on a deep coal bed. That way you can get back up to temp fast and shut her down early before the entire load starts off gassing and get back on cat. When all the coals are burned down it takes to long to get up to temp to close the damper which is probably what sets up the conditions for runaway.


Edit: took a look outside and its pouring smoke even at 1200. Oh well...

 

I do the same. But, it is a balancing act of relaoding at the right time and avoiding massive coal build up.

Yup.

So, now that your wife is a little more on board with the stove, ever think about moving on from the Encore?

 

How did it turn out last night?
I did some mid season repairs yesterday. Do your metal frame latch have washers under them? Mine had 2 on each screw causing the door handle to be almost completely threaded out of the door with ALOT of wiggle when its not latched.... I removed all 4 washers and now the handle is tight to the door and Im not as worried about ripping the threads out when I latch down the door. I also had to do a little gasket repair on the same door up top as it is shreding a little and pulling away from the edge, a little filing and some old gasket and shes good as new.......

 

Not so much.. She still doesnt like the uneven feeling of heat and would rather just turn up the thermo. The high bill was forgetten wuickly and she is back to being anti-stove. We have difficulty Ill admit as our kitchen is always cold, regardless of heat source; as is the bath with its cold tile floor.

Ran fine all evening, and was up to 1300 cat as I went to bed but still smoking. Good coals to reload this AM.


I honestly dont get it. At 1200+ probe temps its hot enough in there to get unaided secondary combustion even without the catalyst... So I cant imagine its the cat. Which leaves one of two possibilities:

1. There is smoke leaking past the cat chamber somehow
2. There is not enough oxygen to burn all the smoke giong through the cat

#1 seems unlikely since I did a good rebuild and all gaskets are tight. Which leaves #2. This could be an issue of seting the secondary to open more, but when we play around with that it runs away!! WTF.

 

Remember my secondary is blocked off completely and I get the same thing smoke at 1050 (Alot) - till around 1400(very little) and at 1500+ just heat vapor. It could be due to some sort of lack of O2 but at this point I wouldn't kill yourself over it. It is still burning 100% better than a smoke dragon with wet wood, right?!?!? Mine seems to always cruise now at 14-1500 daytime and 15-1600 for overnights with the air way down.

 

Anyone try to hook up a blower to the Encore or the Defiant.

If I can hook up a blower to the Defiant, I'd get a lot more heat exchange, which would help in terms of flexibility and extending burn times.

 

I use this with the encore and it helps ALOT!! Looks like they have some new ones out too that looks like they would work better than mine
https://www.google.com/search?q=Hot...0l5.450j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8

 

Ooh that's a cool idea reckless... You just stand it back there and it circulates the air behind the stove? how loud? I might need to get one.


As to the smoke... I forgot that it always looks worse at night. Looked outside this morning with 1200 cat temp and its actually mostly steam. There IS definitely some smoke but its not nearly as bad as i thought at night.

 

the dial is adjustable so as loud as you want it hehe... on the lowest which still moves good air its drown out by the tv, maybe a little quieter than a box fan on low? The fan speed control and the thermo switch can be place anywhere you wish, I mounted them to the unit for simplicity and ease.

 

The difference between blower and no blower on the dutchwest was night and day. I honestly don't know how people used that stove without a blower!