New to the group

Welcome to the FHC Family

 

Had the Encore 2550 (built in 2009) cat stove for 5 years but swapped it out for an Ideal Steel in Oct. 2014. Spent a lot of time tinkering with the 2550. Thinking about the air and exhaust paths through it still makes me dizzy LOL.

 

sounds like Dave is an enabler

en·a·bler
iˈnāblər,e-/
noun

1. • a person who encourages or enables negative or self-destructive behavior in another.

 

Haha that's just wrong... Nah, he don't give anything for free... I had to help with his addition
This is so hilarious cause if u knew him he is anything but an enabler lmao
U gotta earn your keep at his place... That's why I respect him so much

 

I'm still a fan of the Encore but def prefer the all cast iron models... They had a hiccup at one point and that mighta been one of the ones u got...

 

Welcome! Sorry I didn't see this sooner.

 

I'm seeing FW270007 as a model... This looks like all I can pull up for it... Not sure what exactly u need though... Let me know if this helps

 

Thanks. Yes, that model appears to be close. No baffle plate is shown in the parts list and that may be because the baffle plate is welded in place. That is why I was reluctant to use the stove. I am probably looking at having to get a shop to make a baffle plate from the old one; there are two lines of holes in that plate and that would add to the cost if a shop had to drill each hole one by one.

What would the value be for this stove if I was to put it on Craig's List as is with the burnt out baffle plate?

 

Does it look like the baffle is burnt away? Because a lot of them just have a ceramic fiber board that sits on top of the reburn tubes.. And not having that baffle wouldn't necessarily make it unsafe, but just not as efficient but I am hesitant to give definite answers without some good pics of the inside of the stove

 

If that's the metal part of the stove that I'm seeing all deteriorating then I would scrap the stove and get something else... Sell for $100-$150 for someone who might want it for a garage and move on... It looks pretty beat up..

 

That is the upper baffle plate; it is mostly gone; Fire just goes up the chimney out the flue like it would in a fireplace.

 

Yeah that's not gonna help resale value...
I wouldn't think it's worth trying to fix honestly

 

"Heeere he comes, to save the daaaaaay..."---Welcome! It's great to have a VC expert on the board! I've got a Dutchwest 2460 which I'm gonna tear down in the off-season, to re-cement all the seams. I like this little stove, it's my backup until I can seal a seam in the Keystone, which will happen within a week or so. About a month ago I put in a new cat, a DuraFoil steel from Woodstock for their older stoves which just happens to be 6 x 2". That thing is working great. I have a stove top meter behind the cat probe. I get the meter up to 275-300, cat probe to about zero, and it will light off within a minute or so of closing the bypass. I imagine you've done your share of the Dutchwest Convection stoves. From what I've seen posted by those who have done it, it seems pretty straight-forward. I've also seen warnings about warped panels being hard to get back together. I don't think mine is too bad but I got it used. Original owner had it about 5 years and had all the documentation so that's encouraging. Side panels are slightly grayed, though. The panels look flatter than my SIL's identical stove. I patched the seams without taking hers apart but apparently I didn't let the thin-formula "gasket cement and stove sealer" dry long enough. I let it dry a couple of days with a light inside to try to keep it a little warmer. I fired it very gently with only a couple of kindling sticks but the moisture in the sealer must have boiled out because the seams look porous. It still helped slow her stove down a bit.
One thing I'm wondering about now is that the stove appears to be burning hotter in the right side of the box, even though it is the left air flapper that is open further, which is obvious when the primary air is shut all the way. When the stove cools off I'll take a look at the air wash to see if it's open more on the right. Another thought was that maybe some air is leaking through an ash pan housing seam on the right. All the gaskets are pretty good, replaced them last year. There's a little gunk on the left side of the glass, though...I figure that's the door gasket leaking a little there, maybe the door isn't perfectly flat.

 

It's hard to say with things that may not be sealing or curing probably.... Typically gasket cement takes very little time to cure and actually will fully cute when stove is fired up... Stove cement can be quite different so #1 make sure u r using the right stuff for metal to metal bond where that's applicable... Doors can be funny when regasketed cause there can be leaks in spots if u go too thick with the cements in spots and you don't shut the door before cured... U threw a lot at me so I'm trying to cover my bases here

 

Never been on another site before... I just googled VC Encore since it's my fav stove and picked the 1st picture I really liked...