A few years ago I purchased a Vermont Castings Vigilant off Craigslist on the other side of Connecticut from me. I dragged the old dog home and installed it in my living room. I think this would have been 2015 or 2016. I kept it for a few years before doing a bit of a remodel in the house and gave the stove to my BIL. He never used it and it sat covered in his garage for a couple years. Jump to this fall and a cousin of mine who has an open hearth expressed some interest. We loaded the stove into the back of a truck and got it up to his house. We ordered a liner from Rockford, got the insulating kit and installed it down the chimney. Surprisingly the stove hooked up pretty quickly. To fit the stove inside the opening we took the legs off. I'll post a few photos. All in all once we got going I think it took us 3 hours or so to go from hauling the liner up the roof to having a fire going in the stove.
That’ll save him a few bucks to heat his house this winter…. Now to learn about properly drying the firewood.. looks like he is off to a good start and has a good mentor if needed…
No doubt. His old fireplace was terrible. Just open straight up to the sky. No flue damper or anything. The place is a total bachelor pad, but it was cold and drafty. He joked and said installing the stove even without lighting it makes the place a whole lot warmer. As for the dry wood.... you can take a horse to water. No one takes advice about stacking early. Just had my wife's aunt ask where to buy wood. The time to buy was months ago with energy prices being what they are.
She can probably get some Northern Idaho Energy Logs from Robbins Stove Shop in Oxford,ma.Ph 508-987-2897.These things are the hottest burning things out there.You would need to make sure she follows the directions using these things.They can melt your stove if you use too many.
Brief update for anyone interested. Spoke with my cousin today and asked for his impressions about the stove: he said the thermostat is set to 58 and the house was at 70 over the weekend. The burn on the weekends and at night if the temps drop. The 1977 model Vigilant (manufactured in 1984) still lives.