I just got this stove for free from my brother-in-law, which I just put in the bunk house at our cabin. I believe it is from the mid to late 80s. It is much heavier than the very old stove it replaced. Fire brick at the back is looking pretty rough and there is a pretty big gap at the bottom of the back firebrick configuration (2-3"). I know nothing about these stoves. I did fire it up and it appears to run well. From the looking I have done, fire brick packages are hard to come by for these stoves. Does anyone have a source I could contact for best availability of pars?
This what you're looking for? Vermont Castings 1602497A Resolute Acclaim Combustion Package You can also download a manual for it here. https://woodstoves.net/documents/Vermont-Castings/Resolute-Acclaim-manual.pdf
Can you post some pictures of what we’re looking at? I’m not familiar with that stove but family has a Vermont Castings Intrepid from the 80’s so I’d be curious where sources of parts would be had.
I got one of these passed down from a BIL after it was 20+ years old. It was the secondary stove in the downstairs family room, so not needed all the time 24X7 and looked nice. It was red enamel. I put a new combustor in it. It cost a couple hundred bucks for the combustor and it took me a couple of days, tons of skinned knuckles and profanity to take it apart and put it back together with the new combustor in there. Expect warped parts and lot's of difficulty getting it put back together. I put in all new gaskets as well. I finally had it put together as well as could be expected with what I had and it worked nicely as a secondary stove. I loved the top feeding functionality. and it heated nicely for about a year.. and then due to all the use I gave it over that year it deteriorated quickly. My advice... use it as it is if you can, don't take it apart and expect it to be like a new rebuilt stove if you go the route I did. Just burn it like a old style smoke dragon that eats tons of wood but gets hot enough to heat a cabin for some week-ends. It's just not reliable enough of easy enough to maintain to make it worth the effort. Consider one of those Home depot stoves that are $900 or so and are the best bang for the buck for a nice heater at a reasonable price. YMMV but I don't think anyone familiar with these stoves would say much different. Does it look like this?
Yes that is it. It is going to be used to heat the bunk house at our cabin for sleeping for guests during hunting camps in the fall, then a week over the New Year holiday, and a few odd weekends thereafter, such as President's day weekend, spring break in March, etc.. So I like your plan of using it as is. Like I said, it seemed to run fine for me, and certainly better than the old stove that it replaced.
If the use is simply sporadic and burn efficiency isn't real important, I'd just use it. Maybe take a look at the gaskets and replace or repair any loose or hanging off gaskets. Use some gasket cement on any actual leaks in the stove. take a vacuum to the inside of it, make sure the stove pipe is tight, leak proof and serviceable. There is a draft control on it, and make sure it is working and you'll be fine. Might not heat as good new one but it'll heat okay for some over-nighters and small vacations.
Your right. It is in 10X16' building with 2X6" construction, so the amount of heat it throws will be fine with relatively small loads, even in -30f. It seemed to fire up fast, then damp down real well, even with the top lever open, by using the damper on the stove pipe, and closing the bottom venting lever to the left. I'll see how that plan goes.
Each stove/flue install is it's own system and it takes a bit of time to master it. Depending on wood, outside temps etc. Just burn it and don't worry about it getting hot these stoves can throw some major heat when needed.
