Mid-October: It's been a wonderful fall with only two nights of frost so far. We've used the wood stove sporadically to "take the chill off". It's so nice to have a place to go in our home to warm up. It's nice to have wireless so I can start the stove in the morning with a cup of coffee and sit in front of the stove.
Much of the wood I am burning is smaller stuff; standing dead wood and small maple mostly.The stove starts easily and heats up quickly.
With all the posted negative press about catalytic converters, so far I am impressed with the Vermont Castings Defiant and its ability to heat well. Once the burn is established and the stove top temp is 600-650 degrees, I close the damper to force the exhaust through the catalytic converter and the stove just hums along belting out a consistent heat.
It takes a while for the first floor of our house to heat up; about 2-3 hours if not longer (the stove is in our basement). I'm certain this is due to all of the construction materials in the basement absorbing heat. If we start the stove in the evening and I fire it to last the night (more on this later), I wake up in the morning and the floors are warm and comfortable to walk on barefoot! Even after the stove has been out for over a day, the house still radiates warmth. This is something that we never felt with hot water baseboard heat.
Early November: The stove runs day and night now. I've been keeping an eye on thermometers located on the 1st floor and 2nd floor thermostats. Early this morning (4:30 am), the stove had used up all the wood I had packed into it the night before. There were some coals left and the stove top temp had cooled to about 150 degrees (normal operating temp on the stove top ranges between 500-650 degrees). Outside, the temperature was 21 degrees. The second floor temp had dropped to 64 degrees (from 68) and the first floor temp was about 69 degrees (from 74 the evening before). We are still not using any oil to heat our home. I am in the process of adding more insulation to our attic (previous post). I'm also building some really cool interior storm windows (for the second floor) that look great, still allow you to see outdoors and feel as though they will do a great job of helping to curb heat migration. More on these later.
Late November: Still loving wood heat; not really feeling the love about our Vermont Castings Non-catalytic/Catalytic Woodstove Model 1975. When you buy the mac-daddy of woodstoves from a premier wood stove manufacturer; you expect to get something that not only works, but works well. The day before Thanksgiving, I opened the top to add wood and was surprised to find that the ceramic backplate had cracked into two pieces and fallen into the firebox. I've learned in my lifetime to give the benefit of doubt. So, I went to the dealer and they gave me a new backplate. Two days later, I was adding small wood (1.5 in diameter) to a small fire. A stick of wood bumped the backplate and the backplate broke again. I'm on my third plate and I'm beginning to be wary. The night before last, I awoke startled and very freaked out (I sleep deeply) to a very strong odor of smoke. It was so strong, my wife became extremely nauseous. Thankfully the house wasn't on fire and I spent the next two hours sitting in front of our stove trying to figure out what happened. The next morning when the stove had cooled, I opened up the catalytic converter housing to find that the converter was cracked. So, we're in the process now of contacting VC and will be talking to the dealer again. Sent an email to VC and 24 hours later they still have not responded. Will update as the story progresses.
Late January: I should have updated this a while ago as our issues appear to be resolved. VC finally responded (albeit over 10 days after my email). In a nutshell, they drop the responsibility back on their stove vendor. So, if you are buying a VC woodstove; make sure you feel good about who you a re buying it from! Mazzeo's in Rockport, Maine, has been very good about providing me with parts during this frustrating period. They put their heads together and came up with a very reasonable explanation for what was happening in our situation.
It was my fault for reading the directions. Yes, it's true. The manual that came with our VC Defiant said to clean out the ash pan whenever it was full. So, every morning, when the stove was filled with just coals, I'd clean out the firebox, filling the ash pan, which I would empty. This situation coupled with 3 floors of chimney created a very strong draft through the stove causing too much heat, too quickly. The stove didn't get over temperature, there was just too much heat moving through the firebox causing the backplate to become too hot and brittle.
Solution. Let the ashes accumulate to 3-4" deep in the bottom of the stove and empty them only once every three days to a week. Apparently anyone who has been using a woodstove for a while knows this. Yet, it wasn't important enough to add this to the instruction manual. Chalk this up to a rookie mistake; how was I to know? Since making this change, the woodstove has been working even better, I have been using less wood and the backplate hasn't broken since.
The issue with the smoke also had to do with the tall chimney and the weight of the air in the chimney on warmer days. I'm not going to get into the details but this issue too is resolved now that we understand this nuance.
Our Defiant keeps our over 2000 sqft home comfortable down into the teens. Below 10, the house cools off at night when the stove gets throttled back. Still, we've only used our oil heat once this winter (so far). Note: I have built these really cool interior storm windows for our upstairs windows. These have had a HUGE impact on heat loss!
I have also installed two fan units experimentally as the convection thing was working but not well enough to keep our home comfortable. One fan (an inexpensive bathroom vent fan) pushes warm air up to a second floor register in the hallway in the middle of the house. The second fan (an Airflow Breeze Ultra made by Airflow Technologies), sits in a first floor wall register I put in and pulls warm air from above the woodstove in the basement through a 4x10 opening out into the middle of the first floor. The Airflow breeze works very well (it has 3 speed settings and two fans) and at about $100 was a bit expensive but worth it. It's fairly quiet on it's medium setting where it runs most all the time. As soon as we have a bit more $, I plan on replacing the bathroom fan with something quieter and a tad more powerful to get more heat to the second floor.
I do have to comment on the feeling I have knowing we don't have to invest money in purchasing home heating oil every year.
- Yes, it's labor intensive cutting, splitting and stacking firewood for a winter's worth of heat.
- Yes, it takes time to bring wood into the house every few days.
- Yes, you have to monitor the woodstove regularly throughout the day.
However, there is a great feeling of complete satisfaction inside that I don't feel often.
I think it comes from taking one big step away from the large dark shadow of big oil. Inside, I'm glowing with the feeling that I have regained some of my freedom.
Winter 2013-14: This is our third heating season with our Vermont Castings, Defiant Dual Mode Woodstove, Model 1975. This is probably the most important post if you are considering purchasing this stove. There are a number of design flaws you should be aware of. First, the catalyst sucks. It lasts maybe two months before the catalyst honeycomb begins to disintegrate. After 4-5 months, I pulled my second one out and it completely fell apart. This was my second (and last) catalyst. Apparently most folks (including us now) just run the stove without it.
Secondly, the ceramic backplate is prone to breaking. VC has replaced about 5 of them now for us free of charge. The latest incarnation is thicker and without a design embossed into the front which is supposed to increase the integrity. My last (thin) backplate lasted over a year when it broke on me this fall. It was replaced with the newer thicker one; this one broke today after only 3 months of use.
VC has been sold (again) to an employee-owned company down south somewhere. Perhaps they will bring the quality back to Vermont Castings that has been lost.
On the upside, the stove heats well. It keeps our 2000+ square foot home comfortable until either the temps drop to single digits or the wind begins to blow. Two fan units keep the warm air circulating. The bathroom fan was replaced with a 4" inline centrifugal fan (to push more air to the second floor) and the AirFlow Breeze is still working great. The stove is nice to look at and has given us a new living space in our basement during the winter.
