Vigilant II Is Just Humming Along!!!

My first stove was a VC Defiant wood stove from the late 70's. The long flame path is something VC established early on in their stove designs, including the earlier multi fuel versions of the Vigilant. Franko b makes a valid point, choose low ash coal if you can as it will make running this stove even more enjoyable.

Fire it up and soon you be looking thru the top loader at the gates of ....

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franco b wrote:.....I do think some things could have been done differently. The little 45 degree bricks are silly and I would have preferred a bigger ash pan done in the standard way to the smaller but convenient one. I tapered a standard split brick to replace the 45 degree one, and in time I intend to replace the ash pan with a larger one.

I am not going to use the little triangle bricks this season. I plan on cutting a fire brick in half across it's width at a 30* angle. My plan is to cement the half tall bricks to the left and right side wall bricks thus having the angle much higher up there fore eliminating the pile of ash that collects on the sides where the little triangle bricks use to live. The coal above the "ash line" will keep the bricks in place as well as the cement and the ash will drop straight down to the pan. Fingers crossed!

michaelanthony wrote:

franco b wrote:.....I do think some things could have been done differently. The little 45 degree bricks are silly and I would have preferred a bigger ash pan done in the standard way to the smaller but convenient one. I tapered a standard split brick to replace the 45 degree one, and in time I intend to replace the ash pan with a larger one.

I am not going to use the little triangle bricks this season. I plan on cutting a fire brick in half across it's width at a 30* angle. My plan is to cement the half tall bricks to the left and right side wall bricks thus having the angle much higher up there fore eliminating the pile of ash that collects on the sides where the little triangle bricks use to live. The coal above the "ash line" will keep the bricks in place as well as the cement and the ash will drop straight down to the pan. Fingers crossed!

I left the split brick its full thickness and tapered the upper 2 inches of the 4 inch side down to about 1/2 inch than furnace cement to continue the taper to nothing. Works well.

Started the reassembly of the stove and got my wife to help me getting it up so I could bolt the legs back on. I used a technique I learned in the Navy when we had to elevate heavy equipment in the boiler room. You only lift one side and put cribbing under it then move to the other side. Repeat process until it's at the height you want. Only problem I had was she kept wanting to hold the 2x4 pieces close to the stove while I was lifting it. I kept having to tell her if you like your fingers don't do that and just wait until I say go. When the legs were bolted on we repeated the process but removed boards instead of adding them.

Anyway it is now on it's legs, all the pieces are inside, the grates are in and work on full stroke range, the top doors are on and I need to get some gasket cement because some areas on the right top door are loose. One I bolt the lower ash door bracket back to the stove I can mount it and test it out. Work continues today. It needs quite a bit of wipe down and the door handles are stiff due to sitting in a damp basement all those years. Glue, cleaning, and touchup is about all that is really left.

Rev. Larry
New Beginning Church
Ashland Pa. 17921

VigIIPeaBurner wrote:My first stove was a VC Defiant wood stove from the late 70's. The long flame path is something VC established early on in their stove designs, including the earlier multi fuel versions of the Vigilant. Franko b makes a valid point, choose low ash coal if you can as it will make running this stove even more enjoyable.

Fire it up and soon you be looking thru the top loader at the gates of ....

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That is a picture of a warm house!

All Right!!! The 2310 is together, piped to the chimney and I have a small fire going using a small Enviro brick to bake the moisture out. This should get the initial seasoning done to cook in the furnace cement, dry out the brick, test the joints etc etc etc.

Bring on the cold weather now.

Got coal
Got wood

Ready to go.

Rev. Larry
New Beginning Church
Ashland Pa.

Nice Padre--you're set

ddahlgren wrote: That is a picture of a warm house!

Indeed it is!

Looking good RL! I do have a suggestion for you as you learn your way around this stove. It will preserve your hardwood floor in the front of your stove if the smallish pad is all you plan to use when the Vig is running coal. Find an inexpensive jelly roll baking pan that will fit between the front legs of the stove. I see them at flea markets and yard sales, you don't need anything fancy and if it's black already, she's a match Fill it with sand nearly to the tops of all sides and slide it under the stove. When you tend the fire, pull it out all the way until the back edge is just under the ash lip. This will help contain any ash and (I speak from experience) bouncing red coals that might make it free when you poke above the fettle and clear the front grill. Those burning red hot coals sure do have some elastici Son-of-Flubber qualities The sand deadens the bounce and they should stay put. I learned this a little too late

Thanks for the tip about the baking pan. I was wondering what I could do to keep the little bouncy coals from rolling across the room. I had planned on getting a hearth rug and then having a piece of sheet metal to put down. Your idea with the pan and sand stored under the stove is a lot neater.

Got up this morning and it was 45 outside 65 inside. I lit a quick fire with lumber pieces and then threw a couple of cherry logs on top of that. We now have a nice small fire knocking the chill and warming the house back up to 72 pretty quickly.

Momma is happy. That's all that matters.

Rev. Larry
New Beginning Church
Ashland Pa.

With wood fires, front doors shut and the restrictor plate removed for anthracite fires, watch the temperatures of the stove top. Without the restrictor plate the thermostat doesn't respond quickly enough to properly reduce combustion air and temperatures.

Thanks for the heads up. It's been quite awhile since I burned wood in a stove and never one like the VC2310. With a very small fire I slipped it into indirect mode and the flame never blinked. My wife cleaned off the top of the desk which means I can't find my infrared gun and she can't remember where she put it. House Hunt coming up!!! I had to use visual clues and hand temperature on the various parts of the stove as to what was happening which worked OK.

When I put the stove back together I made sure that the joints were all clean and tight and sealed. I remounted and re-glued the gaskets and made sure they sealed good which they did. I readjusted the door latches so they held the loading and ash doors snug.

I put an MPD in the flue pipe simply because I always have had one. I can see with this stove I probably will never need to use it unless I want to have a coal fire dialed almost to nothing. With that said I experimented with the air inlet thermostatic control and it's sensitivity surprised me. As the stove started heating up with it on a very low setting the shutter would go completely closed and the fire would start to go out. I opened the little tombstone inlet on the left side and that kept the fire from going out. It did however start smoldering and smoked up the glass until I opened the thermostatic control so it wouldn't go completely closed with my small fire. A wood fire was good to experiment with because I could see the changes happen quickly instead of waiting 30 minutes with a coal fire. I now know how the certain changes will affect a fire.

No doubt about it this stove is now air tight. In order to get a good controllable wood fire I had to crack the ash pan door from time to time. To me though, a coal fire is much easier to tend. You don't poke it, shift it, and rearrange it while it's burning. You set it and forget it if you have your stove in order. After a small fire with wood, I had to sweep around the stove to get up the bark parts and dirt that came in on the wood along with two ants and I was handling it carefully so I didn't make a mess!

Now I remember why I don't like to heat with wood. And they say coal is too dirty to heat with.

Rev. Larry
New Beginning Church
Ashland Pa.

Sounds like you're ready RL and I don't want to rush winter here but just so you know you will be pleasantly surprised when you switch over to coal. If you like try a small load of charcoal if want a close comparison.

Rev. Larry,
I have the Vigilant multifuel (1400) and quickly determined that if set up for one fuel it does not do well with the other. The manual advises to go back and forth for heat or aesthetic purposes, but I only burn coal, and it performs very well. If I had judged it by its wood burning characteristics when set up for coal, I would have been very disappointed. I suspect burning wood in it would be fine with different air settings, grates and ash pan removed, and sand or ashes lining the bottom of the stove. Not something you do on the fly!

You are 100% correct. I have it set up for coal and optimized for coal. Based on what I ran into with just the very short burn using some lumber and then some cherry wood, using the stove as a wood burner, I would have yanked it out and put anything else in it's place. Maybe even a Franklin!!!

Knowing what I know about burning coal and burning wood, when your set up for coal and try to burn wood, you will get a fight from your stove because it doesn't like it. I can do it on short bursts for the cool mornings and evenings until it gets cold but I would not try to heat my house using wood and this stove.

Rev. Larry
New Beginning Church
Ashland Pa. 17921

Crack the front doors a bit and it works fine and the glass stays cleaner.