Vigilant II Is Just Humming Along!!!

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Wadhams Ironworks
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Post by Wadhams Ironworks » Wed. Feb. 01, 2012 11:05 pm

Yes VigiIIPB you understand it correctly. I meant to say "I remove 8.Ashpan Front (part number 1305033) to expose grates." I have a tendency to slice a bit more aggressively just below the triangle fire brick and the sides just seem to clearout with out disturbing the rest of the coal bed. I'll take some pics tomorrow to make it a bit clearer. I keep the opposing door closed so that any fine ash does not escape the firebox and enter the airspace in my house!


 
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Robmail1
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Post by Robmail1 » Thu. Feb. 02, 2012 8:27 pm

Hope I'm not hijacking anyones mojo :lol: but its official, I am up and burning coal in my VigII, started it last night at about 6:30. Thanks to all of the fantastic knowledge on this site I knew what to expect and what to look for. Of course I still stayed awake half the night worried I'd burn the house down or kill us all with CO (I do have 2 CO detectors and bought a 3rd one today) but my wife says I'm a little OCD so go figure 8-)

Those blue ladies seem to take a little encouraging to show up, but it acts funny, to get them to start I have opened the ash pan door, and the griddle a little, then after 5-10 min. they kind of disappear on me only to come back when I close both the griddle and the ash pan door? Still a lot of learning to do I guess.

Anyway had it running about 450 over night last night, shook it down in the morning and reloaded took about half an hour because I was waiting on the blue ladies. Got home tonight and warmed it up a bit before shaking and poking at the fettle then reloaded again, looks like I have my thermostat set wrong the only way to get it past 450 was to move the handle way to the left, maybe about 20-25 degrees off of horizontal. I am guessing that means my chain is quite a bit too long :?: I did manage to push it to 700 but the living room/kit. was getting so hot the dogs were panting :D

More work to get the heat moving around the house over the next few days. (I have a 2 story with a central stair case) I may cut a hole in the sofit above the stove and tap into the upstairs cold air return .

Thanks Again Guys, more pictures to come!

 
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VigIIPeaBurner
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Post by VigIIPeaBurner » Thu. Feb. 02, 2012 8:56 pm

Robmail1 wrote:...8<..Those blue ladies seem to take a little encouraging to show up, but it acts funny, to get them to start I have opened the ash pan door, and the griddle a little, then after 5-10 min. they kind of disappear on me only to come back when I close both the griddle and the ash pan door? Still a lot of learning to do I guess.

Anyway had it running about 450 over night last night, shook it down in the morning and reloaded took about half an hour because I was waiting on the blue ladies. Got home tonight and warmed it up a bit before shaking and poking at the fettle then reloaded again, looks like I have my thermostat set wrong the only way to get it past 450 was to move the handle way to the left, maybe about 20-25 degrees off of horizontal. I am guessing that means my chain is quite a bit too long :?: I did manage to push it to 700 but the living room/kit. was getting so hot the dogs were panting :D
...>8...
Great going! You're on the first steps of the learning curve but you're doing well :D

I've seen the disappearing blue flames when I use to do as you described. With the griddle open, you've got too much over fire air and are most likely leaning out the combustion cycle. I have opened the griddle after closing the ash door to fire up the blue flames. I don't keep both open - coal combustion likes under fire air.

I'm concerned about the angle you've got the flap handle to maintain >450. How open was the bottom of the flap when you reached ~600*? My tstat-handle runs about vertical and the flap is open ~ 1/8 or less at the bottom with the internal damper closed. Close the damper when you get to 450-500*. Do you have the clean out plates covering the all three cleanout ports? Is the air reducer removed from the stove's lower back right side just under the grate pivot bar? There shouldn't be any thing that looks like this covering the large rectangular air port.
See the unrestricted air hole on your left just behing the grate bar?
Look back on page four to see how Matt checked his stove joints for leaks. He sealed his up and needs a lot less 'thermostat' to hold heating temperates. It seems that this is a possibility on used VC stoves that have been moved around a few time.

Steal mojo :lol: More than enough of that here to share!

 
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Wadhams Ironworks
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Post by Wadhams Ironworks » Thu. Feb. 02, 2012 9:33 pm

Congrats on getting the VigII up and running. Welcome to the family. OCD is our drink of choice here! Keep us updated!

 
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Robmail1
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Post by Robmail1 » Thu. Feb. 02, 2012 9:36 pm

Hmm sometimes this stuff is just so hard to describe without pictures. So to maintain 450 the flap( on the back) is only open about 1/8 or less but the handle is way to the left. To get to 700 I had the flap open about an inch with the handle getting close to horizontal. I think its just the chain from the lever to the flap just needs tightened up.

I think I am just being overlly cautious with the blue ladies, hearing about those puff backs make me really nervous.

 
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vmi1983
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Post by vmi1983 » Thu. Feb. 02, 2012 10:09 pm

Robmail1 wrote:Hope I'm not hijacking anyones mojo :lol: but its official, I am up and burning coal in my VigII, started it last night at about 6:30. Thanks to all of the fantastic knowledge on this site I knew what to expect and what to look for. Of course I still stayed awake half the night worried I'd burn the house down or kill us all with CO (I do have 2 CO detectors and bought a 3rd one today) but my wife says I'm a little OCD so go figure

Those blue ladies seem to take a little encouraging to show up, but it acts funny, to get them to start I have opened the ash pan door, and the griddle a little, then after 5-10 min. they kind of disappear on me only to come back when I close both the griddle and the ash pan door? Still a lot of learning to do I guess.

Anyway had it running about 450 over night last night, shook it down in the morning and reloaded took about half an hour because I was waiting on the blue ladies. Got home tonight and warmed it up a bit before shaking and poking at the fettle then reloaded again, looks like I have my thermostat set wrong the only way to get it past 450 was to move the handle way to the left, maybe about 20-25 degrees off of horizontal. I am guessing that means my chain is quite a bit too long :?: I did manage to push it to 700 but the living room/kit. was getting so hot the dogs were panting :D

More work to get the heat moving around the house over the next few days. (I have a 2 story with a central stair case) I may cut a hole in the sofit above the stove and tap into the upstairs cold air return .
Hey Rob,

When I got the 1992 VigII, it was missing the ash clean out covers, and mice had nested in the the gas passages , If the passages are clogged up that is a big problem. But even with well cleaned stove and all the ash covers, there was a more hidden problem. Like I said, all the cement seals were leaking so the
SYTEM was not close to air-tight. I had to keep the air inlet almost wide open to get to a 650-700 F temperature at the top of the stove. But the sides were not producing much heat, and no fans or other tricks could heat the 2200 sq ft house entirely, all the time---24-7. Basically, there was an over abundance of air being sucked into the stove. Yet the stove did burn coal, and fairly well. In other words, since the air inlet is supposed to be closed at about an 1/8 inch (once
the fire got going strong), if I closed it down, the temps would drop and I feared it would go below 400 F because the gauge kept plummeting I never wanted to lose the fire, so I kept it wide open. :mad: I incorrectly assumed I had a chimney with a bad draft, never mind that it is only 22 ft tall :lol:

I am pretty sure there may be a few leaks left not attended to until the end of the season, but most are sealed as the stove air inlet now operates
similar to VigII's and Wadham"s, plus there is an outpouring of heat. This is distinct from just having heat hit the top.. It's radiating from the sides, front corners, front as well...
what I believe is occurring is, the heat is moving slower into the side vents, and down through the passages, which creates a longer heat path and thus a more efficient output of heat. I am not sure exactly, perhaps someone else can articulate this more clearly, (I am still in stove school).

Thanks,

Matt

 
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VigIIPeaBurner
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Post by VigIIPeaBurner » Thu. Feb. 02, 2012 10:25 pm

You shouldn't have to worry about puff backs unless you add fresh coal to a hot fire and shut the damper and the air down before you see blue flames. With a decent draft with the VigII, if your griddle temperature is >450* and there are strong blue flames, you can damp down. I never change my tstat handle unless I need more/less heat. Set and forget for the most part.

I does sound like an adjustment on the thermostat might be needed if your flap is only open 1/8" and the tstat handle is so far to your left and you confirm there are no leaks bypassing the fire. Again, you are closing the damper? Once you fill up with coal to near the side vents and damp down, how long can you go? Should be 12 hrs easy. If not, you're likely blowing heat up the chimney and heating the neighbor's yard :lol: Basically after I shake down, I refill, wait for strong blue flames (5-10 minutes usually) and damp down. The griddle is usually ~450* by then. After ~ 1hr, the stove is cruising along at 6-700*. Matt is correct about the sides radiating a lot of heat. Now my griddle measures ~ 620*, the sides are 520*. When it's running flat out, the sides are ~620-650*. It will do this days on end :)

It takes a while to figure this out - we're here to help speed you along.
  • Wadhams, please pass that bottle this way ... again :)


 
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Robmail1
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Post by Robmail1 » Fri. Feb. 03, 2012 8:44 am

I think my stove is relativly tight, I was able to take a lighter around all the major seems and did not see any draw on the flame except right by the stove pipe, which I plan to address with a little furnace cement.

I do have all 3 clean out plates (had to buy 2 of them when I was cleaning up the stove.) I am not sure I get where that other plate is, It doesn't look like anything I've seen in the stove? I'll have to take a closer look next time I can get at it, it's a little tooo warm right now :D.

I was able to keep the griddle at about 600 all night last night and still had a good amount of coal in the morning this morning. Stove pipe about 8" up is about 220-250. Had the internal damper closed and the therm. flap open about 1/4 maybe.

I did notice this morning that the shake down didn't seem to shake much ash out :mad: I had a few glowing coals in the ash pan but it didn't seem like enough. It also looked like the whole pile of lit coal was shaking in bulk during the shaking process... I am thinking I might have some clinkers forming, I sliced through the coal in one or 2 spots and I did meet a lot of resistance before being able to poke down between the grates. But the stove was burning great, the blue ladies arrived really quickly after the refil running it at 600 so I'll just wait and see what it's like after work today.

The room with the stove is probably about 78 degrees, I need to get a better system to move the air to the rest of the house, the furnance kicked on at about 5am and ran a few times until I got up and reloaded the stove. It's interesting, the stove was still 600 degress but it wasn't radiating as far until I reloaded.

Thanks again guys for all your help, what a great bunch people.

 
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VigIIPeaBurner
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Post by VigIIPeaBurner » Fri. Feb. 03, 2012 6:17 pm

The restrictor plate fastens over the air inlet. If yours looked like it was wide open, that means your set up for burning anthracite. The restrictor plate is needed to burn bituminous (not wood :verycool: )

Attachments

VII_AirFeed.jpg

zoom shot of unrestricted air inlet located just behind your left side of the grate bar.

.JPG | 55.4KB | VII_AirFeed.jpg

 
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vmi1983
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Post by vmi1983 » Mon. Feb. 06, 2012 3:52 pm

Ok VigII users.... the front and rear house doors are wide-open.... never seen such warm conditions this time of the year. The VigII is burning nicely.
The stove heat and cooler outside fresh air mix to make for very comfortable environment . There's no snow or ice outside to really speak of. If I was
burning only oil, I'd be angry as it is too cold to go without heat, and it would cost more a small fortune... yet I am a little disappointed, I wish it was colder right now, but hey that's the way it goes. It would be nice to hear from you guys/gals... how are your Vig stoves running in this warm weather? Are you enjoying them?

Thanks,

Matt

 
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Post by nortcan » Mon. Feb. 06, 2012 4:04 pm

Mine can run from the colder to the warmer times and can idle at about 125*F..............just like the bride(stove) :lol: or to 700*F like yours :lol:

 
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vmi1983
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Post by vmi1983 » Tue. Feb. 07, 2012 10:40 pm

nortcan wrote:Mine can run from the colder to the warmer times and can idle at about 125*F..............just like the bride(stove) :lol: or to 700*F like yours :lol:
Idle at 125 F? I can't go that low :lol: ...

Ok so let's see... it's very cold tonight, clear sky, high pressure over-head, looks like a full moon. My neighbor says expect 5 F as a low. (I'll bet
it's a tad colder on your side of the border Nort.) But since the VigII has been humming since mid-nov non-stop, we don't scare so easily. A year ago,
... would be dreading a cold snap. With that oil burner blasting on and off, and a massive monthly oil bill, and all my neighbors burning wood and a few coal, I was taking-it in the shorts. So ... coal burning takes away the so-called dreariness of winter. Wadhams is coming by tomorrow
morning, to drink a cup-o-joe, and talk coal stoving (my new word). :D

Thanks Everybody!

Matt

 
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Robmail1
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Post by Robmail1 » Wed. Feb. 08, 2012 8:37 am

Hey guys, thought I'd give a quick update. I've been up and running 7 days now, the Vig II is an awesome coal burner!! I'm averaging about 50lbs of coal a day and keeping the temps in about the 550-600 range, which with the warmer temps is more than enough heat to keep all but the far bedrooms toasty. (I'm still working on a good way to move the heat through the house.)

I have a good morning routine that is taking me 10 min. or less and gets me my morning coffee! I go down open the damper and the bottom ash door for about a minute, close the door give it a good shake, open the door dump a hod full of coal. Make my pot of coffee, check the blue ladies, close the door, wake the kids for school, close the damper and off to get my shower!!! 10 min. tops. Of course I spend about 30 min. in the evening emptying the ash pan twice and really getting all the ash out of the fettle and the around the sides but that's fine as the evening isn't so busy.

I have been burning nut coal, I tried a bag of pea coal but I found the stove much slower to respond and not as easy for me to gage what the fire was like. Probably just need to experiment some more with it.

Thanks for the advice guys!

 
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vmi1983
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: Godin Large Round/ La Belle Epoque
Coal Size/Type: Nut/Anthracite

Post by vmi1983 » Wed. Feb. 08, 2012 8:50 am

Robmail1 wrote:Hey guys, thought I'd give a quick update. I've been up and running 7 days now, the Vig II is an awesome coal burner!! I'm averaging about 50lbs of coal a day and keeping the temps in about the 550-600 range, which with the warmer temps is more than enough heat to keep all but the far bedrooms toasty. (I'm still working on a good way to move the heat through the house.)

I have a good morning routine that is taking me 10 min. or less and gets me my morning coffee! I go down open the damper and the bottom ash door for about a minute, close the door give it a good shake, open the door dump a hod full of coal. Make my pot of coffee, check the blue ladies, close the door, wake the kids for school, close the damper and off to get my shower!!! 10 min. tops. Of course I spend about 30 min. in the evening emptying the ash pan twice and really getting all the ash out of the fettle and the around the sides but that's fine as the evening isn't so busy.

I have been burning nut coal, I tried a bag of pea coal but I found the stove much slower to respond and not as easy for me to gage what the fire was like. Probably just need to experiment some more with it.

Thanks for the advice guys!
Very Nice Rob! :D The metal thermometer atop the VigII (here) actually is not so accurate. It's about 60 degrees shy of reality. In Wadhams-land
NY the VigII gets a couple of layers of fresh coal before the shake-down. That is using pea. With nut, the stove takes off much quicker. Next year
hopefully the garage bin will have more nut than pea. Great to hear you are enjoying the VigII!!!! :D

 
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vmi1983
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Post by vmi1983 » Fri. Feb. 10, 2012 7:06 am

It was pretty darn cold this morning... near 0 F.... with a half load of pea remaining, the VigII was cranking
at 700 F. The weatherman says we should have a cold weekend with sunday morning at -5 F. Had to open the
air inlet about a 1/2 inch to keep the stove at 700 F.....she's cooking and the house is fairly warm. Good news
is the oil burner did not kick on :D

Even durning daylight and warmer temps, the stove will be kicking 700 F so as the house will absorb as much heat as possible. With warm walls, and ceilings, etc., the house will be a kind of heat sink, which is necessary
to keep the structure warm as the temps drop tonight..... :?:


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