Vigilant 2310

In New Britain the bags are from the same coal. He loads it from the same huge hoppers that feed the trucks. Coaledsweat turned me on to the place. It really is like a throw back in time in his office. The hoppers are actually huge silos. Al's father had the business before him since the 1950's. Very nice people. In fact, when I first went there I also wanted just bags to test it out. I drove all the way up there and realized he only took cash or check. I had neither, just my credit/debit card which I use instead of checks for the most part. Without even me asking Al said to not worry about whereupon he loaded me up seven bags and said to send him a check. I drove up the next business day and bought two tons loose and paid him for everything. Where do you find that today?

Stick with it and I'm sure that stove will work out. As I said in other posts, I put up with a cranky steam boiler for six years. House was warm, then cold and cycled like that, along with whopping fuel bills. Now I wake up toasty warm. I used to have to bundle up even indoors. Not anymore.

Stuck, If you're near East Hampton give me a ring and I'd be happy to help out any way I could. PM me for a phone #.

After mapquesting the directions from my house it says 63 miles and 1 hour 21 minutes.

Do you all think the coal is reliable enough I don't have to waste a trip to pick up "test bags". I'd rather just take the F550 out Monday and pick up a couple tons and save a trip, fuel, and 1/2 a day.

I take it his coal is Anthracite.?

stuckinct wrote:I take it his coal is Anthracite.?

Yes it is, and damn good too. Where are you? I'm in south central CT.

Danielson, CT

Stuckinct,

What a nice ride it will be, tooling around in your F550 on I 84. Bring the wife, and after you load up with fresh anthracite coal you can stop at 'Capital Lunch' which is nearby Household Coal to get some classic hot dogs from an real old franchise. Ask Al for directions and remember to try the special sauce they have.

Yes, its a good quality anthracite and I wouldn't bother with the bags.

Wait till you have to get that 550 on the scale. Its a tight enough turn with a 350 let alone with your rig.

Well, let us know how you make out.

Update for those who are interested.

I went out to see Al Tuesday. As expected, a class A guy. We talked about my stove, he gave me some additional pointers, and he gave me the history behind his current location. Townsend was correct, deffinately a step back in time. I picked up 4 bags just to be sure of my ability to keep it going for a couple consecutive days.

I also stopped by Home Depot and bought new fiberglass gaskets, black gasket adhesive, and glass cleaner made for wood and coal stoves. I took the doors off and the glass out. After pulling out the old flatened, brittle gaskets I noticed about 1/3 of the gasket had melted and fused itself to the groove in the doors (any body know why/how this would happen?). I spent about 1.5 hours chisling out the melted fiberglass and sanding out the old adhesive. The new stuff looks like is going to work much better. To my knowledge the stove was put in when the house was built 20 years ago, I don't think anyone has replaced the gaskets since then.

I cleaned the glass with the glass cleaner and installed new gaskets around the glass also. I am wondering why is there only gaskets on 3 sides (left. right, top). The bottom didn't have a gasket from the factory so I didn't add one. Air will definately get in, not much but some. I have read that the stove above the burn should be air tight as possible so the oxygen is fed and regulated from below. Why no bottom gasket on the glass?

I will have to wait till Friday to light the stove again because of the 6-10" of snow expected tomorrow. I'll be plowing all day and night.

I burned through the 5 bags of coal in about 4 days. While the basement made it to about 80 degrees, I was unhappy with the ability of the stove to heat the upstairs. We still had to keep the electric baseboard heat set at 65 to keep warm. I was hoping that the unit would heat the basement and upstairs.

After doing some reasearch I have found that insulating the basement walls may help. Because of the risk of mold I found that 1/2 height, foil-faced, poly board (R7) would work. Insulating only the top 1/2 of the basement wall. The idea is that the top half of the foundation would dry to the outside air where it is exposed and the bottom half would dry into the basement. I spoke to a friend of mine in Ohio and he said that this type of insulation is code for unfinished basements if insulation is desired.

I'm sure it would help, I just don't know how much.

Anybody care to give 2cents.

I been following your thread. Been learning from it. A friend of mine in Quebec who heats his house with a wood stove in his basement insulated the top half of his foundation also. It make sense to me. Heat rises and the lower half of the foundation will have temperture stability from the earth. Seems that insulating the lower half could be helpful but you would get the most bang for the buck starting with the top half. I'm not claiming to be an expert, it just my two cents. Also a friend of mine in Columbia, CT has had all the same problems you have had with his Vermont Castings. He has given up on coal and is burning wood in it. They are supposed to be bituminous/antracite stoves. I thought there was a way to restrict the secondary air for burning antracite but I might be misinformed. I would temporarily block the gap at the bottom of the glass with a piece of gasket and see what happens. My idea is to draw more are through the fire. Just food for thought. Jonathan

Tell your friend that after more than a few frustrating episodes of loosing the fire, then learning how to keep it going properly, it was well worth the time and effort invested. If he has the same model be sure that he removed the air restrictor plate if he was burning anthracite.

After I get more info about the insulation for the basement (if it will be worth the $ investment), I may end up building a 3 ton coal bin.

hey stuck
try this I just saw this on ebay here is the item number

Vermont Castings Wood Stove Coal Burning Kit PUO, MA.
Item number: 290195115206

good luck

I'm burning coal in my stove now.

Interesting thread...

I have/had the same problem. My stove is in my basement. I can easily heat the basement but the other floors, not very well.

Granted, I have a 2,800 square foot house built over 100 years ago My point is that heat distribution I feel is my problem. I'm simply not "pushing" the heat where I need it to go.

It took me a little while to get the feel of my stove. I'd wake up at 3 a.m. and my nose would be cold. Right there and then I knew the stove went out! Now, it only goes out when I'm away for days.

Stick with it!

I ran into a builder friend of mine who suggested cutting in some floor vents. He was very certain it would work. Apparently there are even some floor grates that come with small cfm fans in them to help push the air. I could definately see where this would work. As the heat rises to the ceiling in my unfinished basement the warm air would be taken up and dispersed to the living area through the fan forced grates. He didn't seem to supportive of insulating the top half of the basement walls.

The builder is comming over tomorrow to take a look.

I'll post after he leaves.

Make sure cleanout covers are in place.there are three of them,this was my problem,I had one missing and it wouldn't draft well.

The stove works great, I just need to find the best way to get the heat upstairs.