Great burn, no heat, what am I doing wrong?

Installed a used VC Vigilent coal stove and after many false starts have had fun getting it to light. Now that we have replaced the top door gasket, removed the restrictor plate to burn anthrocite and re-installed the shaker grates properly and right side up, it burns beautifully. An absolute joy to behold. 8 - 12 hours, no problem. The little lever in the back controls the burn rate very well.

Well, one problem... no heat. House is 1200 sq.ft and stove makes no appreciable difference in the room it is located. Draft is strong and chimney is capped. The stove does have that handle that closes it up, is a seperate damper needed as well ? Is that where we are going wrong ?

What steps can I take next to make this heat our home? We are cold and frustrated. Any suggestions would be appreciated..
Samantha

Samantha wrote:Well, one problem... no heat. House is 1200 sq.ft and stove makes no appreciable difference in the room it is located. Draft is strong and chimney is capped. The stove does have that handle that closes it up, is a seperate damper needed as well ? Is that where we are going wrong ?

What steps can I take next to make this heat our home? We are cold and frustrated. Any suggestions would be appreciated..
Samantha

You probably need a barometric damper, the strong draft is outsourcing your heat up the chimney. The baro will limit the draft to a set point and the heat will start radiating from the stove.

The M or R/C should do it. Your burn times could go up as well as using less coal with it too.

http://www.fieldcontrols.com/draftcontrol.php

if you have the room in your piping, that would be a good start. What happens is when you start generating more heat, of course, heat rises in the pipe causing it to draw more out of the stove, the baro will limit the draw on the stove and open, as to regulate the heat coming out of the stove, therefore, creating more heat IN the stove.

http://nepacrossroads.com/download/file.php?id=1799

Thank you ! I will start there. I am assuming that a manual damper would be the easiest way to start. I appreciate the advice.
Thank you again !
Samantha

Samantha wrote:I am assuming that a manual damper would be the easiest way to start.

No, the manual damper will not break the draft. It may help, but a baro is what is needed to stop the heat loss. You had best get a manometer or draft gauge and I would also get two thermometers. Get a reading on the draft when the fire is burning well and set the baro to the manufacturer's specs. Put one thermo on the stovepipe and one on the stove top itself. These instruments will give you the feedback you need to become fluent with your stove.

coaledsweat wrote:

Samantha wrote:I am assuming that a manual damper would be the easiest way to start.

No, the manual damper will not break the draft. It may help, but a baro is what is needed to stop the heat loss. You had best get a manometer or draft gauge and I would also get two thermometers. Get a reading on the draft when the fire is burning well and set the baro to the manufacturer's specs. Put one thermo on the stovepipe and one on the stove top itself. These instruments will give you the feedback you need to become fluent with your stove.

"fluent" GROAN!!!

Part of the problem could be it has no circulating fan and the rated BTU output. 50,000 max is somewhat low especially with no blower. I see it's rated to heat up to 2000 sq ft. My Mark II puts out up to 72,000 BTU and is rated at to heat 1900 sq. ft.
Just a thought.

I do have the ceiling fans on and thought that would be enought. I will have to look into a blower kit.....
Thank you everyone. You have given me hope ! I will let you know how things work out. I love the heat of coal, don't mind the ash. It is worth the effort.
Samantha

have a sister

Look into the barometric damper first. Blower kit, maybe ... I know that is tempting because it is easier than the baro damper, but it won't have nearly the benefit. Your ceiling fans may help spread the heat around, but that depends a lot on how open your floor plan is. Heat often does not disperse from room to room through doorways nearly as much as you might expect.

Yes, Ken, I have a sister but she is very high maintenance.

Rberq, The room that I would like to take the chill off of is 24 x 17 with high ceilings. Not an easy room to heat with baseboards. I went so far as to put small fans in the door jams of the bedrooms but never got enough heat off the stove for them to make any difference. Cat actually jumped off a beam and onto the stove top and did not seem to get injured in any way. Dumb cat.
I took a look at the pipe last night and it is a 6" round. I would have to replace the 2" section right after the stove to put in a Baro. Damper. I will look for installation specs later on today. I hope that there is enough space. I can move the stove out a couple more feet if necessary as it is on a flagstone floor. I think that this weekend I will get the B.Damper installed and see where it goes from there. Fingers Crossed ! Thank You Everyone ! Sam

Samantha wrote:I took a look at the pipe last night and it is a 6" round. I would have to replace the 2" section right after the stove to put in a Baro. Damper.

The baro can attatch to either a vertical or horizontal pipe run. There is an adapter that comes with it to mount it anywhere on a straight piece of pipe. You just need some tinsnips and a drill.

That sounds like something I can handle. Thank you coaledsweat. Sometimes it is overwhelming with this stove. I have been working with this since November. But on the upside, I have only had 100 gallons of oil delivered so far this winter. So it is heating the house somewhat. Once I get it all set, I can rest easy. Thank you ! Sam

I noticed that you mentioned the bypass damper at the beginning of this thread, but that no one has touched on it.

The Vermont Castings Vigilant was born as a wood only model, back in the hay-day of VC and so it retains the bypass damper of the original stove. With the bypass gate open, the flue gases flow from the burning bed of coal directly up the stack. While this is OK for people with weak draft, there is generally a loss of heating efficiency when operating the stove in this manner.

Instead, start the stove with the bypass gate open (gases routed straight up the flue). Once you have a strong coal fire burning, close the bypass gate and force the flue gases to travel through the internal passages of the stove and transfer more heat to the room. This should also cure your high draft situation. This is not to say that you don't need a barometric damper as well. I highly recommend using them on all coal stoves.

There should be instructions regarding the bypass damper in your manual. If I remember correctly though, turning the rod Counter-Clockwise will open the bypass gate. Turning it CW will close the gate. You should hear and feel the latch cam over the the bypass gate lock into place when closing.

We have been running with the bypass closed and not getting the heat that we should. The draft is very strong. And now that we have replaced the top gasket and corrected the front grate issues, the stove burns wonderfully with the bypass closed for 8 - 10 hours easy. When we start a fire the wood throws more heat than a stove full of coal. ?? I will be adding a damper tonight to see if this helps. Stove is inserted into a large fireplace, but we have blocked the rest of the flu with sheet metal. That part came out very nice. I am hoping that this is not a problem with the stove. Damper on stove "Slams" into place with a resounding chunk if you are not gentle. Should there be any gasketing around this internal damper ? My big fear is that the stove itself is damaged. Is it possible that we were sold a dud or that something is warped inside causing issues? That is the problem with buying used. No help, no guarantees from the seller. Live and learn....Samantha