Vermont Castings Vigilant coal stove

Hello,
I have been messing with this stove for about 3 months, I have a very hard time getting the stove above 300 degrees,
no matter what i do, I have tried pea coal nut coal and stove coal all about the same output. I just relined my chimney with
a 8 inch liner still having heat issues
I replaced the gaskets on the stove, I removed the restrictor plate in the stove, near the lower right of stove
I replaced glass and all gaskets, still only goes to @ 300 degrees
Any input would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Thanks Ken

Kenny, If you have an older Vig with the add on coal kit, and the 3 shaker grates that go from tr to left, and a drop in hopper, then it's the same as mine. Mine can to 700 deg if I let it (usually dont tho)

If it's a VigII, the newer style with no hopper and grates that go front to back, then look for posts by VigIIPeaBurner here, he's posted a lot of tips for the VigII

This is the 1st generation Vig coal burner on this post: Vermont Castings Vigilant I down... :( for now... :)


paul

You're in main huh??? You're getting hammered with snow bout now----------------We got over a foot again today

Hello,
Its a old vigilant with a coal kit installed, I dont use the hopper i shovel mine in thru the
doors, or from the top,
If I close the top damper, Air inlet wide open the stove will usually not recover in the
morning. Any Ideas??????
Thanks Ken

kenny, never ran mine with out the hopper, butthe firebox is so shallow compared to a batch burner that i can't see how you could get any long burns without it. After a 8 hr burn in temps below 10, when i shake and slice the grates, I use almost the 25 or 30 lbs of coal that was in the hopper.

With no hopper in it, you probably can't put more than 15 lbs of coal on the fire box without it spilling over the front grate, and you sure don't want to bank it up at the back against the single layer fire back. thatsmall amount of coal won't last long before shaking and refilling. All the coal has to be level with the side and rear grate.

How hot is the vent pipe say, a few feet above the stove?

Explain where that plate you mentioned is located. Is it item #21 in the parts break down I posted to??? I don't know what you're refering to there.

Think about using thehopper, the stove was designed for it.

running at 450 surface temp, it will burn 8 or 9 hrs easily and not drop more than 75deg or so.

Paul

I removed the restrictor plate in the stove, near the lower right of stove

Unless VC has changed their design, the restrictor plate for burning coal is on the lower left under the grates. The one on the lower right is a vent and you want that plate which slides into place on there.

My first thought is: Maybe yours is different, but the one I had.... Under the grates are three tin plates that when removed allow you to clean fly ash. One left, one right, one right rear. If those three plates are missing the thing just won't burn right at all. They're tricky as heck to remove & replace.

Other than that. Do you have a barometric damper? A draft gauge (manomometer)? How's your draft? Do you shut the cast iron damper?

kenny007 wrote:Hello,
I have been messing with this stove for about 3 months, I have a very hard time getting the stove above 300 degrees,
no matter what i do, I have tried pea coal nut coal and stove coal all about the same output.

Is it possible that the room you have the stove in is so air-tight that it's not getting enough combustion air? (This happened in my daughters unfinished basement installation after her husband had sealed the casement windows) Try opening a window to test.

tvb wrote:

I removed the restrictor plate in the stove, near the lower right of stove

Unless VC has changed their design, the restrictor plate for burning coal is on the lower left under the grates. The one on the lower right is a vent and you want that plate which slides into place on there.

With respect to the restrictor plate, there's a picture posted on an earlier post located here: vigilant coal stove model 2310? It's located on the stove's lower right, our left, under the grates as tvb describes. Please keep in mind the info is for the redesigned model 2310, Vigilant II. rewinder is has two older multi-fuel VC stoves humming on coal. I also had the same scenario happen to an oil burner installation in a poured concrete lower level of a bank barn I built, just like Devel505 points out.

Hello,
Thanks everyone for your replies, The plate on my stove is on the lower right shaped like an L with one screw in it,
that is the only plate I see, I definatly think its a draft problem in the stove, I can get the stove to @600 degrees with
wood with no problem.. Thats why i took out the plate, It does seem to burn better with the plate out..
I can leave the air inlet wide open for 5 hours still will not go over 300 degrees.. If i close the damper on top
the fire will slowly cool off to about 200 degrees and is hard to get going again...
When i put my hand over the air inlet door there is definatly suction there, I just feel like its not getting
enough air ........
Thanks Ken

Kenny, did you read this thread?--- Vermont Castings Vigilant I down... :( for now... :)

Also can you describe your chimney and where the stove is set up?

Aslo where are you measuring the tems????

That L shaped door you took out has to be in to keep all air flowing up thru the coal bed. Also are the passages behind the fire back clogged (ever clean them?) the oval slots on the extreme rt ride (as you look in) in the exit when the damper is down, It then goes thru an S shaped set of passage ways back and fourth behind the fire back to the exaust port. Every thing on the left side of the stove including the little door thing must be mudded up well with furnace cement.

Do you have the hopper?

As for draft. Mine runs fine with .02 to .03" of draft in weather above 45 and at the same baro setting in sub 20deg it increases to .05" on a manometer.

And to keep a stove top temp of around 450deg, my flapper at the back is only open 3/8"

Not to harp on the hopper thing, but with out it you'll be filling it constantly, and if you load above the rear and side grates you risk the possibility of burning thru the read fire back, if you load it up a nd bank the coal against the fireback.

I took mine out one winter to replace the hopper throat pieces while running it and it ran no problem, I heaped coal up in the middle of the fire box while I repaired the hopper.

When I get home from work I'll post the manual and stuff I have in a PDF file .

Paul

On the vigilant, there is a little draft port on top of the fire (top left side of stove as you face it) that needs to be closed when burning coal. Make sure that is closed. Also, when I had the same stove, I found it burned much hotter and better if I directed air into the damper flap. It just didn't get enough combustion air otherwise. Since the stove was near a window, I fashioned a duct that pulled in outside air to feed it.

Here are the owners directions for the 1st generation Vigilant, with coal kit, and a blow up of the stove with out the coal kit.

TBV, you must have a real tight house to have had to introduce combustion air. Mine's an old leaky farm house that despite my efforts to seal her up, still has plenty of air infiltration for run the stoves.

Paul

New windows but it's not particularly tight as I am learning with the stoker I am now burning.

Hello guys,
Well I re-installed the l bracket on the right side of the stove and cemented her in, I just lit it tonight
and as soon as it got going good i closed the damper and closed the air to the stove, to my suprise it seems
to be climbing i am about 220 degrees and rising, Could i have been letting all the heat out of the stove with
the damper open?????????? I have a nice fire nice and blue on the top with 3 inch blue flames ???
does that sound right????
Thanks Again
Ken

kenny, if you want the stove temp to keep rising, ya have to have the thermostatic flapper at the left rear open some. Otherwise the temp will stay near where it is when it's closed, then start ro drop off. The lever has a bimetal spiral on it that reacts to the stove temp. As the stove cools, the bimetal spiral contracts and opens the flapper more. as it get hotter, it expands and closes more. It's a crude but effective thermostat that tries to keep the stove running at a level temp.
Let's say that you want to keep the groddle temp at 400deg. As the temp is rising and gets to ~400, you should move the lever to the right and look down at the flapper, setting the lever angle so as to keep the flapper door open about 1/4" or less. As you interactwith the thermostat lever at different griddle temps and room temps you'll quickly get a feel where to set it to keep the stove and room temp where you need it to be.

Right now after shaking and slicing mine till there's a nice glow reflecting down from the grates on to the ash pan, and the stove top temp is about 475, my flapper is open about 1/4. If I want 600deg I'll open the flapper more. depending on your draft and if all the air is going thru the fire bed, the stive will react more quickly to flapper opening settings. I always look over the back of the stove when I move the flapper to see how much it's open, or if it's closin if I want to turn the heat output down.

Yes you're right, when the damper is up. it's a straight shot out the stove for the heat, and much of it goes up and out with quicly. Especially with no hopper in it to restrict the straight up flow. There's probably a 5 foot "S" shaped exaust path in the down position, compared to a foot with it open. When you see blue flames or a full glowing vigorous firebox it's time to close the damper and extract all that heat better.

also try the "thick rope gasket glued to the doors" mod that i posted about. It makes the stove respond to a lazy fire in a real short time, cause it stops some of the air from taking the path of least resistancebetween the front grate and doors. I didn't do this 30 years ago when I stopped using these stoves, and now i can revive a wimpy shallow neglected fire into a vigorous blu flame belching fire box in about 6 min. honestly!

Another note depending on how your exaust pipe is configured, you should have at least 200 degrees less temp on the pipe a good distance from the stove, compared to the stove top temp.

I hope this isn't confusing, it's really not rocket science, it will all click and become second nature.

Sorry to ramble on and on, I hope this helps you some.

paul