Vermont castings Vigilant grate question

Hi,
I just picked up a vermont castings older vigilant stove with no ash bin, door, or shaker grates that come with the Vigilant II. I want to pick up the necessary grate to burn coal. Its my understanding vermont castings no longer makes this set up. Should I get a shaker grate or not? I want to get a pretty good set up because I plan to keep this stove for a while. I have used home depot crap grates in the fireplace with wood only to have it melt and crap out in less then a year.

I have been scouring the internet adds for a used stove the last several weeks, and when I come across a question pertaining to Vermont Castings or Consolidated West, I send and email to Bill Floyd at the Vermont Castings store in Rutland.

He has been most gracious to return every email I have sent, requesting information about the stove in question. You may want to call or contact him before trying to rig up your own grate. His email is Floydfr6@aol.com and his phone number in Vermont is 802-234-6719

If a part exists in the Vermont Casting inventory system, he would be the one to get it from.

Good Luck!

Hi, I'm new to the board.

I also purchased a used Vigilant stove this weekend, missing the coal kit.

I was on the phone with CFM (Vermont Castings) for about 45 minutes yesterday.

I was told the coal kit is long out of production, but certain parts are still available. My problem is I need the part number for my specidic number stove, which they can't tell me from the serial number, and there isn't a date code or model # on my stove.

If I can borrow the parts from someone, a local foundry can duplicate them for me.

Can anyone tell me if the inner side panels are cast or stamped steel?

Thanks,
Steve

To the best of my knowledge, all of a Vermont Casting Stove is iron. In fact, the Consolidated Dutchwest line of stoves that they took over in the early 90's are also cast iron. Only now, are any of the Dutchwest stoves offered in plate steel.

You may be able to go to a railroad yard and locate some iron plates. A neighbor of mine has a nice piece of iron sitting square in the center of his Harman Mark I so that he can burn wood. By so doing, he limits the underfire air reaching the wood, so that he can get a better burn.

In your case, it is doubtful that you will find someone with the coal kit if Vermont Castings is not able to supply the replacement parts, check Ebay or depending on where you are located, check the Chimney Sweep in Middletown, New York. I have visited there, and they have a number of used stoves and parts on hand. Seems the owner is a stove collector himself, an enjoys tinkering with many old stoves.

Otherwise, search http://www.dclassifieds.com or http://www.craigslist.com for your local area. I imagine you can rig some plates to hold the coal in place. You can not however replace the grates if they are worn, and in the case of the Vigilant, there are 16 of them.

Hope you got your stove for a great price, as I have watched many on Ebay climb as high as $800.Considering a new stove can be had for around $1300, I'd be more inclined to the newer one, knowing all the parts and support were in place.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the reply. I'll definitly check out dclassifieds, I'd never heard of that one.
I got the stove for $350, and it's in fabulous condition - if I only wanted to burn wood. Even has the fire screen they sell for $80.
Talked to the seller, and he contacted the guy he got it from who claims to still have the coal kit pieces in a box and I'm welcome to pick them up but they are too heavy to ship. He's guessing 100# so I think the inner sides must be cast. He removed everything so he could load more/longer logs. Only used it for wood and said the grates were a pain.
Looks like I'm looking at a 6 hour round trip this weekend. Worth it if I get what I need.
Might be worth getting a few hi-wear pieces reproduced before I fire it up.

Steve

Well, if he has those parts in even relatively good condition, I wouldn't worry about having them recast. If you're simply talking about the coal kit, then I imagine you're just needing to add the side plates and whatever front basket to hold the coal.

Sounds like you got a good deal for sure. Curious what model it is, and where you aquired it. Another fellow from this forum suggested I look at dclassifieds, having had a frustrating time on Ebay. Essentially, anyone who places a sale ad in a local paper gets picked up by dclassifieds, and then it's just a simple matter of calling them from the number listed.

I have contacted people that still had their stove from a month ago, when they purchase a one week post in the paper. My biggest obstacle, is that I don't have a truck to move a 400+# stove back to North Jersey, and so try to find someone within 50-60 miles that I can arrange borrowing a truck for.

Anyway, hope you're 6 hour trip is worth it...

John

Picking up the insert parts had to wait until this weekend.
This is what I got - and now I'm more confused. It doesn't look like anything from the diagrams I've been able to find online. The original owner says this is the coal kit that came with the stove.

Anyone ever see a set-up like this?

I haven't tried to put in in yet. Not sure how the "basket" goes in. It's got spring tabs like it's supposed to hang from something, but I don't see anything in the stove.

There is no grill as shown in the online diagrams, I'm guessing the coal stays in the basket so there is no need?
There is no ash pan front panal, instead a wire rod you use to pull out the ash pan.

I'm trying to figure out how the air goes thru the coal, instead of around the basket and out.

Anyone know if I'm missing pieces? Or know where I can get a diagram for this set up?

Thanks,
Steve

You may want to click (or copy and paste) the following link, which provides exploded views of the breakdown of older Vigilant and other stoves. The other source, as I mentioned in an earlier email is calling Vermont Castings in Rutland, Vemont. Bill Floyd knows just about anything there is to know about a Vermont Casting stove, as he was the very first employee with the company and continues to sell their stove in his own store now.

Good Luck!

http://www.discountstove.com/partsvcwbf ... m#Vigilant

I know it's a bit late now, but I wouldn't go through the effort of gathering up the bits to run a Vermont Casting Vigilant on coal. There's a reason VC no longer makes that stuff - a bad idea that doesn't work well to boot.

I have a coal kit for the Vigilant model in the original boxes. I purchased the Vig in 1984 and never installed. let me review but I think I paid 250 as an option then. Guess would like to break even. I am in Cincinnati and can ship but the boxes are very heavy.

I can deliver for gas + to most midwest locations.


mark
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