Vermont Casting

[Sandhill Crane]

Lots of talk about stoves and design efficiencies. We ordered a Vermont Casting Defiant in November. My son and I removed the old stove and installed it just before Christmas. So not so much history with this stove yet. The owner of the shop, Grass Roots Energy, Inc. in Wauconda, Il., is a distant friend. He said Vermont Casting was recently employee owned and speculated under funded. The company had been bought out again, but again, he stated no track record with little customer or industry feed back as yet. He offers four or five other top brands with maybe thirty or more different stove models on the floor to compare. The Defiant in the show room had a fire burning in it. Nov. was the first time visiting his store (we are two hundred miles away in SW. Michigan) and seeing so many brands and models first hand turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Obviously the name Vermont Casting seems to of taken a bit of a hit and is no longer selling itself on brand name alone in part due to more than one company buy out and strong, increasing competition. I know nothing of efficiencies and various design strategies. I do know I like this stove. Heating and burn efficiency talk depends heavily on so many variables a part from the stove itself; installation, flue design, available air/outside air, home design, home construction, stove fuel and operator attentiveness. It was this last factor, operator error, which led to the premature failure (read warping) over a period of years of our previous stove. Cat stoves especially, require attention to prevent over firing when building a fire. Lesson learned the hard way.
I love using this stove. It is functional and exceptionally beautiful.

 

[Jere39]

How about some pictures. Interested in your install, size of area you are heating, type of wood you typically fire with, how often you have to apply the required attention, how clean it burns (ok this is pretty subjective), how much wood are you running through it in a typical February week?

Sorry if this post feels like a mid-term assignment, not meant to be. I'm just interested in your impressions.

Thanks

 

[sunfish]

We had a VC Resolute Acclaim from the late 90s' to about 6 years ago. Not a bad stove, but not completely happy with it either. Too much maintenance & too much stuff to replace every few years. Use jotul now and like it a whole lot better. Hope you have better luck with yours.

 

[Del_]

Vermont Castings has earned itself a very poor reputation. I wouldn't advise anyone to buy one.

 

[Ronaldo]

I would like to see some pictures, too!

 

[milkman]

I know that not many here like the VC stoves, but I've had the Dutchwest 2462 for 15+ yrs and I'd buy another if I had to replace this one. I've replaced the original cat about 4 yrs ago and replaced the furnace cement in the joints 3 yrs ago and no other maintainance except door gaskets. The thing I don't like about the stove is, the top doesn't get that hot, I assume because of the cat and the refractory over the cat. I would think the Dutchwest w/o the cat would be useful for cooking on top.
The things I like about it are the ones I use the most, I like the front or side loading and my favorite is the way ashes are handled. I can be in the middle of a cold spell with hot fire going and just open the ash door and remove the pan, empty it and slide it back in and close the door. I don't have to disturb the burn or shovel any dusty ashes.

 

[Del_]

I know that not many here like the VC stoves, but I've had the Dutchwest 2462 for 15+ yrs and I'd buy another if I had to replace this one. I've replaced the original cat about 4 yrs ago and replaced the furnace cement in the joints 3 yrs ago and no other maintainance except door gaskets. The thing I don't like about the stove is, the top doesn't get that hot, I assume because of the cat and the refractory over the cat. I would think the Dutchwest w/o the cat would be useful for cooking on top.
The things I like about it are the ones I use the most, I like the front or side loading and my favorite is the way ashes are handled. I can be in the middle of a cold spell with hot fire going and just open the ash door and remove the pan, empty it and slide it back in and close the door. I don't have to disturb the burn or shovel any dusty ashes.

Yours might pre date some of the VC problems.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

I am not advising anyone on anything. Just saying I like this stove. More later...

 

[nathon918]

I know that not many here like the VC stoves, but I've had the Dutchwest 2462 for 15+ yrs and I'd buy another if I had to replace this one. I've replaced the original cat about 4 yrs ago and replaced the furnace cement in the joints 3 yrs ago and no other maintainance except door gaskets. The thing I don't like about the stove is, the top doesn't get that hot, I assume because of the cat and the refractory over the cat. I would think the Dutchwest w/o the cat would be useful for cooking on top.
The things I like about it are the ones I use the most, I like the front or side loading and my favorite is the way ashes are handled. I can be in the middle of a cold spell with hot fire going and just open the ash door and remove the pan, empty it and slide it back in and close the door. I don't have to disturb the burn or shovel any dusty ashes.

i also have an old(er) VC Dutchwest 2460, its a very good stove, but I surely wouldn't buy a new one from VC, the stoves we have were made when VC had a good name...not so much now
I hear ya on the top not getting hot enough to cook on...my stove was in my house when I bought it, and the previous owner removed the cat, but left the refractory, and I have never replaced it at it runs fine, just the secondary combustion doesn't burn as long as with a cat...but yeah I have no cat and the top is still not hot enough (usually) to cook on, it will boil water if its wide open or ~1400 deg. on the refractory probe, but I don't usually run it that hot...if I removed the refractory it would probably get hot enough to cook on, but I don't know how long the top would last before warping??

 

[nathon918]

I am not advising anyone on anything. Just saying I like this stove. More later...

you only have 2 months of use out of it so far...not really enough time to form an opinion on quality IMO

 

[Sandhill Crane]

Jere39/Ronaldo: We are heating a well insulated (2"x6") eighteen hundred square foot home (main floor of ranch style house) with an open floor plan. The wood is premo... Red Oak, Beech, Cherry seasoned three years. I did not remember Beech burning so hot. I usually think of it as half punky trunks but this was mostly 4"-6" limb wood. Stove burns clean, flue wise. I check it once a month. Smokes till it reaches temp. Glass not so much unless burnt hot. We burn between 400 on the low end to 7oo high end, 5oo - 600 average. The 'attention' I spoke of is only when building a fire and remembering to close the cat. bypass once the stove reaches operating temp. of about 400. Forgetting to do so, to control the oxygen supply, can quickly overheat any stove or insert, not just a V.C. I know longer start the stove and leave the room. Don't start dinner, or anything else that takes me out of the room for that forty five minutes to get to temp. Heating 24/7 I let the coals burn down lower than normal every third day to empty ash and leave the cat lever open till it is back up to 400. Also, the ceiling fan is turned off and the cat. lever is opened and closed when reloading to increases flue draw as this is a top load stove. It has been low teens, single digits, 0 to -6 at night. Burning, I'm guessing here, 1/3 to 1/2 cord a week for two stoves, one in the house. So 1/4 cord per week, for the house. Getting error flags loading photos.
Edit with photos: Two ceiling fans in opposite corners of the house, or diagonally from each other, and a third in the bedroom to move air/heat/ac. Seems larger than it is, but then there is only one bedroom upstairs. Skylight shafts were sprayed with foam insulation. Skylights and cut-outs add unbelievable daylight throughout.

 

[Ronaldo]

Very nice, Mr. Crane. House and stove!!