Vigilant II Is Just Humming Along!!!

blrman07 wrote: This morning I got up and went into the kitchen to get coffee. It felt warmer to me so I looked at the indoor/outdoor thermometer I have on the wall in the kitchen. It was 6 degrees colder today than yesterday BUT the kitchen was 4 degrees warmer`~~
I'm on the right track for once!!!

Great job Larry. 4° is quite a bit. Congrats. My kitchen, which is right off the living area where the stove is, use-ta be about 5-10° cooler also, but when I installed a Broan 6" through wall fan, up high between them, it'll now almost equalize the 2 rooms. It'll take a good 1/2 hr or so to accomplish it, but at least it will raise it.
In your case, it's amazing what a little pink fuzz will do between the outside.
(TOTP)

My stove heats my small house quite well. Small changes on the thermostat can change room temperature quite a bit. I built this little gauge so I know where to set it for the expected OAT. It works quite well. 12-16 for 20°f-35°f temps and 17-22 for 20°f and below. A 22 setting gives me about 600° on the griddle and it has to be below 0°f before I go there.

Nice idea. I reference my lever to the casting corners of the stove for the same purpose, but I like the idea of a numeric guide.

Turbogeno wrote:My stove heats my small house quite well. Small changes on the thermostat can change room temperature quite a bit. I built this little gauge so I know where to set it for the expected OAT. It works quite well. 12-16 for 20°f-35°f temps and 17-22 for 20°f and below. A 22 setting gives me about 600° on the griddle and it has to be below 0°f before I go there.

Nice. Very clever.

I use line of sight to set my lever. Directly in line with the center of the hole is idle. One rod diameter to the left is around 40 OAT. Two rods is the 20's. Three rod diameters which is where it is at right now is teens and single digits. It is currently 11 OAT and 70 in the living room, 67 in the upstairs bedrooms and bath. I admit I kicked the oil boiler thermostat upstairs in the bathroom to 67 to help things out upstairs and it feels good.

As I said the OAT is 11 and the living room is 70. No fans and no assist from the oil boiler.

I love my Vig 2310 burning anthracite pea coal. I am currently burning about 1 and 1/4 hod a day which translates out to around 50 lbs a day for heating my 985 square foot poorly insulated 1895 vintage two story three bedroom house.

I must agree with you Rev. ...the Vigilant is awesome. We are currently cold 5* and windy and you would never know inside the house. 74 ish inside an un-insulated brick house in central Maine.

The bi-metal thermostat is such a great control, no baro, no mpd, no worries. I know why Hitzer owners are so loyal as well.

And the caveat is, you get to see your coal bed burning through that nice big "entertaning" picture window.

joeq wrote:And the caveat is, you get to see your coal bed burning through that nice big "entertaning" picture window.

...took a little longer to upload.

Very nice MA. Is that a Picaso?

Thanks joeq
...passing along something that I tried today, kinda' not on purpose during very cold weather under 10*, I shake down twice per day. The second shake usually involves clearing the grates or as us Vig users say, "knifing" until bright orange appears. In direct draft I would give the stove a vigorous shake, open the front doors and push ash into the fire bed away from the grill bar,(banking bar that you can see through the glass doors), remove the face plate that conceals the grate bars and knife the grates with the knifing tool.
Well today I put the stove in direct draft and pushed the ash into the fire bed before shaking...this simple change allowed me to push the nice fluffy ash into the fire with ease and without any pieces falling out of the stove which usually happens when I shake down first and the ash becomes compact and embedded with large chunks of hot coals and unburnt coal.
I then shook down and fresh coal rolled down the bank and settled against the grill

Never too old to learn something new. Congrats.

Last few days with the Vigilant it seemed to me it was not acting right. I have been burning stove and then nut and now pea so I thought it was just the change in coal. It seemed to be not responding to air intake setting as it used to. Tended to overshoot a bit and then settle down with the air flap wider than I thought right. Also pieces of unburned coal in the ash pan when shaken down, mostly on the right side. I am used to fine ash only with a bit of burned out coal.

This morning the reason became clear. One of the cleanout plates was in the ash pan. The left side. It must have gotten dislodged when I knife from above which is my practice. The plate was probably partially dislodged for a week. That let the primary air which is on the left side, to bypass the coal bed and go right up the flue passage opened up by the dislodged plate, and on its way to cool the left side which is where the bi-metal thermostat controlling the air intake is located. The right side of the bed received less air accounting for the unburned coal in that area.

Waited for some ash buildup to cool down the ash area and then was able to replace the plate using a Channelock pliers which has just the right amount of offset to the jaws to grip the plate and re- install it. Very obvious change back to normal.

Excellent find!!!!! I had one come loose on me but didn't fall all the way out. I was clearing ash with a long bread knife rather vigorously and dislodged it. I dumped a lot of coal on to calm down the fire, put on my welding gloves, got some offset slip joint pliers and got it back in.

Thanks for posting your experience. If I or any other Vig users get those symptoms we will know exactly where to look!!

Thanks again.

franco b wrote:Last few days with the Vigilant it seemed to me it was not acting right. I have been burning stove and then nut and now pea so I thought it was just the change in coal. ... 8<...This morning the reason became clear. One of the cleanout plates was in the ash pan. The left side. It must have gotten dislodged when I knife from above which is my practice. ...>8...

Franco - did you have the cleanout cover's bent edge on the top or the bottom? My stove came with them on the top but I've since reinstalled them with the bent edge on the bottom. This way it's much harder to push the plate out of place when knifing. In fact, it's never happened since. Installed this way, there's more room to clear ash between the last grate and the side of the firebox.

Also, I used the notch on the end of the VC knife to install the plates while the fire was going. Just like you did, I waited for an insulating ash layer to shield the heat from the fire bed. My knife no longer has the notch and is much shorter after 18 years of service but is sure is tempered

VigIIPeaBurner wrote:Franco - did you have the cleanout cover's bent edge on the top or the bottom?

Bent edge on bottom.