It is only three or four years old, a VC Defiant Flex Burn. Our forth VC since '92.
We started heating with wood in '80 with a Vogalzang box stove, a Yotal copy, in an uninsulated cottage on a concrete slab. Up every night to reload. Bottled propane and wall furnace back up.
Our first VC was a Defiant Oncore, in beautiful blue enamel. Loved the top load all night burns, and all night sleep. It was over kill for the eight hundred square foot cottage, but we had bought property in '85 and planned to build a house. It would be three kids, several used cars, month long periods of unemployment in construction, and ten years before that happened.
The blue stove heated for about fifteen years, '92 - 2007. We were given a wood stove for the garage, used infrequently. Years later I found a VC online, new still crated, in beautiful fern green enamel, and I bought it for the garage. When it came we loved the color, and put the older blue enamel one in the garage.
Two things happened. The blue enamel collected moisture in the off season and popped spots of enamel off when heated. Still functional we continued to use it. As said previously, the dogs do not come in the house, so the we now heat it for them and the cats, and me too, in the winter. The garage is 32' x 38' or something similar.
(2020. We had friends over on Friday evenings with the stove burning, garage doors open, bring your own lawn chairs, and the fire pit going this fall, but have ceased doing that for obvious safety reasons.)
Second. We overheated the green stove by starting and then not closing the catalytic bypass once warmed up. Takes half to three quarters of an hour to heat up. Occasionally we would forget to do this and the stove would get hot. Not dangerously so, but hot. Quick cold to hot, and it mildly warped the cast to where it did not seal. We kept using it, and the air leak acted like a torch, I assume, creating hot spots within the stove, further damaging the internal parts. Part way through that winter we quit using it, as the burns were no longer controllable.
The truth of it is, operator error. A very expensive one.
We replaced it the following year with the newer version, and largest size VC Defiant Flex Burn, in a beautiful red enamel in the living room. It deepens in color when warmed up, to a deep, deep, dark red. You can run it on bypass or catalytic mode, unlike the green Difiant Oncore.
We did look at other stoves.
Mark's shop, Grass Roots Energy, in Wauconda, Illinois is a great shop. A bit far from southwest MI, but well worth the two trips. One to check them out, and the other to pick up the stove.
I listed the green stove for sale. Had a few nibbles, but a lot of work to rehab it, and no buyers. It is beautiful, and we had it in our bedroom for many years as a plant stand. We gave it to friends six weeks ago, and he ordered parts that day. I had a new cat element for it still in the box.
The stove pictured in the prior post, replaced the eighteen year old fatiguing, original blue enamel stove, and also a Defiant Flex Burn, in black cast.
Maybe four years old.
These are beautiful functional stoves. Classic style, and absolutely love the top load.
We considered another top of the line stove Mark recommended, but the installation with the 90° bend was not high enough in our home to accommodate the change without a lot of additional modification to install it. Basically a new stainless liner and some tile work, and possibly wood mantle clearance questions. The existing flue is 8", and the other stove recommended 6" flue.
Replacing the hydraulic top drive motor, and bearings on the drum shaft, in the winter. Jury rigged belt clamp, but nice working conditions.
