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raq123_gw

Vermont Castings Vigilant Stove

Raq123
10 years ago

We have inherited with the house a Vermont Castings
Vigilant wood/coal stove No. 0795 date 11/4/85 which we are very happy with but we do not have the manual so are not sure about some of the oddities/flaps etc. .

Does anyone know how and where we might find a manual?
We live in the UK.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Comments (5)

  • jonnyp
    10 years ago

    Go to their web site. I have a stove that was made by a company that they acquired, every thing was there. If not google it, I am sure someone out there has what you are looking for

  • akamainegrower
    10 years ago

    If you have no success with the current Vermont Castings website - a very real possibility - post your inquiry at www.hearth.com There are a number of parts dealers, some of which also provide manuals for older stoves.

  • Raq123
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Many thanks for your help. In the meantime we found a very nice fellow called Richard, on line, who emailed the whole manual. Most kind of him and much appreciated. We learned lots
    of new things about the stove but unfortunately there is no exploded diagram showing the linkage between thermostat lever and the up and down adjusting rod.
    In our case this mechanism isn't functioning. We have no way of adjusting the position of the flap. Any advice on this would be most appreciated.

  • akamainegrower
    10 years ago

    The thermostat is a pretty simple mechanism. There is a bi-metallic coil inside the housing that expands and contracts with temperature change in the stove. A bead chain or another type of chain attaches to the coil at the top and the sheet metal flap at the bottom. (I can't recall any VC stove that used an adjusting rod instead of a chain, but it's possible) As the coil moves it opens or closes the flap against the air entry port beneath it. You can manually set the thermostat with the lever for greater or lesser heat. The most common problem is probably having the chain reversed from the way it should be set up. Try it in the opposite configuration. If you move the lever in one direction the chain should become tighter. If you move it in the other direction it should become more slack. This is harder to describe than do. There's hardly anything that can go wrong with the thermostat if all the parts are there and the connections are correct. More detail, maybe even a photo, would be a big help in giving you a better answer.

  • jackfre
    10 years ago

    I would suggest a magnetic surface thermometer. I have one on top of my Encore and it helps keep me informed of what is going on with the fire. Without it I kinda look at the fire and guess as to good or bad, hot or cold. My stove is a catalytic so that info is important. I think that yours is not. That is a nice stove.