Vermont Castings Defiant
Use the Air Control Settings that Work Best for You
No single air control setting will fit every situation. Each installation will differ depending on the quality of the fuel, the amount of heat desired, and how long you wish the fire to burn; outdoor air temperature and pressure also affect draft.
The control setting also depends on your particular installation’s “draft,” or the force that moves air from the stove up through the chimney. Draft is affected by such things as the length, type, and location of the chimney, local geography, nearby obstructions, and other factors. See pages 24 for details on how the installation affects performance.
Too much draft may cause excessive temperatures in the Defiant, and could even damage the combustor. On the other hand, too little draft can cause backpuffing into the room and/or the “plugging” of the chimney or combustor.
How do you know if your draft is excessively high or low? Symptoms of too much draft include an uncontrollable burn or a
In some newer homes that are
Another option for getting more combustion air to the stove is to duct air directly from the outside to the stove. In some areas provisions for outside combus- tion air are required in all new construction.
With an optional outside air adapter, No. 1904, your Defiant will accept a duct to deliver outside air for combustion.
When first using the stove, keep track of the air control settings. You will quickly find that a specific setting will give you a fixed amount of heat. It may take a week or two to determine the amount of heat and the length of burn you should expect from various settings.
Most installations do not require a large amount of combustion air, especially if adequate draft is available.
Do not for any reason attempt to increase the firing of your heater by altering the air control adjust- ment range outlined in these directions.
Use the following air control settings as a starting point to help determine the best settings for your installation. Each is described as a fraction of the total distance the lever may be moved from right to left.
20
Defiant Control Settings
(see Fig. 21, page 15)
Burn Rate | Primary Air Control |
Low | From far right to 1/3 the distance |
| to left |
Medium | From 1/3 to 2/3 the distance |
| to left |
High | From 2/3 the distance |
| to left, to far left |
High-Efficiency Wood Burning
with Catalytic Combustion
A Defiant leaves the factory with the combustor installed.
In the United States, it is against the law to operate this wood heater in a manner inconsistent with operat- ing instructions in this manual, or if the catalytic combustor is deactivated or removed. The components of the catalytic combustion system in your Defiant work together to produce optimum conditions for secondary combustion.
When the damper is closed, smoke travels through the catalytic element, which causes ignition of smoke at temperatures of
The catalytic element is a ceramic “honeycomb” coated with the catalytic material. The element is located in the secondary combustion chamber, molded from a special
Closing the damper exposes the smoke to the combustor. If the combustor is at least 600˚F (315˚C), it will begin to burn the smoke.
Closing the stove damper may also reduce the
draft, so to avoid putting out the fire or deactivating the combustor, close the damper only when a fire is well- established and the chimney is thoroughly warmed. When starting a fire, wait until the fire is well estab- lished and there is an ember bed of at least
Never kindle a fire with colored paper or paper that has colored ink or a glossy surface, and never burn treated wood, garbage, solvents, or trash. All of these may poison the catalyst and prevent it from operating properly. Never burn cardboard or loose paper except for kindling purposes. Never burn coal; doing so can produce soot or large flakes of char or fly ash that can coat the combustor and cause smoke to spill into the room. Coal smoke also can poison the catalyst so that it won’t operate properly.