Centuy and Dutch West owners. Please help. Others welcome too.

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karl

Minister of Fire
Apr 9, 2007
1,058
Huntington, West Virginia
I recently talked a friend into buying a stove from Craig's list. Thanks to everybody's help we identified it as a Century CDW 244, or maybe an early version of that stove.

http://www.vermontcastings.com/content/products/productdetails.cfm?id=323

Now, I'm having trouble getting it to burn.

I installed it in her fireplace. I put 14 feet of 6 inch single wall pipe on it and I can't get it to draft.

When we picked it up I took the firebrick out. I thought they all were the same size but apparently not. Now I can't get them back in correctly. I also can't find a diagram online. I think I may have covered up the primary air intake with a brick.

Could someone please post a picture of how the brick are supposed to go in the stove?

Also, could you please tell me where the primary air is on the stove? On my Summit there are holes in the bottom front of the fire box. On this stove I dont see any. Also where the does the air enter the stove? This stove sat in an out building for a few years before we bought it and I'm afraid there might be some sort of nest clogging the intake up and I would like to inspect it and clean it out if possible.

Lastly, is 14 feet enough liner for this stove or should I add a few feet. I'm still not to the top of her chimney yet. I'm pretty close and I do plan to run it to the top and put a cover plate over the chimney, but right now I just want to see if this thing will burn correctly.

Thank you for any help you give me regarding this stove.


Karl
 

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Karl, if you look all over on that stove, you should be able to find the secondary air inlet. It SHOULD be on the bottom outside of the stove, right near the back. Once you find it, make sure air passes through it freely. Use a blow gun on an air compressor if you have one. If the stove was stored outside, insects sometimes like to block passages in the stove, for whatever reason... :smirk:
 
I went down to her house today and fiddled with it. I figured out how to put the brick in. I also added another 4 feet of pipe on it. I have 18 feet on it now. As far as the primary air inlet is concerned. It's a joke. The air enters from the front of the stove right above the glass and is blown down the front of the glass. There are no primary air inlets on the bottom. This explains why it's a pain to get it going. When you first build a fire the primary air comes in the stove right where the exhaust of the stove is. Since there's not much velocity it doesn't flow down the glass it gets sucked out the chimney.


That said, I did build another fire in it. I used a hair dryer to get it going. Once I got it lit, it burnt pretty well. I didn't load the stove up, but I did put a few small splits in it after the kindling got going. Coming from a 2000 dollar Summit to a 200 Craigslist special, is a big change. I looked at the fire box and thought. This thing won't hold enough wood to even get the fan to kick on with the Summit. The stove top and sides did get too hot to touch.

I still have to put the block off plate in, and put a block off on top of the chimney, a cap on it, and build a convection jacket for the fan I'm going to put on it. I'm going to tackle the block off plates tomorrow and fiddle with the convection jacket through the week.

All in all, it seems like a pretty good stove. I wouldn't buy one new, but for $200 bucks it's a deal.
 
A few more questions.

The website says it's rated at 26100 btu's. Is that the EPA rating or the total output of the stove?

I know heat output is a function of temperature and surface area. Does anyone have a formual to calculate this?

Also, how long will this burn stove burn on a load of wood?
 
That's the same way the airflow works in my smaller Century shop stove, and I certainly wouldn't call it a joke. It works pretty darned well, all things considered. No primary inlets into the stove front below the door to get all blocked with coals/ash. I always leave the door cracked open for ~15 minutes or so when starting from cold, and that works like a charm for me in my installation. The airwash is actually more effective at keeping the window clean that that in my big Lopi Liberty. The secondary burn in my Century is fantastic. If her stove uses firebrick in the roof of the box to the rear of the baffle and the sides of the exhaust, make sure those are installed correctly as well, or else her secondary airflow will be all hosed up. Rick
 
Fossil, they show two fire brick fitting in the top of the stove. The bricks weren't in the stove when we got it and Lowe's doesn't sell fire brick. I stuck a couple of regular brick up there. I hope it helps. I did see a little bit of secondary action tonight. I didn't put much wood in it though.
 
I have purchased a Century wood pedastal stove 300007 model. I believe the primary air port is directly below the door, eventhough the control is at the top rh area. There appears to be a passage which runs along the top edge than along the sides to the bottom of the door opening. If you were to run your hand along the bottom you would feel the bump out area with the small air port. I believe if this port is blocked you will not get any primary air into the unit. I have had this stove for a couple of years. It has pro's and cons. The biggest complaint is I wished it was made of a 3/8 plate compared to the thinner material to simply have more retention mass. Mind you I guess if it did it would be called some other top brand name unit.
I have found this unit to be very good.
 
Mine's neither of the models you guys are talking about, but I'm quite sure there are no passages in mine for primary air to travel down from the top entrance and enter the firebox from the bottom...it all enters as airwash, but once a good draft is established, you'd swear there was primary air entering from directly along the lower front, just from the behavior of the burn. My stove's in the final stage of burning my last load of the night...coals to ash now...so I just now opened the door and took a pic of the brick the way it's installed in mine. Your stove may be different, dunno. Rick
 

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Karl,

Don't necessarily equate price with quality and performance--a number of inexpensive stoves, including Century models, are dependable, efficient heating units. My century runs like a champ--it's not hard to start (I've never had to "preheat" my chimney although I've seen it done with a propane torch on YouTube videos, guess I'm lucky to have a good draft)--and heats my house very well. You can get Rutland replacement firebrick at Ace hardware--it's about $20 for 6 bricks. I would think you want firebricks, not regular bricks. I don't think you need a convection jacket for a blower. I bought the optional blower kit and it's rectangular and goes over the rectangular opening in the rear heat shield. ( I'm glad I bought the blower kit. I hadn't used it much during shoulder season but find myself using it more in the mornings now that our temps are getting really low overnight.) Look at the brick layout diagram on the 2nd page of the PDF attachment in my first post. I wonder if you might have them in wrong. This stove should give plenty of heat. The firebox on mine is slightly larger (2 cf) and has no problems heating my 1200 sf house on a 24/7 basis.
 
Have you found where the SECONDARY air comes in yet? There should be an air passage from the baffle to the bottom outside of the stove. This should be a fixed (non adjustable) opening.
The Primary air in the Century I used to have came into the stove in exactly the same manner as you described above, all through the airwash via a very simple sliding plate attangement.
The Secondary inlet was a small square hole in the lower rear outside of the stove, behind the pedestal.
2 regular firebricks go into the rear corners of the baffle. They can be removed to make cleaning easier.
For what I paid for that Century ($500 new), I was happy with it.
 
Thanks for the picture Fossil. The firebox on this stove is different. Your two top fire brick are exposed. This firebox has metal going all the way to the back. I guess you're lucky. You can clean your chimney without removing the stove. That isn't going to happen on this one unless I can make some sort of shop vac attachemnt to go above the baffel and suck the powder out once it is brushed from the chimney.

Also, I'M NOT KNOCKING THIS STOVE. If it works for her I'll be tickled to death. Tomorrow will be a good test. After I get the block off plate put in, I'm going to run the stove up to 500-600 degrees and see what type of heat it puts off. I think it will work well, since her whole house is only 3 times the size of the room my Summit is in.

I never had any questions on the secondary air inlet, only the primary.

I'd love to see pics of the blower you bought for yours In the Rockies.

What are the burn times on this stove? Anyone?
 
I got the block off plate in. I built a fire at 5 P.M. the house was 50 degrees according to the thermostat on the wall. Outside temperature was 40. I left at 6 and the room was 57 degrees. She called me at 9 and said it was up to 60. I'm kind of surprise, considering that house was cold soaked to 50 degrees. I'm sure it will take hours and hours to get much hotter, she has a reasonably open floor plan for about half the house.
 
Hello,

New here and late to the topic. I recently bought a place in the mountains which has a Century Hearth CDW244, but unfortunately the info on it is there and not in the city where I am currently. But the links on this thread did the job - THANKS!

The primary combustion air for this stove actually comes in the back - look for a little rectangular opening thing that points slightly down, the secondary air is what the handle in front controls - to the left is closed (off), right is all of the way open as already mentioned (since it can be shut completely off it is secondary air). I am going to make a little cover for the primary air inlet in back so if need be (in case of a flue fire for instance - pine, cedar, pinon and such are the norm here; hardwood is rare) I can cover it up allowing me to cut off all air combustion air or for when I am not there to reduce heat loss.

My place is about 1000 sq ft with not the greatest insulation (R20 walls, R35 ceiling, closed crawl space, lots of big windows) and this stove does a pretty nice job of warming the place up (except of course the back rooms are a little chilly) on 0F nights. I have found that when fully stoked the wood will last about 4-6 hours before needing another load of wood.

Thanks again!
 
You've got your primary confused with your sencondary. Primary air is controllable using the sliding gate across the top front of the stove. You have no control over the secondary air entering the stove from the rear. Rick
 
The Century CDW244 or FW244 or S244 or CJW244 is one of Century's (Haughs at the time) first EPA licenses. As it is around 15 years old, it is now pretty bullet proof. The instructions should advise you to leave the door ajar for a short period to establish draft on cold start up. You can damage the stove beyond repair by overloading and twisting the baffle support as it will take the stove with it. Be sensible and burn up to 3/4 load. It has a 1.5 cubic foot firebox which should hold a fire for 5 - 6 hours. The EPA license is now shared by SBI (Drolet) for Century Brand and Monessen for Dutchwest Brand since CFM was split up.
 
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