Country Comfort quetions

[dugswife]

Several questions. Here's the story. We just bought a house that has a wood burning stove. The home is a split level and the stove is on level one and the pipe runs openly on level two and out the roof. It is backed by a freestanding "chimney wall of brick". The couple who had the has built told us that they heated the entire house with this stove (3800 sq. ft.) - but alas he has Alzheimers and couldn't even instruct us on how to use it. From what I can tell the stove is a Country Comfort cc255. I've found they are out of business so no luck getting them to answer my questions.

1. It has a blower on it. You can set it high to low and it blows hot air out the front of the stove. I was wondering if I should be using this to move air to the second level? And how much electricity does something like that use?

2. The pipe gets about 400 degrees on constant...and puts out some pretty good heat. We see no smoke in the house - but have gotten a heavy smoke smell several times. I do prime it and all that...just wondering what would cause this?

3. There is a small lever on the bottom left. It seems to be spring loaded and is unmarked...what would this be? (It is to the left of the ash door - on the right of the ash door is a level that says hi to low heat). We leave the ash door open to get a new fire going well and then shut it. we assume the heat lever somehow adjusts the heat output?? Not sure how though.

4. I believe it has a catalytic converter. I read somewhere that I should close the stove damper (leaving the pipe damper open) in order to "activate" the catalytic converter. However if I do this the stove fills with smoke so I don't. But I do have a lot of smoke that comes out of the chimney. I assume the converter is the accordion honeycomb thing in the front ceiling of the stove? Haven't figured out how to remove it though...and read something that that's only part of it and that the other is usually behind a panel or just under the pipe....totally confused on this.

We have been using the stove all week and it heats pretty good - but I feel like I'm gonna burn down my house cause I'm not really educated on this. Hope someone can help. Thanks much!! (I've attached a picture)

 

[daleeper]

Several questions. Here's the story. We just bought a house that has a wood burning stove. The home is a split level and the stove is on level one and the pipe runs openly on level two and out the roof. It is backed by a freestanding "chimney wall of brick". The couple who had the has built told us that they heated the entire house with this stove (3800 sq. ft.) - but alas he has Alzheimers and couldn't even instruct us on how to use it. From what I can tell the stove is a Country Comfort cc255. I've found they are out of business so no luck getting them to answer my questions.

1. It has a blower on it. You can set it high to low and it blows hot air out the front of the stove. I was wondering if I should be using this to move air to the second level? And how much electricity does something like that use?

2. The pipe gets about 400 degrees on constant...and puts out some pretty good heat. We see no smoke in the house - but have gotten a heavy smoke smell several times. I do prime it and all that...just wondering what would cause this?

3. There is a small lever on the bottom left. It seems to be spring loaded and is unmarked...what would this be? (It is to the left of the ash door - on the right of the ash door is a level that says hi to low heat). We leave the ash door open to get a new fire going well and then shut it. we assume the heat lever somehow adjusts the heat output?? Not sure how though.

4. I believe it has a catalytic converter. I read somewhere that I should close the stove damper (leaving the pipe damper open) in order to "activate" the catalytic converter. However if I do this the stove fills with smoke so I don't. But I do have a lot of smoke that comes out of the chimney. I assume the converter is the accordion honeycomb thing in the front ceiling of the stove? Haven't figured out how to remove it though...and read something that that's only part of it and that the other is usually behind a panel or just under the pipe....totally confused on this.

We have been using the stove all week and it heats pretty good - but I feel like I'm gonna burn down my house cause I'm not really educated on this. Hope someone can help. Thanks much!! (I've attached a picture)

Welcome to the hearth room. You will find this place is populated with some great people who really want to help you, and have a great amount of knowledge of wood burning.

1. You will have to experiment with the fan after you have learned how to properly operate the stove to see how it will work best for you and your house. Keep in mind, 60 degrees in the back of the house may have been comfortable for the previous owners, and may not be acceptable to you.

2. Not sure where and how you are measuring temperature of the pipe, I assume you are referring to the flue pipe that connects the stove to the chimney. 400 degrees on the pipe seems a bit high to me, but might be ok for your setup. I will leave that for others to discuss. I will ask, have you had the chimney cleaned and inspected? If you haven't, you should do so to make sure it is not full of creosote, and to make sure it is in good condition.

3 and 4. Hopefully someone will come along that can direct you to a copy of the manual or at let you know what each lever does. I did a google search on what you listed for stove model, and didn't find anything on a 255cc, but did find a catalyst for a model 250cc. There should be a plate on the back of the stove that tells what model it is, clearance distances and a few other bits of information. It appears as though Country Comfort/Orville Products is out of business. Catalyst's are still available though.

I do not have a cat stove, so I can't give you experience in running one, but it does need to be run properly, or you can damage the cat, and the stove will not run as efficient as it could. You really need to find out what each lever does, but you will have one that controls the amount of air going into the stove, and one that will control whether the air in the stove box goes through the catalyst or bypasses it. The lever that would have low heat/high heat would be the one that controls the air going into the stove, the more air allowed in the stove, the hotter the fire will get. Normally that lever controls a slide gate over some holes in the air passage to allow air into the firebox. There should be a lever that controls some sort of bypass door that will change the air flow inside the stove, allowing the air to go through the catalyst or straight up the flue. Hopefully someone can tell you how yours specifically works. That catalyst really ought to be inspected and cleaned. It is a honeycomb-like structure with holes that need to be open and a coating that needs to be relatively clean for it to function properly. It is made of ceramics with a coating, and is somewhat fragile, so it needs to be handled with care. If the holes are open, a light dusting with a soft bristled brush would be all I would do to it. Normally, to operate the cat properly, you would have the lever in place to bypass the cat until the stove temperature gets to 500 degrees or so, then switch the lever to run the air through the cat. The stove needs to be hot for the catalyst to start its burn. Once you learn proper operation and get the chimney cleaned out, hopefully the smoke smell in the house will start to disappear. One thing to keep in mind, all of these stoves really need seasoned wood to operate properly, and the cat in particular needs dry wood, as wet wood can damage the cat.

If you cannot a manual for your stove, I would suggest you read up on the operation of other cat stoves such as ones by Buck, Woodstock, or other mfg. as operation will be similar once you know which levers control what parts.

I hope some of this helps, someone will come along with experience with this stove.

Good luck.

 

[dugswife]

Hmmm. The plate that shows the model number is on the back and hard to see - so I could be wrong...but is looks like cc255. There are these magnetic temperature gauges on the stove and on the pipes. Actually I noticed last night the one on the stove was at 400 degrees and the connecting pipe said 800 while the pipe above in the 2nd story said 400. We have a chimney sweep coming tomorrow actually - it was very hard to find one who would service us as we live rather far out.

I appreciate the long response and hope others will be able to help as well. A manual would be ideal - we haven't been able to locate one either.


Thanks much!!

 

[Hiram Maxim]

I have the manual for that stove!!

 

[Todd]

Several questions. Here's the story. We just bought a house that has a wood burning stove. The home is a split level and the stove is on level one and the pipe runs openly on level two and out the roof. It is backed by a freestanding "chimney wall of brick". The couple who had the has built told us that they heated the entire house with this stove (3800 sq. ft.) - but alas he has Alzheimers and couldn't even instruct us on how to use it. From what I can tell the stove is a Country Comfort cc255. I've found they are out of business so no luck getting them to answer my questions.

1. It has a blower on it. You can set it high to low and it blows hot air out the front of the stove. I was wondering if I should be using this to move air to the second level? And how much electricity does something like that use?

2. The pipe gets about 400 degrees on constant...and puts out some pretty good heat. We see no smoke in the house - but have gotten a heavy smoke smell several times. I do prime it and all that...just wondering what would cause this?

3. There is a small lever on the bottom left. It seems to be spring loaded and is unmarked...what would this be? (It is to the left of the ash door - on the right of the ash door is a level that says hi to low heat). We leave the ash door open to get a new fire going well and then shut it. we assume the heat lever somehow adjusts the heat output?? Not sure how though.

4. I believe it has a catalytic converter. I read somewhere that I should close the stove damper (leaving the pipe damper open) in order to "activate" the catalytic converter. However if I do this the stove fills with smoke so I don't. But I do have a lot of smoke that comes out of the chimney. I assume the converter is the accordion honeycomb thing in the front ceiling of the stove? Haven't figured out how to remove it though...and read something that that's only part of it and that the other is usually behind a panel or just under the pipe....totally confused on this.

We have been using the stove all week and it heats pretty good - but I feel like I'm gonna burn down my house cause I'm not really educated on this. Hope someone can help. Thanks much!! (I've attached a picture)

I believe that small lever on the bottom left is your bypass damper. It should be open when first lighting a fire and reloading firewood until proper cat light off is achieved (500 degrees internal). The other lever prolly adjusts your heat output by giving you a certain amount of air. When lighting this stove have the bypass open and full air til you reach light off temp, then close the bypass and slowely adjust the heat output air to desired setting. It may take some trial and error figuring out this stove. Here is a good source on combustor tips. (broken link removed to http://www.woodstove.com/pages/combustortips.html)