DS Comfort max 75 info
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actually both. I see coal at the moment has gone up in my area of North Western Pennsylvania. I have seen the stove for sale for 3,095 dollars. not sure if thats a fair price or not.
Combination stoves are never very good at burning both. Most combo stoves are decent coal stoves but pretty poor wood stoves. The DS is actually better than most as a wood stove. The problem is in my experience they really are not very durable at all. They just aren't engineered very well to hold up
I would never have thought that at all. I have looked at the BK Princess also. I want to make a move to a new stove by next spring. Thanks for your input. I thought I would have alot more participation in this thread but I'll just keep looking and asking questions. Thanks again.
Ds just isn't a large manufacturer and burning coal isn't very popular outside of a free pockets of easy availability of coal.
Ok. Well Im still looking at BK and Lopi. Going to a place that sells wood stoves and burners. Going to look at several they sell. Thanks again.
11ultra103
Member
11ultra103
Member
I bought my Comfortmax 2 or 3 years ago. Mostly burned coal until this year. Coal prices have almost doubled from last year so I decided I would stockpile firewood. Cut and split 4 cords of Ash back in spring. Bought 2 cords of dry oak and I had about 2 cords of oak already in my woodshed. So I figured this would be a good year to see how well the Cmax really heats with wood. So far so good. I wake up to a warm house every day. I usually load the stove up for the night around 10pm. The other morning I didn't put any wood in before work, at 2pm the next day I still had enough coals to throw some wood in and keep it going. 16 hours!
I will say, it is very easy to over fire this stove. On the rear of the stove there is a spring connected to a chain which opens and closes an air inlet flap to regulate stove temperature. A great feature for burning coal, not so much for burning wood. I've found you can only have that air flap open about 1/16'' when burning wood. Much more than that lets in way too much air. But besides that the stove burns wood about as good as it burns coal. Once you get the stove up to temp and the flap in the back closes the stove runs on the secondary air. It's not as efficient as a brand new epa stove, but the secondary air tubes in the top of the stove do help burn cleaner. I had a Jotul with similar secondary combustion.
In my opinion the stove is quality. DS stoves are made by the Amish here in Pennsylvania. Of you have questions you can call DS and they will talk your ear off about every detail of their stoves. Before I bought the Cmax I talked to Leroy on the phone for about an hour. He was happy to tell me every detail about the stove. He explained to me they have to market the stove as coal only now because it didn't meet epa emission standards. But he told me the stove burns coal and wood.
I've been pretty damn happy with this stove. I have a hitzer coal stove in my garage. To my the Cmax is a Cadillac compared to the Hitzer. Much better quality
I will say, it is very easy to over fire this stove. On the rear of the stove there is a spring connected to a chain which opens and closes an air inlet flap to regulate stove temperature. A great feature for burning coal, not so much for burning wood. I've found you can only have that air flap open about 1/16'' when burning wood. Much more than that lets in way too much air. But besides that the stove burns wood about as good as it burns coal. Once you get the stove up to temp and the flap in the back closes the stove runs on the secondary air. It's not as efficient as a brand new epa stove, but the secondary air tubes in the top of the stove do help burn cleaner. I had a Jotul with similar secondary combustion.
In my opinion the stove is quality. DS stoves are made by the Amish here in Pennsylvania. Of you have questions you can call DS and they will talk your ear off about every detail of their stoves. Before I bought the Cmax I talked to Leroy on the phone for about an hour. He was happy to tell me every detail about the stove. He explained to me they have to market the stove as coal only now because it didn't meet epa emission standards. But he told me the stove burns coal and wood.
I've been pretty damn happy with this stove. I have a hitzer coal stove in my garage. To my the Cmax is a Cadillac compared to the Hitzer. Much better quality
Wait untill you burn wood through it for a few years before making that call that it's better quality than the hitzler. They really are pretty good coal stoves. They don't hold up all that well to wood useage
11ultra103
Member
I would think wood is easier on a stove than coal is. Creosote preserves metal, suffer eats it
Creosote absolutely does not preserve metal. But it isn't about corrosion it's about temperature and their lack of allowing for differing expansion in many areas. They are very well built but not very well designed for wood use
11ultra103
Member
I usually see warpage starting with in 5 years on them. At most when used for wood
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