Thinking about moving stove

Thinking about moving my tlc 2000 to the garage and buying a new comfortmax 75 , thinking the internal damper and reburn tubes are gonna get me through the winter a little better with wood this year then the tlc, does anyone run a comfortmax with the optional blower ? It’s almost a $400 add on , the comfortmax is a little deeper I should be ok room wise , kinda kicking myself now for not ordering that one from the get go

Hi Mobile, The Comfortmax is a great unit and I think there's a lot to be said about the reburn tubes. If I was to purchase a new model that reburn system would help to become a deciding factor. But what I gathered from reading some reports, it takes more heat to start the reburn process. I don't know if this is true or not, but I think a lot could be said by the way you would run your comfortmax. As far as the optional blower, you might be able to find an after market blower for that unit. I know that after a lot of research I found a after market blower for my TLC's, and it only cost about $80 vs the $250 that Legacy wants. Do some research and check out the Comfortmax threads as to find a cheaper fan. Also if you call DS, they might steer you in the right direction for a substitute blower, as I have heard that they are very helpful to their customers.

Forum member 11ultra103 (Grizpiper1225 is his YouTube channel handle) might be able to help you concerning the reburn for coal or wood, but I don’t think he ordered a blower with his stove. You might send him a private message with your questions or a link to this thread so he sees it.

You’ll have to burn that stove really hot for the reburn to work with wood. I mean, you would have heat cycles in your home with the wood which might allow you to burn it hot enough, rather than the consistent steady heat like you get with coal. If you let the house cycle like that you may be able to get the stove that hot on fresh loads.

I most certainly would burn wood less than 18% moisture content if you have pan on burning any wood, maybe 15% or less. Even doing that I don’t pups leave the bypass open longer to allow the wood to smoke off going straight out of the stove because if you close it too soon you could creosote up the bypass air path in the stove which could cause disassembly of the stove to clean if it gets too bad.

Once a bed of coals is established and the stove has settled in and totally warmed up AND the wood has sufficiently burned off after loading then it might be possible that the reburn will work starting around 400-450 and it might be able to hold that for a while. The reburn could even ignite as low as 350 and burn around that rate for awhile. You’ll have to have play with it and see what temp it begins to light off and how well it holds it. You can expect black glass burning below 400.

I personally would always order a blower with the stove. You don’t have to use it or install it, but it’s there if/when you ever need it.

I’m just guessing since I don’t have any experience with that stove, but 11ultra103 (grizpiper1225 YouTube handle) could confirm or deny my thoughts/suggestions.

That CM 75 may be better suited for the garage. Especially if you only fire it up when you’re working out there and need quick heat. That reburn when really shine for you then burning wood or with coal.

I wish I a TLC and a CM75 to tinker around with. Nice stoves.

11Ultra103 has been using a CM 75 for past couple years and burns wood. I bought the CM 75 and getting ready to use for first time this season. Gonna burn wood mostly this year. The amish dealer I bought it from only use this model. They have them in 3 houses in their family. And of course don't use blowers.

kodadog wrote: ↑

Tue. Aug. 23, 2022 1:22 pm

11Ultra103 has been using a CM 75 for past couple years and burns wood. I bought the CM 75 and getting ready to use for first time this season. Gonna burn wood mostly this year. The amish dealer I bought it from only use this model. They have them in 3 houses in their family. And of course don't use blowers.

He is precisely who I was referencing to in my post above, but I gave is YouTube handle rather than his coalpail handle.

I have edited my above post with the correct forum member name. Thanks for the reminder.

Forum member 11ultra103 has a YouTube handle which is grizpiper1225, if my memory serves me correctly. He’s a nice young man too!

Ah cool! thanks Bill, I just watched one of his videos

Yeah I could Polly come up with my own fan set up for the $400 ds wants , they threw the fan in for free when I bought my tlc . Yeah I messaged him - he isn’t using a fan yet was saying he might modify one to fight as well and found some on eBay , I figured either cm75 I could get a little longer burn times , grizz was saying full loaded and damped up he was achieving 8 hour burns , the tlc is out after a few , I’ve done alittle better with it by putting a solid Steel plate over shaker grates and adding another MPD right into flue collar of stove , when my temp are up I can generate some secondary combustion at top of fire box , just wish the exhaust wasn’t so straight out with this stove

I wanted to add I do think the tlc is a great stove and enjoy it a lot , it’ll will crank the heat out , I’ve had here ripping good with coal and firewood , another aspect is the ds regulator system or temp control , I work and so does the wife and we frequently experience high winds think that might help things out being consistent And not over firing stove and burning up fuel

Again, you might ask ultra about using the thermostat with wood. Maybe he has experience using his thermostat with wood. That’s something that isn’t often discussed on this forum and quite honestly Hitzer would not share information with me and my 354 concerning using the thermostat with wood…even with a wood plate in place. Had everything to do with the 2020 EPA regulations as to why they wouldn’t give me the information I was asking about.

I couldn’t use my 354 or the CM75 with wood in my house without burning us out of the house…even into deep winter. The wood just can’t be controlled to burn that low for me without blackening glass and creosoting up my chimney and the inside of my stove even with my 4 year seasoned wood. It simply would have to smolder the wood too much for us.

You and ultra likely have big enough homes or larger heat loads than I do that this wouldn’t be an issue for you.

My yearly average btu’s per hour only requires about .66lbs/hr-.88lbs/hr (depending on weather that year) of anthracite which only equates to about roughly 10,000 btu’s an hour to heat my home. That’s a low, low burn for coal, let alone for wood. For a wood burn that low it is approaching low burn for catalytic wood stoves…which equates to burning wood “black box” style (zero flames on the wood itself).

Some people don’t seem to like keeping track of numbers like that but it means I could get by with a smaller stove for a more optimal medium burn rather than such a low burn with a great big stove…a stove that I can’t cook off of because it has a heat exchanger in the top of the stove and the natural convection with the blower turned off still cools the stove top too much. A bigger home/heat load would help me a lot with a hotter stove top to cook with, but I’m stuck with what I have for now. The cooler stove makes for longer tending times too…another con of a stove too big.

I’m not sure how the CM75 compares to my 354 or your TLC, but it might be worth calculating overall cubic inches of stove as it translates to mass and how much heat it will throw into the home.

Sounds to me like you were burning your TLC at a much higher rate than I am with my 354, so the CM75 may work well for you. I was hoping it would fit me too, because that was the new and first stove I had picked out. The CM75 is a very nice stove in my book. I wish they made a smaller version of it.

Using the thermostat with wood is the same as it is with coal. It needs to get the spring the same temp with either fuel for it to open and close. Of course when it is low on fuel it will open a lot more until you get it back to temp. And wood wont burn a consistent temp for 24 hrs like coal.

If your using over fire air of course the thermo may shut and the temp still could go up, but the thermo can only regulate what it can, incoming bottom air.

Ive burned wood with holes for air, a door that I held open with a dime, penny, quarter to regulate, and with a good thermostat and the thermostat wins the race. KISS applies.

I am attempting to find a UL listing (or any other testing laboratory for a Gibralter IV wood/coal stove (radiant). The stove I inspected does not have a plate on it. Can anybody provide any insight? Thanks

Yep wife says no way ! Haha looks like I’ll be modifying the TLC with so e secondary burn tubes, see if I can get something do before it gets cold

Mobile-tech1 wrote: ↑

Fri. Aug. 26, 2022 11:26 am

Yep wife says no way ! Haha looks like I’ll be modifying the TLC with so e secondary burn tubes, see if I can get something do before it gets cold

If you try the secondary burn mods in your TLC, keep us informed on your progress, as I would be interested in seeing that. I am a little weary though, as it seems that you will be either burning much hotter, to get the secondary burn, or much cooler which wont apply to the secondary burn. If you must burn much hotter for the secondary to kick in, then you will be feeding that TLC constantly. If you slow down the burn, I am afraid your secondary tubes wont work. This is why burning coal is much more efficient as you don't have the creosote to deal with and the constant refueling with burning wood. Let's face it coal is much more efficient. With that said, I must burn wood to stretch out my coal supply, as the price of coal will be unaffordable for me over the next few years. And that's coming from a guy that lives in the anthracite region. Sometimes a guy has to do what a guy has to do!

I agree , yeah I’d like burning coal , but it’s just not in my budget this year, I got a few ideas in my head , my goal is not to drill through or corrupt the outter case of stove