# trying to save a Country Comfort Stove from the 80's



## Kay Elliott (May 21, 2020)

I am currently in escrow  on a house with a Country Comfort stove.  The bank will require it to  be removed and destroyed before the sale of  the house if I cant prove that it meets Oregon law standards.  An Oregon law passed in 2009 requires removal and destruction of uncertified wood stoves and fireplace inserts when a home is sold. If a stove or insert is certified to meet wood smoke emission standards, it can remain in the home. Do any of you have information on who I might be able to contact about the emissions level of this  stove? any help would be much appreciated.


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## nathan125 (May 21, 2020)

Just remove the stove and place it in a shed or something and bring it back out when the heat is off ya.


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## coaly (May 21, 2020)

The reason many stove companies went out of business in 1988 was due to EPA emission regulations being phased in over time. They could no longer sell any stoves that didn't meet the new emission levels. This emission level was updated May 15 2015 and just went into effect May 15 this year. Installed stoves were grandfathered, but you could not install one without an EPA certification label. OR, WA and CA (as well as local jurisdictions in other states) has made it illegal to sell a home with one installed, so that's why it has to be removed. If someone would have removed it before the sale, and the new owner illegally installs one, that's on you. Since they know this stove exists, and it is illegal to even sell one, you or the seller have to prove it was decommissioned or scrapped properly. It must be reported to DEQ and you receive a numbered receipt that it was properly disposed of.

Since this stove was built there have been even more decreases in particle size that is allowed to be emitted. No such thing as having a stove certified after manufacture.

Any heating appliance you install also must be UL Listed, which will have a UL tag. This is for safety, not emissions. If this Insert isn't UL Listed, it isn't legal in most other states as well for a new installation.

Below are guidelines for disposal in your state;

*Is there a list of certified devices I can use to determine if mine is certified?*
No. Oregon DEQ relies on the presence of either a DEQ or EPA certification label on the back of a device to determine if a device is certified to meet emissions performance standards. If your device does not have a certification label similar to one of the examples shown on this factsheet, it is not certified and must be decommissioned when the home is sold.

*My stove does not have an emissions certification label. Can I get it certified?*
No. Certification is completed by stove manufacturers when introducing a new model line. To meet certification requirements, stoves must have pollution control systems built into them and be tested by an independent third party at the time of manufacture to assure they meet emissions performance standards.

*Who is responsible for removing an uncertified woodstove or insert?*
The home seller is responsible for complying with the removal, destruction and disposal requirements unless both the seller and buyer agree in writing that the buyer will accept responsibility. In cases where the buyer takes responsibility, then they have 30 days after the close of sale to meet the requirements.

*Can I remove and destroy it myself?*
You can choose to remove and destroy the uncertified woodstove or insert yourself, or hire someone to do it for you. If you choose to remove it yourself, DEQ provides a list of potential places to dispose of uncertified devices on the Heat Smart Program web page (see link to web page at the bottom of this fact sheet).

*I’ve removed my uncertified woodstove or fireplace insert. What do I do now?*
After an uncertified device has been removed, it must be destroyed and disposed of, and DEQ must be notified by the responsible party.

*How do I destroy and dispose of my uncertified woodstove or insert?*
An uncertified woodstove or fireplace insert is considered destroyed when it is demolished to the extent that it cannot be restored or reused as a heating device. DEQ recommends permanently removing the door and hinges, and cutting holes in the top and sides of the device at least four inches in diameter to destroy it. DEQ also recommends taking your uncertified woodstove or fireplace insert to a scrap metal dealer or recycler for disposal. Be sure to obtain a numbered receipt from the contractor or business that disposes of your stove and keep it for your records. You will need to reference the disposal receipt when notifying DEQ that an uncertified device has been decommissioned.

*How do I notify DEQ that I removed, destroyed and disposed of an uncertified woodstove or fireplace insert?*
To notify DEQ that an uncertified device has been decommissioned, the person who removed the device can submit an Uncertified Woodstove Removal Notification form to DEQ online by visiting the Heat Smart web page (see link at end of this fact sheet). When you or your contractor submits a removal notification form online, you will immediately receive a confirmation number that is your proof of complying with removal and destruction requirements for uncertified devices. Please print and save a copy of the Uncertified Woodstove Removal Notification Confirmation for your records, as you may need it as documentation in closing the sale of your home.









						How to Determine If Your Wood Stove or Fireplace Is Listed and Labeled
					

Learn how to tell if a wood stove or fireplace insert is certified. Also, how to find the DEQ or EPA certification label for your wood stove or fireplace insert. Read about unlisted wood stoves and fireplace inserts. Find wood stove laws and decide if you need to remove one before selling your home.




					www.portlandoregon.gov


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## coaly (May 21, 2020)

nathan125 said:


> Just remove the stove and place it in a shed or something and bring it back out when the heat is off ya.


In OR there is a paper trail that requires reporting to DEQ within 30 days. Seller or buyer has to prove to realtor it was disposed of or decommissioned with documentation before closing.

Fines start at $750 for noncompliance. In addition, your insurance company may invalidate your homeowner’s insurance or the mortgage company may delay the home sale if they discover an uncertified wood heating device was not removed, destroyed and reported to DEQ.


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## nathan125 (May 21, 2020)

Gotta love government!


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## bholler (May 21, 2020)

nathan125 said:


> Gotta love government!


They were pretty crappy stoves to begin with honestly no great loss.  And if you ever spent any time in an area with air inversions you would understand why some areas have regulations like this.  

Have you ever used a modern stove?


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## nathan125 (May 21, 2020)

We have weather based inversions quite often in the dead of winter... I happily run a 1987 Sweet Home wood stove. cost me $60 and has paid for itself long before a $500 EPA stove ever would.  You do understand that there is not a thing the government can run that private business can't do better, you know this right?  Name one thing that government has involved itself with that has led to the betterment?


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## bholler (May 21, 2020)

nathan125 said:


> We have weather based inversions quite often in the dead of winter... I happily run a 1987 Sweet Home wood stove. cost me $60 and has paid for itself long before a $500 EPA stove ever would.  You do understand that there is not a thing the government can run that private business can't do better, you know this right?  Name one thing that government has involved itself with that has led to the betterment?


Well for one wood stoves are far better now than they were in the 70s and early 80s.  So I will ask you again have you ever used a modern stove?
And you can find great deals on modern clean burn stoves as well.  My last 3 have been free or under $100.  I used them for a while then resold them at a profit.


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## bholler (May 21, 2020)

I assume you only drive on privately owned and maintained roads right.  And don't take and medicine approved by the FDA.  And on and on.


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## nathan125 (May 22, 2020)

I have been to the doctor twice ever. Tremendous strength and health. You're telling me the government can build more efficient roads at an expedited rate over a private company that has to make payroll ? If upkeep and other work were hired out on contracts they would be done at a savings to the taxpayer with work done being superior to government agencies. I have worked for Government and private enterprise and I can tell you that the differences are staggering.  I am too  busy working to scour the free ads for stoves, I burn the newest stove I have, the SweetHome. Great stove !


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## peakbagger (May 22, 2020)

Read up on the tragedy of the commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons and come up with a solution that doesnt involve a central authority regulating the use of the common resource. The common resource (the local environment) can dilute point sources like a dirty woodstove so that only the actual landowner is breathing in their pollution, but start decreasing the lot size and increasing the pollution by adding more woodstoves and then everyone is impacted. Apparently Oregon had enough cases of degraded air quality that there as support by the general population to regulate wood stove pollution.


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## bholler (May 22, 2020)

nathan125 said:


> I have been to the doctor twice ever. Tremendous strength and health. You're telling me the government can build more efficient roads at an expedited rate over a private company that has to make payroll ? If upkeep and other work were hired out on contracts they would be done at a savings to the taxpayer with work done being superior to government agencies. I have worked for Government and private enterprise and I can tell you that the differences are staggering.  I am too  busy working to scour the free ads for stoves, I burn the newest stove I have, the SweetHome. Great stove !


So you think just because the govt contracts out work on roads that means our road system is brought to us by private enterprise?   

What makes your stove a great stove?  Does it have long burn times?  Does it have high efficiency meaning you burn less wood?


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## kennyp2339 (May 22, 2020)

Op, scrap the stove, inspect the chimney - inserts should have a full liner from the flue collar of the stove to the chimney cap, you might have one, you might not, you might have a partial liner, depending on the usage if you have a liner, it would prob original with the stove <30yrs old would prob need to be replaced anyway; and if there is no liner you'll need one for a new stove and you will need to really clean that chimney good before the new liner (insulated) get dropped down. We all recommend insulated liners for existing masonry chimney's because they provide the best protection incase of a chimney fire, masonry can develop cracks in the tiles over time, also some chimney's are built with out the right clearances to combustibles and an insulated liner corrects that, plus you will get the added performance of warmer flue temps, so less possibility of creosote development when burning dry wood.


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## begreen (May 22, 2020)

nathan125 said:


> You do understand that there is not a thing the government can run that private business can't do better, you know this right?  Name one thing that government has involved itself with that has led to the betterment?


You do understand house rules about political opinions, right?


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## nathan125 (May 23, 2020)

My stove has never given me an ounce of trouble. I burn less 1.5 cords a year and rely soley on wood heat.  To me that is great.


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## kennyp2339 (May 23, 2020)

nathan125 said:


> My stove has never given me an ounce of trouble. I burn less 1.5 cords a year and rely soley on wood heat.  To me that is great.


I understand were your coming from, why fix something that isn't broken, but in the percentile of old stove functionality your the anomaly here, I don't think the regional or state government (back to the OP since its they're thread) had the intention of making people do extra work if it wasn't needed, evidently there were issues well beyond our scope of fathoming for that location to force the state legislator to put together a set of rules for the betterment of there citizens, cleaner air in valley town that has inversion issues are one of them, do I personally agree with that? No, I'm from NJ and we hardly ever have inversion issues here, so I cant comprehend there geographic problems with smoke not venting into the atmosphere correctly and dispersing. 
The good here is that the OP or seller of the property will remove the stove and now the OP by default can really look at that chimney to make sure everything is safe and ready to rock and roll, always remember the chimney is probabaly the most important thing next to the actual burning appliance, if the chimney is no good, the way the appliance (stove) runs will be greatly effected.


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## bholler (May 23, 2020)

nathan125 said:


> My stove has never given me an ounce of trouble. I burn less 1.5 cords a year and rely soley on wood heat.  To me that is great.


You previously said you had to load a couple times a night.  Wouldn't you prefer to sleep through the night?  To me that would easily be worth the cost of a new stove.


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## Kay Elliott (May 23, 2020)

wow, this sure took a turn I wasn't expecting.  But to update you all, I got really lucky and was able to track down an other forum post asking about replacement parts for country classic stoves.  One of the answers there led to a company in Ohio that bought the  previous rights and designs  to the country classic line.  A woman there was able to  send an image of test report paperwork stating that this stove is certified as being  within the allowed standards.  My realtor and i were  able to get the documentation to the bank loan contact and the stove  is saved!

To respond briefly to some of the previous commentary, while I do not always agree with the governments regulations, I am not an expert in stoves, and i certainly don't want to return to the Victorian age where your kitchen stove might explode because nothing about it was well regulated. As for modern day for  my situation, inputting an unregulated stove against the law is a good way to get your claim denied by your insurance if anything goes wrong. This house is a big potential part of my future and  pretty or not, I am not going to risk my future over a stove.  Lucky for me the original workers did things to regulation! Now I can too because of their hard  work.

Moving forward:
I am so excited but also you all make some fair points, I don't know entirely what state this thing  or the chimney is in. It all looks good to me, but this would be my first experience with owning a stove. I do want to get the stove and chimney checked out by folk who  know what they are looking at. The house will be getting a full inspection the 26th but a house inspector is not necessarily a stove expert, and  meets code, doesn't necessarily mean clean enough to be safe  to just start using.  @ kennyp2339 , I understand some of what  you are saying but I'm also hitting a big learning curve here, and the stove is only one of the things in the house I am trying to educate my self on. Do you (or any else) have suggestions on first priority acts of upkeep or suggested reading materials I could start with?  My first thought would be to get it looked at and cleaned but maybe it isn't a bad idea to have it also taken out, chimney inspected, new liner put in and then put it all back together?


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## bholler (May 23, 2020)

Kay Elliott said:


> wow, this sure took a turn I wasn't expecting.  But to update you all, I got really lucky and was able to track down an other forum post asking about replacement parts for country classic stoves.  One of the answers there led to a company in Ohio that bought the  previous rights and designs  to the country classic line.  A woman there was able to  send an image of test report paperwork stating that this stove is certified as being  within the allowed standards.  My realtor and i were  able to get the documentation to the bank loan contact and the stove  is saved!
> 
> To respond briefly to some of the previous commentary, while I do not always agree with the governments regulations, I am not an expert in stoves, and i certainly don't want to return to the Victorian age where your kitchen stove might explode because nothing about it was well regulated. As for modern day for  my situation, inputting an unregulated stove against the law is a good way to get your claim denied by your insurance if anything goes wrong. This house is a big potential part of my future and  pretty or not, I am not going to risk my future over a stove.  Lucky for me the original workers did things to regulation! Now I can too because of their hard  work.
> 
> ...


You have a very good outlook on the whole situation.  I would suggest having the entire system gone over by a reputable sweep to check for safety and functionality.  Honestly we replace and scrap many of those stoves simply because they really don't perform very well compared to more modern stuff.  But if you have it inspected and it is safe to use try it.


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## begreen (May 23, 2020)

It may be a later model like a CC300. Is it a big, wide bay window unit? 

An important check will be to determine whether it's connected to a proper stainless steel liner or not.  It needs to be.


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## Kay Elliott (May 24, 2020)

begreen said:


> It may be a later model like a CC300. Is it a big, wide bay window unit?
> 
> An important check will be to determine whether it's connected to a proper stainless steel liner or not.  It needs to be.


Right on the first go! it is a CC300. (I found out a couple days after starting this  thread) I was able to stop by a stove shop today that works with modern and antique units. (some  of the antique ones they have in there are  old monstrously sized ones with all kinds of artistic detail. Very cool place to walk through) Any who, I told them about my situation and they offered to come look at the condition of the stove before the sale of the house to make sure I'm buying a feature, instead of an expensive project.  Thank you all for helping me head in the right direction, I'm sure I will be back to poke around here to learn more in the future.


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## brenndatomu (May 24, 2020)

nathan125 said:


> I burn less 1.5 cords a year and rely soley on wood heat.


Wow, I didn't realize that Idaho was so close to the equator!   


Kay Elliott said:


> One of the answers there led to a company in Ohio that bought the previous rights and designs to the country classic line. A woman there was able to send an image of test report paperwork stating that this stove is certified as being within the allowed standards. My realtor and i were able to get the documentation to the bank loan contact and the stove is saved!


As these guys have already said, these weren't great stoves to begin with, so while it can stay for now, I'd really consider replacing it with something newer as you have the money to do so...I guess I'm assuming that you actually plan to use it more than just occasionally...if not, then it probably is fine as is. You can find some great deals on great used stoves if you take your time and wait/watch for the right deal.
On a side note, those Country Comfort stoves were built here locally...my bosses dad was actually a supervisor there...you'd never guess what the factory made primarily...truck cabs! Well, they made lots of different things over the years (obviously) but they were known as a cab builder. The company and building is long gone now...that property is now a truck parking lot for Smuckers (the jam/jelly maker)


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## begreen (May 24, 2020)

Kay Elliott said:


> Right on the first go! it is a CC300. (I found out a couple days after starting this  thread) I was able to stop by a stove shop today that works with modern and antique units. (some  of the antique ones they have in there are  old monstrously sized ones with all kinds of artistic detail. Very cool place to walk through) Any who, I told them about my situation and they offered to come look at the condition of the stove before the sale of the house to make sure I'm buying a feature, instead of an expensive project.  Thank you all for helping me head in the right direction, I'm sure I will be back to poke around here to learn more in the future.


The manual for the stove is here:


			https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/cc_generalinstructions-pdf.121403/


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## nathan125 (May 25, 2020)

Upgrade to a Fisher Stove.


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## coaly (May 25, 2020)

nathan125 said:


> Upgrade to a Fisher Stove.


Amen


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## bholler (May 25, 2020)

nathan125 said:


> Upgrade to a Fisher Stove.


That honestly would be  a downgrade in many ways.


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