Jotul 400 vs 500...help me decide

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Dougiefreshhh

Dougiefreshhh

New Member
Dec 12, 2011
56
North Central CT
Ok, so I've been looking at a lot of stoves to replace my cracked 30yr old VC Resolute Acclaim.
I liked the heat output of my old RA....just not the 4hr reloads in sub 20F weather.

I only burn 1-2crds per season to help supplement on those really cold nights and most winter weekends.

After looking at Harman Oakwood/Oakleaf, Hearthstone, Lopi Leyden, VC Encore, Woodstock, I really like the Jotuls.

I really like simple air controls (for me AND the Mrs), no cats to clean repair, just simple cast iron, screwed and glued together...like the old VC's. I've got 35' of one piece flexible liner pipe in a center chimney.

My issue is I think the 400 would be plenty for me...but I'm worried about the front load door only. The 500 would be plenty of stove, and I really like the side load, but I don't want to cook us out of the house everytime I run it.

I don't want to go with the 400, and then only get 4-5hr burn times because I can't pack the stove for the night. I'm ok with only coals in the morning...just as long as all I need to do is throw on some splits, open her up for 20min, and then damper her back down again.

Or should I get the 500 in the event I want to make the stove more of a primary heat source?

Argh...info overload!

Please help bring some sanity to my thinking!

Best,
Doug
 
My opinion is go with the 500 for the longer burns. You can always build a smaller fire in the bigger firebox if ya want less heat. Lots of threads on here about both of your stove choices,,,good luck to ya.
 
I have a Oslo (500) and the side loading alone would decide me. However, there are many happy owners of the 400.

With a full load of good seasoned oak or hickory a good bed of coals is still available after eight to nine hours. Enough coals to restart a fresh load can still be available after about 10 hours.

After several years of experimenting I have finally settled on loading the stove and letting it burn way down during shoulder season to keep the temperatures moderate. I have the luxury of having a very well insulated house so I can do this without the temperatures falling significantly. It is currently 34 deg. f. outside and I will likely only load the stove three times today.

By the way, I also use a cat stove and it is far too easy to overestimate the amount of maintenance. I would go farther and say that between a quality cat stove and a quality non-cat the overall level of maintenance is about a wash. And a cat stove does allow more fine-tuning of its output.
 
As a 400/Castine owner, I actually would probably recommend the 500/Oslo in your case. It seems like you like the side-loading design quite a bit, and I find that the Castine takes both really good wood and a little bit of fine tuning to still have a full bed of coals in the morning. The big firebox really helps for getting longer burn cycles!
 
We updated from the Castine for the same reason. It is a beautiful stove, but doesn't have long burntimes when pushed hard in cold weather. 3-5 hrs was typical between reloads when it got below 20F. This wasn't totally the fault of the stove. It was undersized for our 2000sq ft house and we burn mostly softwood.

As long as you have good clearance on the left side of the stove I would go for the Oslo, especially if you are thinking of burning more often. It will give you longer burntimes and top end for those coldest nights.
 
Gotta give us the sq footage you're heating.. thats the biggest concern. Our Oslo heats about 2000 sq feet perfectly.
 
I went with the 500 for the side door. Handier than pockets on a shirt. With a good load of wood in it it will almost cook us outta the basement but the upstairs heats up just right. Thats about 2000 square feet for both floors. Last night the last reload was at 8pm and I didnt load it this morning till 11am and still had enough hot coals that when I put 3 pieces of news paper in it I had to work quick to get the kindlin in it or I woulda got my arm burnt.
 
You say you have a flexible liner. Will you be running
that straight DOWN into the flue collar or will you run
to a Tee & then into a horizontal flue collar?
The Castine sometimes has issues with a back puffing
in a horizontal run & then vertical install. The top of the front
load door is actually higher than the secondary burn tubes
& the baffle & the added restriction of the Tee seems to
allow some smoke to exit the door. Without the restriction
of that Tee, & a dead vertical install, there doesn't seem to
be a smoke issue. Go with the Oslo. You can always make
a smaller fire in the bigger firebox.
 
We have a Castine and like it, but if we had to do it over again I'd go up one size to the 500. The thing for us was clearances - we didn't want the stove and hearth pad sticking out too far into the room and the Castine has a much narrower profile.

I can keep it going overnight with a few coals left in the morning, but that's primarily because I'm a night owl and usually don't go to bed until midnight or later.
 
If you're looking for long burn times and clean glass, the f400 is not the way to go. I don't have hardwood available, and pine burn time is 2-3 hours. Heat output is ok but if the outside temp drops below zero the stove is too small (1400 sq ft house).

I think you'll be much happier with the Oslo.
 
I narrowed my search in Novemeber down to the same two stove options. I went to two different dealers and of course one recommended the F500 the other the F400. I went with the F500 Oslo, the side door and the little longer fire box helped me decide. My house is probably in the @1900 sq ft range, stove is in the lower level of a raised ranch. I was worried the Oslo may be too big but we sit in the upper level living room mostly and the few times I had it really going it was @78 with the outside temp in the mid-high 30's. I was only burning the stove in the 400-450 degree range. If I was sitting in the room with the stove it would be in the high 80's - 90.

It may just come down to your house lay out, where you put the stove, and how big of an area you have to heat. This replaced an old F3 for me so it relly throws more heat.
I thought they were both nice stoves, I did have to extend the floor of my hearth for the F500 side door but I do like it so far.
 
I love my Oslo. It heats my well insulated 2000 sf to any temp any day. Being a insulated cast iron stove it takes a few loads to get the heat pouring out of it. On the flip side it takes some time to cool it down when the wood is done. Burn time is ok, but never enough at 3AM when it's 0 outside. No stove can fix the natural air movement in the house. My open floor plans work well to not cook the stove room. If there are options to the stove locations, study them carefully.

Snipe, what don't you like about the side loading?
 
I would recommend the Oslo- I have the F600 and love the side load feature. You can always go with the smaller loads, but you can never fit more in withouth the cu ft in the firebox.
 
If you have the clearances go for the F500, the side load is a real advantage plus the longer burn times.

Jim
 
OSLO +1,000,000

You can burn 4 or 5 small splits or rounds in it, get clean burns, and not cook yourself out, or you can load it with oak or hickory and really put out the heat.
 
Thanks all.

It's sounds like the 500 is the way to go.

I don't have clearance issues (I will need to get one of those black hearth extenders though), and it sounds like the most flexible solution to my current and possible future needs.

For the 500 owners out there, how often do you need to replace the fire brick? Also, other than gaskets, any other maintenance to the stove?

Thanks,
Doug
 
My first inclination would be to say go with the Oslo . . . side loader, bigger firebox and longer burns . . . and if you go that route I personally would go with the blue black finish if I was to do it again.

However, as Logger mentioned . . . how big is your house? How is the insulation/windows/etc? While it is possible to build a smaller fire in a larger fire box when you don't need as much heat, I still like to try to size a stove to the house (and then go one size larger). It is entirely possible that the Castine might be a better fit . . . or perhaps there is another stove type we should be suggesting to you even though you like the Jotul (and who can blame you -- it's a fantastic near bullet proof stove.)

Fire brick . . . three plus years and I've replaced nothing . . . this truly is a work horse of a stove . . . one could have perhaps called it the Toyota Tacoma of the woodstove world (at least until they had to recall and replace all those rusted out frames a few years back) . . . if you treat the stove right, it will treat you right. Other than cleaning the glass and its annual cleaning I haven't replaced a thing on this stove . . . including the gaskets.
 
Jake: +1 on the blue black it looks really sharp. If my stove sat in a room where it was visable all the time I definetly would have gone with it over the matte black.

Xman: I like the side door, it's one reason that I went with the Oslo, my better half liked it too.
 
I'm 4 years into using the oslo and have had no firebrick problems at all.

I did replace the baffle plate, it cracked down the center. Probably wouldn't have mattered but it just was something I wanted to do.

Other than that, and a pain in the butt air control lever, it's a real cast iron heater.

I have oil forced air heat and filled the 275 gal. oil tank when we built this place in '07......still have 3/4 tank of oil in it.
 
Thanks all.


We pulled the trigger on the 500 today. We are excited. They definately wanted to sell us the stove. They started at $2500 for the cast iron, and after an hour of haggling, we finalized at $1900. I hope this is a good deal for this stove.

We hope to get it installed next week. I will send pics as soon as I have them.

Thanks again all. Couldnt have made it to this point without the great feedback to my questions!

Best, and happy holidays all!


Doug
 
I have the 400 and was going to suggest 500 for every reason others have given. Hope you like your new stove! Send a photo after it's in.
 
i have the little F 3 CB i use upstairs mostly for shoulder season but i've used it extensively this year so far. i havent even fired up the PE Summit in the basement yet. I love the little stove. I don't thnk you can go wrong with Jotul. i had a small F-602 that was a freebe long ago when they had no glass. i would still be using it except that the size wasn't the best for my install and location in the living room....it kind of stuck out so i got the F 3CB. I get coals for 6-8 hours on that one, depending on how much i burn it during the day/night get the stove going and shut it down.

cass
 
I think you did pretty well price-wise . . . now what color scheme did you go with?
 
Den said:
To really maximize on the use of the Oslo's capacity, you'll want to start getting your wood cut longer, something like 22" I think.
Click to expand...

This is very true; 22" it is. If you put in a full load of 16" splits you likely will be disappointed in the burn time. Part of the stove will accept even 24" splits if, like me, you occasionally get a bit generous in your estimate of length.
 
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