Jotul 450 ?

Morning Brandon,

I don't know too much about your particular stove, but oak is one of those woods that needs to be seasoned for more than a year, usually two to three, in order to really dry properly. If you have a moisture meter (can get them at Lowes/HomeDepot/ TSC for about $30) take a piece down, split it and test the middle.

brandon said:

Hey everyone. I have a Jotul 450. I love the thing and have had it for a bit over a year. Im burning some pretty dry red and white oak wood in it. Its been split and stacked for over a year. It was from standing dead oak trees,and also some tops that came from selling logs. The white oak is dryer than the red. It burns hot and I can get it up to 800 degrees with the blower on low setting. I only cut the air back to half and night for long burn times. My question is after runnin git 24/7 for around 2 days or maybe 3 I have to take the ashes out. I figured with clean burns that I wouldnt have as much ash as this. It seems like almost all questions with these EPA inserts comes back to dry wood. My firewood seems very dry. Its also been kept in a woodshed since last October after it was split and stacked for a year. I dont have any soots on the ceramic glass either. So I believe IM running it clean. Any suggestions?

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I'm no expert on the Jotul inserts, but a few thoughts come to mind . . .

As mentioned oak tends to be one of those wood species that tends to do better when it is seasoned for a couple of years. However, I don't think this would produce ash . . . burning unseasoned wood tends to be more of a problem with sooted up glass, smoking chimneys, fires that are hard to start, not as much heat, etc. From the sounds of it -- being that the wood is standing dead, no problem with temps or sooted glass short of using a moisture meter to confirm it, I would guess your wood is fine.

In my own woodstove, burning 24/7 I tend to have to empty the ash pan twice a week . . . about every 3 days . . . the more efficient woodstoves don't necessarily mean you'll have less ash . . . just that you will typically burn less wood and burn more efficiently.

I did have a question . . . you mentioned cutting back the air for long burn times . . . by "air" do you mean the air control or the blower control? I only ask this since . . . if we're talking about the air control . . . most folks can close down the air even more than half for more heat and longer burn times. Leaving the air control open more generally means faster burn times and more heat escapes up the chimney.