Frustrated with new Oslo burn times

You might try some scrap demolition wood ,which would be mixed pine and hardwood and very dry to see the capabilities of your stove. If you get good results ,then you know its your wood. Wet wood burns the same in every stove. Not very well.

It seems as if you cannot run the stove except wide open or it will die out. I can cut mine back in many increments and change the temperature a lot or a little. It could be your wood, but the original wood sounds like it ran decent. If you use kiln dried lumber and it still won't run, I guess the naysayers will know it is not the wood. I guess the biobricks (or whatever they are called) would tell that matter as well.

One thing that I wondered is that it sounds like your stove is starving for air or cannot get enough air (assuming it's not the wood). I learned in my second year (after reading multiple threads about keeping heat in the stove) that I can cut my air back, change the flames from orange to violet/blue and maintain the same basic temp. My stack temp is lower when I do this and my burn is much longer. Anyway back to my point about not enough air. I wonder if you could have an obstruction in your intake? I would be interested to know how the stove runs if you crack a window in the stove room.

It does not sound right that you have all that heat transfer to a masonry chimney going up through the house that you can feel it radiate like that. I could be wrong about this but maybe you have a insufficient draft for some reason like a suboptimal liner installation, too many elbows, the chimney does not protrude high enough on the room line (10/2 rule), something. One would think with a long chimney system like that you would really have to throttle the stove back.

It sounds like you need a bigger stove with a longer burn time. I glanced at the Oslo on the Jotul page and did not see how big the firebox was. But I did notice it was only rated for a 2000 SF heat house at best. It does not like your experience is not a fun one thus far.

Was the new stainless liner insulated?

2 Stories most likely makes for a pretty tall chimney, I would guess 22- 25 feet , so your draft might be too strong.

Random thoughts . . .

If the house is drafty and not well insulated it will be a tough row to how with the Oslo or its bigger brother. Tightening up the house will reap a lot of long term dividends . . . probably not the best answer or the answer you would like to hear right now, but it is true. Doing so will help retain the heat you make and will help keep the house warm longer.

Woodstoves really are governed by three things: the fuel source, air and temps. Depending on your fuel -- how much you load up (partial load or full load), which species of wood you use (high or low BTU wood) and how well seasoned (well seasoned, not seasoned or semi-seasoned) -- the ability to get the fire going, the burn time, etc. can vary greatly. The air management -- oxygen and air coming in and the amount going out and air going out (i.e. draft) -- also matters in terms of getting a fire going and length and intensity of burn. Finally, temps matter . . . it's tough to have secondary flames if the temps are too cool.

What I might suggest is putting on the detective hat and trying to figure out what could be the problem. You should have no problem getting a hot fire going and then dialing back the air and having the fire continue to burn and warm up the house without resorting to leaving the air open all the way which will lead to short burn times and more heat in the chimney than in the home.

I would start with the wood since it is often the number one suspect. As one other person mentioned you might go to the hardware store and see if they have some cast offs or short pieces of dimensional lumber for free or cheap or get a hold of a pallet to break up. Generally these types of wood are pretty darned dry. While I wouldn't load the stove to the gills with this wood I would try half a load maybe . . . bring the flue thermometer up to temp and then start to slowly close down the air control . . . a quarter mark at a time . . . go down to 3/4 and hold it there for 10 minutes or so . . . let the fire get used to the reduced amount of oxygen and then go down to the halfway mark . . . hold and go down to the quarter mark. Ideally, if the wood is good, you should get secondary action and the stove may start pinging or ticking as it heats up and heats up the place. If this happens with some dimensional lumber there is a pretty good chance the issue is with your wood.

Im no expert on the chimney and insulation, but obviously something is amiss. I average about 7-9 hour burns, with 10-12 hour burns not being rare either. That sucker should be doing a much better job for you. I hope you can find the issue and fix it.

The wood is sheet plain and simple, fix that and regroup.

I think the Oslo really likes dryyy wood. I've been burning year old dry wood that has a nice ring when you hit the splits together. Burned well; now I'm into an older batch, almost two years old and the Oslo came alive. Much more heat for the same amount of wood and the after burners are going strong. Be safe.
Ed

colebrookman said:

I think the Oslo really likes dryyy wood. I've been burning year old dry wood that has a nice ring when you hit the splits together. Burned well; now I'm into an older batch, almost two years old and the Oslo came alive. Much more heat for the same amount of wood and the after burners are going strong. Be safe.
Ed

Click to expand...

+1 im into a batch of year old white oak that is probably in the low 20%. It burns ok, but not like the 2 year old stuff I had in there a few weeks ago. I have to leave the air open at about 1/4 on the newer stuff or I will loose the secondaries.