So what should I expect Jotul to do about this??

No, not normal ! The finish on my Buck is 30 years old and in good shape. Must have not gotten it clean before they painted it. I would sure ask them what they are going to do. If you don't get any help from them you can sure give it a good paint job yourself. Lots of members have done it and can give advise. Keep us posted.

They are going to send you a can of paint

ailanthus said:

If the pictures don't make it clear, the finish on my cast iron is flaking off on the top and the top edge of the door. This is a 4 month old stove (plain finish - not the enamel). If I wipe it lightly with a cloth like to dust it off, more finish comes off.

Strikes me as not normal. Anyone else experienced this? What if anything should I do about it?

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Yes, we had exactly the same problem with our new Rangely. Paint started to flake off in different spots very shortly after the first few burns. We reported it right away and it literally took 6 months for anything to be done about it. Jotul finally sent their technical rep and he took the top off of the stove and also the door. He only touched up the areas that were flaking. So far so good although you can see where he did the touchups. The paint is flatter in these spots. Our distributor feels that he should have repainted the whole stove.
We were most concerned that more paint would continue to flake off in the future. The distributor who sold us the stove gave us a letter to say that if we were not satisfied they would replace the stove. We feel that something was wrong in the surface preparation before painting in order for the paint to flake like this.
We also feel that Jotul's reputation of great service did not hold true in our case. It took many emails and calls to get their head office to do anything!! Very frustrating.

Bretonburner said:

Yes, we had exactly the same problem with our new Rangely. Paint started to flake off in different spots very shortly after the first few burns. We reported it right away and it literally took 6 months for anything to be done about it. Jotul finally sent their technical rep and he took the top off of the stove and also the door. He only touched up the areas that were flaking. So far so good although you can see where he did the touchups. The paint is flatter in these spots. Our distributor feels that he should have repainted the whole stove.
We were most concerned that more paint would continue to flake off in the future. The distributor who sold us the stove gave us a letter to say that if we were not satisfied they would replace the stove. We feel that something was wrong in the surface preparation before painting in order for the paint to flake like this.
We also feel that Jotul's reputation of great service did not hold true in our case. It took many emails and calls to get their head office to do anything!! Very frustrating.

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That really is to bad. If the paint won't stay on a brand new stove, that is pretty much a no-brainer in anyone's book I would say.

It's threads like these where I feel good about buying five used stoves. Good luck to you. Hope it is resolved in a satisfactory manner.

Jotul is known for great service? Not in my experience. Took two full months to get a few simple replacement parts shipped out to me, when a squirrel shredded my refracory catalyst chamber, making me miss the core of this year's stove season. Almost couldn't believe the dealer when they quoted me the lead time. Glad it was a warm winter.

However, as most have said, that flaking paint is not normal. My Firelight is 1993 vintage, and the blue/black enamel still looks nearly new. If all the flaking paint is on the top and door, why not ask them to just send you a new top and door? Much easier than swapping out a whole stove, or even repainting.

Not normal . . . going on 4 years now with my Oslo and while it's more of a dark gray than black color (pretty common) there is no flaking of paint. Something isn't right with the paint job on your stove.

I'm close to the same story as Jake with the same stove. No finish problems with mine although I did have a crack on the top plate last year. Jotul came out to my dealer and checked it out. Bad cast was the reason and they honored the replacement. They are good with their service. No problems since.

If the castine is heating your space and not struggling I'm not sure you would want to trade up. However, when the question does come up on the forum about stove size and home sq ft, the suggestion is almost always going to the next size up. How well does the F400 heat your home now?

I can see what direction your thinking now. The good thing is you have time to make changes if this is the way you want to go. Time to consider your options financially and what you can or can't do to make a larger stove happen for this coming fall.

ailanthus said:

So, I guess my real question is whether there's any chance this could eventually lead to an opportunity to trade up to an Oslo, since I've had a little regret that I chose the smaller castine.

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Probably depends upon your dealer support on this one. I think the Oslo would be the right move considering the size of your home and the type of home you are heating. You'll get longer burn times and more heating capacity which will come in handy for colder winters.

It's hard to understand exactly what the problem is from the pics....

If this is not enamel, then it is a simple paint touch-up...hardly worth a thread (lots of similar threads over the years)...

If it is large areas of enamel, though, then it is a problem....at least for the first year or more.

They will send you a can of paint. That's what Woodstock did when the cast frame around the glass started dropping paint chips on my fireview. I carefully sanded, cleaned and repainted but it started to do the same thing. Woodstock sent a can of primer. I again sanded, cleaned, primed then painted. It's better but it still lost a chip or two. My other Woodstock stoves are holding their paint just fine, I guess this one part must have some impurities in the casting itself. I don't deem it bothersome enought to warrant replacing the part.

webbie said:

It's hard to understand exactly what the problem is from the pics....

If this is not enamel, then it is a simple paint touch-up...hardly worth a thread (lots of similar threads over the years)...

If it is large areas of enamel, though, then it is a problem....at least for the first year or more.

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A brand new, expensive stove with what looks like a fairly bad paint issue seems thread worthy to me.........especially from a new member to the forum. If we had to choose which threads are worthy of posting, we probably wouldn't have recently celebrated going over 1,000,000 posts on the Forums. Cheers!

NH_Wood said:

A brand new, expensive stove with what looks like a fairly bad paint issue seems thread worthy to me.........especially from a new member to the forum. If we had to choose which threads are worthy of posting, we probably wouldn't have recently celebrated going over 1,000,000 posts on the Forums. Cheers!

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Gotta agree with NH Wood on this one Craig . . . a) new member with legit question, b) new stove with an apparent problem and c) something that seems atypical for Jotul.

webbie said:

It's hard to understand exactly what the problem is from the pics....

If this is not enamel, then it is a simple paint touch-up...hardly worth a thread (lots of similar threads over the years)...

If it is large areas of enamel, though, then it is a problem....at least for the first year or more.

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He said it was "plain finish,not the enamel"