I can't get my Jotul to 400 F. Suggestions?

Would also help to know where you measuring the temp. Not doubting you just helps to establish a few facts first. Flue temp, glass temp, vent temp vary quite a bit.

Philipmumbles said:

The chimney is 25ft.

I'm going to see if I can score some well seasoned wood tomorrow from a buddy and see if that burns any hotter.

The thermometer, I've placed it on the iron that's on the glass face. Seems to get the hottest reading there. I tried it on the iron face to the left and it got an even lower reading.

Click to expand...

I have the 550 and have my thermo about 2-3" into the upper vent. Not the easiest to see but gives a good indication of the box temp. Also have an IR thermo for checking the flue temp and to generally waste my time and complicate things and readings on the door are much lower. If your not getting enough heat, good idea to get some good dry wood.

On the other hand if you leave the door open or run with too much air you may be sending all your heat up the chimney. How long are you running before you start measuring your temp or making adjustments? Takes my box a fair amount of time to come to full temp.

Dry wood seems to fix alot of problems. Your on the right track.

If your wood is usable but just a little bit too much moisture make sure you start your fires with kindling. Its the kindling which will help get the stove up to temps faster and hotter to compensate for your bigger stuff being little bit too much moisture.

Once you get a bed of coals use the rake your coals forward technique, if your stove allows you too. Not sure how you load that stove.

Rake you coals forward kind of divides the stove in front half has the hot coals and the back half you can load the bigger stuff. Up in the front half with the hot coals and the dog house air feeding it from the front you can load some good dry kindling to get the stove to heat up to 400 stove top temp which should get the secondaries going and the heat up front should be helping dry the bigger stuff in the back.

Looks like your just shy of getting the secondaries lit off, once secondaries fire heat should go up faster for you.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/rake-coals-forward-and-stove-start-up-pictures.80659/

My thoughts are wood first and thermometer placement next. is the wood dry? and is the thermometer placed right and is it working ok>??

I like what others have said about condition of the wood. Just last night I experimented with the two predominant type I have. Blue spruce and lodgepole pine. A buddy of mine had mentioned that the blue spruce doesn't burn as well. The experiment showed that very well. Struggled to get the stove to 450 with the spruce but a comparable load of lodgepole on a comparable bed of coals took it close to 600 no problem.

Another way to figure out if your wood is the problem - buy one of those packs of kiln dried wood they sell at Supermarkets or cut up a few (non-PT!) 2x4s and burn those. If you can get good temps then you proved your wood is the issue.

Be very careful with the 2x4s though. A full load may cause an overfire.

What temps was it outside when you tried this? It has been pretty warm out lately and that will kill your draft and affect your stove performance.

Sounds like wet wood to me for sure.

EPA stoves need good dry wood to operate correctly.

You just have to get a moisture meter. The term "seasoned" has no definition. I got some "seasoned" wood earlier this year that measured 32% moisture content! Moisture content is the single most important factor to successful wood burning and a meter is under $20. Unless you are very experienced, it's just too difficult to guesstimate how dry your wood is. Get a meter like this one for example http://www.amazon.com/Handheld-Digital-Moisture-Content-Display/dp/B004KWAQAI/ref=sr_1_2?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1351229172&sr=1-2&keywords=moisture meter and never guess again. You just split open a sample piece and measure.

I accidentally got some wood from the wrong stack into the stove the other day and it was awful. Dark fire, dirty glass. I quickly added some good wood and it perked right up. The difference is amazing.