Jotul Oslo F500 primary air

Is that 18' of lined masonary outside of the house?


You seem to be describing two things that oppose each other. If the draft is good, the stove should run wonderfully with the doors closed.


It leads me to believe either the draft isn't as strong as you think, OR you have an internally defective stove.

you will always have to leave the door open to get the stove going. You cant close the door untill you have enought draft to pull air throught the stove. Secondary combustion will not work with any door open. How long is the horizontal before it goes verticle up the chimney? Is there a 1/4" of rise per foot on the horizontal run? is the Chimney exterior of the house? is the liner insulated?

pull off the cover off the air port in the front and verify that it is free and clear of furnace cement. If that is free of cement or what ever, then you dont have a supply problem, you have a draft problem, or a unseasoned wood problem.. If your woodpile is coverd all over, then it might not be dry. It takes along time for oak to dry. To rule out the wood go to the grocery and buy a bundle of wood and try it. As far as starving air and draft, there both related. How long is the horizontal and does it rise 1/4" per foot?

sounds good then, definatly check that air port. there has been many, many Jotuls that have that partially blocked with cement. Its not uncommon and its worth a look. It takes a 10mm wrench.

and just to make sure, your startup should be something like this.
door open
few small splits, some kindling, and a firestarter of some sort (newspaper, supercedar, fatwood, etc)
Front air port should not be blocked with wood. You need to make a "cave" of wood around your airport.
Light off the starter and leave the door cracked (handle in closed position, latch resting against t he frame)
once the small splits light up you should be able to close the door, once the initial kindling/small split fire is coals, fill up the firebox with wood.

MountainStoveGuy said:

You need to make a "cave" of wood around your airport.

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This point bears repeating. With my Jotul F600cb it is very easy to lay a piece of wood in the stove that blocks the air port and it sure slows down start up.

It's also something to watch for when reloading. Sometimes I will place small blocks of wood on each side of the port and then put a piece on top of these smaller pieces..... the air from the port blows under this larger piece and often results in getting a nice secondary combustion burn going again quickly.

From what I'm hearing in this thread the culprit is likely wet wood but even if your wood is not optimal it pays to watch that airport.

in the front, under that box, same as yours on the f400

BeGreen said:

Where does the air from the air port enter the firebox in the F500 and F600?

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In the C450 inserts, there is a single air inlet in the rear, which splits into 2 channels. One runs under the firebox (I believe) and supplies primary air via the hump in the front. The other runs inside the firebox in the rear and enters the secondary manifold just above the firebricks in the rear of the firebox.

The C450 manual has a very good airflow diagram, for both combustion and convection air, so you may find an equally good diagram in the F500/F600 manuals.

-Hal

Jotul Oslo owner here with the identical problem. The wood is fine, the draft is fine, the stove just seems starved for air on the reload. Especially if it's for the overnighter and you've got it packed. Without the side door open I could just forget it. I like the suggestion about the 2 blocks of wood on either side of the air, but I still think that my stove would still need the added air from the side door. However, if I reload while the stove is still hot, hot...(about 400), it does fine. But then I'm only putting in one or two splits depending on the size.

Well really, 400 degrees isn't "hot, hot". That's darn near the sweet spot. On a full load of wood and closed down for the night, my stove hovers around 500 degrees with very active secondary.


KaryAnne, what type of chimney do you have and where is located?

Corie said:

Well really, 400 degrees isn't "hot, hot". That's darn near the sweet spot. On a full load of wood and closed down for the night, my stove hovers around 500 degrees with very active secondary.


KaryAnne, what type of chimney do you have and where is located?

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Well, yes - you're right. Hot, hot would be about 600 - 650. I guess that I meant that if it's lower than 400 I may be in for a bit of a fight to get it really engaged again. Side door open, etc. At 400 I probably don't have to mess with the side door, but that's about the threshold temperature.

I have an external masonry chimney and my stove is in the basement. I wish that I could say that mine hovers around 500 with very active secondary all night, but it doesn't. To be honest, I don't really know what it does. But, the oil burner hasn't kicked on in months, so that's good. Usually I don't have sooty stove windows in the morning, so that's good too. I'd love to have an hourly log of what it's doing through the night. I ought to set up a psudo-overnight burn sometime during the day and log it. (Is that a little obsessive?)

With all due respect to both of you, it sounds like a lot of the problem is in the chimney system.

I could be wrong, because I am far from an expert, but even though you both have said that your chimneys draft well, you're both describing the conditions that a rapidly cooling external chimney would exhibit. It sounds to me in both cases that the stove is simply operating so efficiently that there just isn't enough heat escaping up the chimney to maintain a strong enough draft.

I could be wrong, and I don't mean to insult either one of you or your setups. But they are both less than ideal and BeGreen is burning the same stove with an all internal chimney and having non of the problems you're both talking about. Of course it is possible that there is an internal defect in both of your stoves. But to me, it sounds like a better chimney system is in order.

On my stove, which is obviously different than yours, I can get stove temperatures well about 600 degrees if the air control is left fully open. This stove is venting into an external Class A chimney though, which may be part of the difference.

Maybe, but how could I find out? I don't have any problem at all with smoke puffing back though the side door, which is I guess what I'd expect if I had a chimney problem. Am I missing something? As I'm completely new to this I'd listen to any and all suggestions. I just thought that it was fairly common for Jotul users to experience this. Maybe not though.