Help me with my new jotul f500

You just need to learn the stove. Close it down more, but slowly. Find that sweet spot for longest burns. Put more wood in it, pack it full. There is a learning curve with these things.

nohens said:

I still feel like I'm getting wood to close to the glass? I did get it up to 500? But the flu thermo was scaring me! Just feel like its all going four the chimney? I wish there was something to keep the wood from getting to close to the glass for side loads....then load it FULL!

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Like said, don't worry about the glass, wood can rest against it no problem. I never worry about flue temp either, if the air is closed down, the flue should not get too hot... Load it FULL is key to making heat.

nohens said:

WOW I'm doing g something wrong then? My wood is all hardwood and seasoned 2 years. I guess you would call it a cold start as the thermometer is down. Top is warm to touch though? It is taking forever to get it hot! I'll try again when I get the kids to school. I filled it to my liking at 11pm last night. When it got up to 400 I shut the flu to 1/4 and went to bed. Got up at 8 and the eco fan wasn't even turning...below 100?

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Try letting the stove get about 50-100 degrees hotter and then start closing the air . . . a little at a time . . . waiting each time to let the fire get going again. In about 45 minutes you should be able to hopefully get the air closed to that quarter mark and the secondaries should be cruising.

nohens said:

At noon it was wide open on the flu and temps were 350? Stove pipe temp with double wall uninsulated over that? ( I know I can't be accurate). Now its 1 pm and I had shut it to half at 12:30 and.....its dropping below 400. Never got above 450. And the woods almost gone,.down to almost coals. In less than 2 hours? It is really windy...but if I close the flu all the way the fire will go out? Can get this dang thing over 500? If I leave the flu wide open....how can the stove heat up? The pipe almost glows! This wood is GOOD I promise. I cut my own wood also. Usually 2 years in advance! Dangit

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Are you measuring the temperature on the stove top or on the stove pipe?, you mentioned double wall pipe which would read much lower than the stove top.

There is one other possibility that's not terribly likely, but worth checking. Take off the "doghouse" cover at the center front of the stove - two bolts, very easy to do. See if the lever at the front of the stove is actually moving the plate that regulates the amount of air entering the firebox. It's possible that the connection was lost during shipping. Also check to see that all the doghouse holes are clear and not obstructed by something like an errant blob of stove cement.

If this all looks good, I think you're back to the wood. Try some of the below 20% moisture wood available at many places, as others have suggested. There are plenty of places in the US where it is very difficult to achieve below 20% moisture content through air drying even after two or three or more years because of high relative humidity. If your fear of breaking the glass has led you to try to start the fire with the wood at the back of the firebox, that, too, could be the problem. You need to put the kindling and small pieces near the air source where the draft is stongest when first starting.

nohens said:

OK...I'll stop worrying about the glass. But it dang near takes a load of wood to get this thing up to 400 from cold. My start. Rake coals and leave door open. Good bed of coals! Throw on some sassafras kindling front to back then load the stove with splits through side door. This keeps the splits off of the coals so the air gets under them? Then leave side door cracked till I hear it roaring. I may be to worried about the roar as I don't want to burn this thing up! Never seen my stove 600 yet? May be me worrying?

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Yes the cold Oslo does take a 3 reloads and a full box of seasoned burning wood before the cast iron gets up to temp. Compared to steel box stoves I've run, the Oslo is the tortoise in a race for instant heat from a cold start. I guess it all those side wall burn plates, and mine with the cast iron top burn plates. I use a temp gauge in the top back right and recommended. After 13 years of having this stove I got a IR gun, not because I needed it, just for fun. Amazing how different the temperatures are as you bring it up. My single wall just above the stove will be at 400 and the top hasn't hit 200 yet. I think, Jakes start up temps could be internal flue just above the stove. They get the hottest first.

I used to run mine at 600 , 700 for a 3 hours when we arrived at the cabin and it was 45 in the house. To get it there as quick as possible I reloaded as soon as there was room with small chunks. That stove smelled, creaked as it got to 700, but it thru off some heat. I was careful not to over fire it. Now I remotely bring up the house from 45 to 65 before we get there. When we arrive I turn off the expensive heat, light 400 degree fire, have a glass of red and watch it burn.

Most of the time I'm reloading at 200 and run it up to 350 or so. Actually I rarely check the stove temp. I run the stove based on the house temp and outside temp. I adjust the reload volume and burn rate (air flow) for a nice looking burn cycle. This works for me. The stove is big enough for the whole cabin no mater how cold it is outside.

we have a jotul f500 and 3 things we've done have really helped.
1. We put a 100 cfm blower underneath the air intake. I believe it is a Drolet Ultra Quiet Crossflow Wood Stove Blower model ac02050. we have it on tiles so the adjustment knob isn't resting on the ground. We turn this on to get the fire going, or if the fire is struggling, or to burn down some coals more quickly. If your draft is fine, then you probably don't need this.
2. We don't empty the ash pan. The stove burns so much better with the ash pan completely full. And we don't get any strange odors anymore. There's only a little bit of ash we need to scoop out each morning. It behaves like a totally different stove. It burns longer, and much hotter, and the draft behavior is plain better.
3. we load wood right up against the glass, so we can fit an extra split or 2.

nohens said:

Thanks for all the replies. Seems as though I'm just not home enough to keep this dang thing full enough for it to do its job?

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Maybe you'd be better off with a catalytic stove. They have longer burn times.

nohens said:

I have a new Jotul olso. My deal is....I can't get the dang thing to burn over 400 f for more than 3 hours?

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First, stove top thermometers are notoriously unreliable. Others have mentioned running at 600 deg.; at 500 deg. on my thermometer (top rear right) I can scarcely get near the stove.

Second, the Jotul is rated for about 70,000 btu output. This is obviously a maximum almost certainly using a tightly filled firebox with kiln dried wood. For a typical load, I doubt any of us achieves even 40,000 btu on average. Doubt this? That is the equivalent of a typical 80,000 btu furnace running 30 half of the time! But say we run an average of 40,000 btu/hr. To get this much heat in a 70% efficient stove requires a btu input of 57,000 btu. Dry oak has about 3500 btu/lb., or 16 pounds per hour to generate 57,000 btu, or 48 pounds per three hour burn.

I do not know about the rest of you, but I cannot get 48 pounds of oak in my Oslo in a load. 35 to 40 maybe, so I know I do not average 40,000 btu/hr. My normal load burns at 475 deg. dropping down to 350 deg. over a three to four hour period - again, this is on my thermometer. With this I heat a 2500 sq. ft. house (not counting the 1000 sq. ft. basement) rather easily down to about 10 deg. outside temperatures - and I mean the entire house, not just the main living area. My point being, the stove sounds to me like it is doing what would be expected.

As to the burn times. In general to best you can do for the longest burn times is a hot stove at desired temp, huge bed of coals and then fill the stove box with hard wood with the air choked down. But all burns go thru a temperature cycle, after the reload climbing up, peak and then back down as the wood is reduced to coals. So if you need 400 all the time to heat the house, you need to run the stove up much hotter than 400 and let it come down and reload as required to heat the house. In terms of wood consumption is it better to run up a full load of wood and let it cycle down, or run with a few rounds and lower temperature. I don't know which is better for the wood consumption. I do both base on the heating requirements.

My Oslo has a hard time making it 6- 8 hours thru the night. Surely not at 400 steady output. For me, most of the time that would be way to much heat. The stove maybe to small for your application. If that the case is there any way to tighten up the house with insulation, windows, etc.

If wood burning or this stove is new to you, try new routines. I still find little things that work better than what I was doing.

nohens said:

Thanks for all the replies. Seems as though I'm just not home enough to keep this dang thing full enough for it to do its job? I'll keep playing with it. Man it scares the crap out of me when the flames are roaring in that expensive sucker!

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Been following this thread cuz I cant believe you cant get heat outta an Oslo. I think you are not pushing the stove hard enough to get any heat. I've had the fire box on mine rolling with flames that you could forge horse shoes in it so many times it aint funny. Unless you get that stove super hot you aint gonna destroy it. I'm no expert on wood burning stoves except for mine and my set up. Take the advice you get and play with it for a year or maybe even 2. You gotta remember that what works for 1 guy may or may not work for you. Burning wood aint like a cookie cutter kinda thing due to so many variables. That being said, I have found with mine living in the middle of corn country flat lands, where wind is King and to much draft up the chimney, I have much better luck with smaller hotter loads of wood rather than trying to scrimp on wood consumption. I like to see my flu temps climb on a cold start and then shut the side door and the stove top temps start climbing almost right now. Mine is in the 24x48 basement and I can get the temps from 60° to 70° in less than an hour. Once I get the basement warmed up the heat radiates up to the upstairs with no fans or nothing. Oh, and that 8 hour burn time that you and I might have fell for as a selling point? Well, just sayin.