Run a Jotul Castine with the Door Open?

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Ski-Patroller

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Sep 23, 2013
73
Govenment Camp, OR
Is anyone able to run a Jotul Castine with the door open. I see that Jotul sells a fire screen for it, but in our experience even when it is quite hot (500 deg) it smokes when the door is opened, and it does not seem to draw well enough to ever run with the door open (unless we were trying to smoke meat in the living room)

We have 12' of Duravent Double wall followed by 12' of Metalbestos, so draft should be adequate, and indeed it is when running the stove normally. I realize that running with the door open is not optimum, but I expected it would be possible. So far that has not been the case.
 
That's odd. With 26' or so from the floor, there should be plenty of height. How many elbows does the system have? Have you checked the flue and the cap to make sure it is all clean? Especially the cap, some have a screen and are prone to clogging. Evan after only a short time.
 
Also, when the system gets cleaned its imperative that the top of the baffle also gets cleaned off. I've seen several that were almost completely filled with fly ash above the baffle.
 
Those screens are a gimmick, a woodstove is engineered and built to burn with the door(s) shut.

If you want to continue to futz around with the screen, my advice would be to close your air controls all the way when using it. This will force the stove to pull most of it's combustion air in through the screened opening and may reduce smoking slightly. I just wouldn't do it though.
 
How dry is your wood? Except for the first few minutes after reloading the wood should not generate a lot of smoke at all. Other possibility is that your place is rather airtight. Try whether opening a window close to the stove gets rid off the smoke problem.
 
Thanks for the replies. The flue was cleaned last fall and the lower 12 ft was replaced this spring. The original flue was 8", with single wall inside the house. We replaced the single wall with 6" Double wall. The flue is pretty clean and there are no elbows. It vents straight out of the top of the stove. The entire stove was cleaned when it was installed last fall. I am due to clean the flue again now that the snow is off the ground and I can get a ladder up to the chimney. We really did not use it that much this winter, since I was injured in a bike wreck last fall, and did not start skiing again until Feburary. I checked the cap with binoculars this winter and it still looked "OK".

Wood is in 15% range, mostly D.F. or Larch. I find I have to split much smaller than I did with our old Garrison I, but once the Castine gets going it gets very hot. We try to burn between 500 and 700 degs. measured on the top of the stove.
 
Ski-Patroller said:
Thanks for the replies. The flue was cleaned last fall and the lower 12 ft was replaced this spring. The original flue was 8", with single wall inside the house. We replaced the single wall with 6" Double wall. The flue is pretty clean and there are no elbows. It vents straight out of the top of the stove. The entire stove was cleaned when it was installed last fall. I am due to clean the flue again now that the snow is off the ground and I can get a ladder up to the chimney. We really did not use it that much this winter, since I was injured in a bike wreck last fall, and did not start skiing again until Feburary. I checked the cap with binoculars this winter and it still looked "OK".

Wood is in 15% range as, mostly D.F. or Larch. I find I have to split much smaller than I did with our old Garrison I, but once the Castine gets going it gets very hot. We try to burn between 500 and 700 degs. measured on the top of the stove.
Click to expand...
I keep my temp gauge 18" above the stove on the single walled riser and it runs 500 to 700 degrees. I purchased the screen option on my Jotul F12 with cat, leave the cat disengaged and runs fine with the screen on rare occasion. More about ambiance than anything else. The screen for the most part sits behind the stove dusty and unused.
 
It sounds like you might have a very tight house? Try cracking a window next time.
 
Hey ski- Sometimes the Castine just doesn't want to play ball even with the (sounds like) optimal set up for chimney you have there. If it were any other model, might be a problem, but it probably isn't anything wrong. The F400's design of a large opening and smaller area to pull around the secondary air channel versus going out the top of the door opening is just a matter of pressure being less to go out the door, it happens. Its frustrating yes, but sometimes can't be helped. Is the stove located in the lower part of the house?? The negative pressure plane is what I'm driving at. The Castine as wonderful as it is a heater, sometimes just doesn't permit the screen to be used.
 
I have a Jotul too, and just can`t get it to run with the doors open without some smoke entering the house. That`s why I haven`t bought the screen to go with it.
 
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