Need advice on how to operate Jotul F400

I will bet that your wood is not dry enough.

Fill it up with dry wood (under 20% moisture), they need well seasoned wood. I keep door open for 10min or so to get it going; close door & keep damper full open until stovetop temp is around 300 deg f, then to 3/4 open until 400 deg, then to 1/2 open for 5 min then 1/4 open. Secondaries should look like my avitar, temp will climb to 500-600 until all off gassed you'll cruise at 400 for 3hrs or so then start to drop.

Don't close the air off until the temp hits 500, then start knocking it down it stages. If you do it too fast, or in too big of increments, it will snuff out the fire.

Get your fire started, as others mentioned, dry wood is key. Keep air control level all the way open until temp hits 500-600 and then throttle back to 1/4 open.

What kind of wood do you have? What is the MC?

Are you using the Euro air plate or US air plate?

This is a very easy stove to operate provided you have good/dry wood.

As others have mentioned dry wood is key to getting the stove to operate properly. Many on this site recommend getting a moisture meter to check the dryness of your firewood supply. Lowes has one for about $20-$25. Resplit a piece of firewood and check the moisture level in the freshly split face. A room temperature piece of wood gives the most accurate reading from what I have read here. Levels less than 20% are recommended. I am in my first year of operating the same stove and have no problem getting my stove to 400 to 500 degrees within 15 minutes with dry wood. You may want to try some of the packaged dry wood from places like Lowes or Home Depot. A quick easy test to see if you get normal stove temps.

Yes, the split wood lights up a lot faster than the round pieces.

begreen said:

If you have truly seasoned and dry wood you can start closing this stove down much sooner. I have had secondary light off as low as 300F stove top with the Castine. The problem here most likely is partially seasoned wood.

Click to expand...

He's complaining about not reaching temps above 400. My suggestion to wait to shut down the air should easily resolve that problem, regardless of the quality of wood.

Keep in mind that the advise is based on start up not on reload; if you put dry wood on a hot bed of coals it can take off on you. For reload, I like to be at 1/4 open between 300 and 350 and can still hit 600-700 with dry wood and good draft. Those secondaries are amazing when you get above 500, at 600+ it will scare the heck out of you the first time. Get a good stove top and I like the flue temp sensor so you can monitor things.

You should go 5-6 hours or so; reload too often and the fire box will fill up with coals and you can't get a good full load of wood in. Like begreen noted, if pushing it hard you will load quicker.

Just starting to get the hang of my F400. Finished up the install in the middle of November of this past year. Dry wood and learning when to cut the air down will make all the difference. Good kindling and fat wood has helped us get a good coal bed started. Drop the air to half around 500, let secondaries kick in and then cut it down to 25% then adjust to final setting from there. Reload around 250 and have fun. We are very pleased good luck with yours.

Hi, I am also new this year to burning with the Jotul F500. I have learned a lot and getting the hang of it as I'll get it up to about 500 or so with door just cracked and then close the door and cut the air to about 3/4 , then down to a 1/2 and it seems to cruise along between 400-450 for an hour then slowly drops. When this happens I'll open the air back up, but it doesn't seem to ever rise again and heads to 300. However, I have not figured out how to get extended burn times of beyond 3-4 hours. Does 'wet' wood burn faster than dry wood under 20%? I don't have a moisture meter now but believe my wood may be a little wet and could use more seasoning (I was told it was 11 month seasoned when delivered in September but don't believe it). I haven't fully stuffed the box either as the most I pack in is 4 logs, usually a large one, couple medium, and one smaller. Simply learning the stove. Any advice on getting longer overnight burns is appreciated.

clj8810 said:

Hi, I am also new this year to burning with the Jotul F500. I have learned a lot and getting the hang of it as I'll get it up to about 500 or so with door just cracked and then close the door and cut the air to about 3/4 , then down to a 1/2 and it seems to cruise along between 400-450 for an hour then slowly drops. When this happens I'll open the air back up, but it doesn't seem to ever rise again and heads to 300. However, I have not figured out how to get extended burn times of beyond 3-4 hours. Does 'wet' wood burn faster than dry wood under 20%? I don't have a moisture meter now but believe my wood may be a little wet and could use more seasoning (I was told it was 11 month seasoned when delivered in September but don't believe it). I haven't fully stuffed the box either as the most I pack in is 4 logs, usually a large one, couple medium, and one smaller. Simply learning the stove. Any advice on getting longer overnight burns is appreciated.

Click to expand...

The Oslo will give you 5-6 hours of useable heat, with good hardwood. After the 6 hour mark, stovetop temps dip below 300 which barely makes a difference. Load the firebox full, try to pack it tight. 11 month seasoned doesn't mean the wood is actually dry. He could he telling the truth, but some hardwood takes 24-36 months to actually get below 20% MC.

I've had mixed hardwood split, stacked and covered for two plus years and my MM is reading 19.9% for some of the pieces. I'm a newbie by all rights but if the bark is still on or doesn't fall off with little effort that wood isn't ready. It will burn but not that long and not that hot. May want to try stacking front to back instead of left to right if you haven't already in your stove if the wood will fit. Our F400 will still have coals and a stove temp of 250 in the am after I pack it at night. Your 500 should be able to do the same and more with the right wood. The wood makes all the difference. See if any custom wood working/cabinet/wood mill by you are selling/giving away their cut offs to mix in for this year.

I fulfilled a dream and just bought a secondhand Jotul F400 in blue/black enamel. We drove 4 hours on Sunday to pick it up. We were two and really struggled to move that thing around -- it is heavy! The flue outlet barely fit out the fireplace opening, after I had an inch cut off the short legs. It's got about 1/4 inch gap now between the bottom and the hearth which is solid concrete covered in stone. I made my first fire in it last night. There were enough coals this morning to restart it easily. In previous years with my other stove(s), I always got maple. This year I've got a mix, some species I don't recognise and a little maple, yellow birch. When I get a piece of maple in there it burns really well, a big improvement over the Intrepid in terms of heat output. The other type of wood smolders a lot, it's not seasoned enough. Next year I'll get my wood earlier from a more reliable source. So far, this stove is great. One question: I've heard some people will open the ash door to get the fire going, others shriek at the thought. Opinions from owners welcome.

michoujordan76 said:

One question: I've heard some people will open the ash door to get the fire going, others shriek at the thought. Opinions from owners welcome.

Click to expand...

That's generally not a good idea. Do it just a bit too long and you may overfire the stove. With good, dry wood and proper draft, starting a fire should not be a problem. Using the ash pan is just a "band-aid" to fix one of those issues.

Thanks for the advice. The ash pan door will staying shut!