Anyone Have a Jotul F 100 Nordic? Do You Like It?

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Gin

New Member
Feb 28, 2015
52
North Carolina
We're looking for a small wood burning stove for our home and have found one we like...the Jotel F100 but I'm seeing some mixed reviews. Do you have one? What's your experience? The Jotel name is so well known I'm surprised at the discrepancies in the reviews for this stove. Is there another small wood burning stove you would recommend? Thanks so much for your help. This is all new to us!
 
I have an F100 and it is a great little stove. Just not one for heating large areas or for getting overnight burns. The firebox is just too small to hold enough wood for extended burns. But it provides a nice view of the fire and is easy to operate. Around three hours and it is ready to be fed again.
 
I have an F100 and it is a great little stove. Just not one for heating large areas or for getting overnight burns. The firebox is just too small to hold enough wood for extended burns. But it provides a nice view of the fire and is easy to operate. Around three hours and it is ready to be fed again.

Thank you for your response. A three hour burn is disappointing, much less than the brochure claims (big surprise). I'm glad you don't seem to have any problems with smoke and such.
 
Advertised burn times are pretty much from the time you light a match until there are one or two lonely coals laying in the stove.
 
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Advertised burn times are pretty much from the time you light a match until there are one or two lonely coals laying in the stove.

Ah, that explains it. We only need to heat one large bedroom but it has to be a reliable, trouble-free stove, if there is such a thing. We'd rather not have to fool with it every three hours but since we have to get a small stove, I guess that will be the problem with any of them.
 
What kind of area do you want to heat? What kind of burn times would you prefer? Jotul has several larger stoves that get plenty of good reviews and would heat a larger area for a longer time.
 
Bedroom stoves are usually not allowed, but there are some exceptions if the room is very large and open. Check with your local inspecting authority and insurance company first.
 
If you want something small with long burn times I would suggest to look for a catalytic stove like a Woodstock Palladian/Keystone or one of BlazeKing 20 series. Those you can burn more easily on low while still being efficient. Nevertheless, BeGreen is right; a stove in a bedroom is usually not a good idea.
 
Bedroom stoves are usually not allowed, but there are some exceptions if the room is very large and open. Check with your local inspecting authority and insurance company first.

I will check but many people here have gas stoves in bedrooms and no one at the stores have told us wood is not allowed. We also spoke to an installer and he didn't say it couldn't be done, but if it's not allowed in some areas then it may be for a good reason that we should consider. The bedroom is 22 by 14 and very open with a short open hallway and a large bathroom attached. I think anything but a small stove will be too hot for that space. I appreciate all these responses. It gives me more to think about and consider.
 
Yes in the USA anyhow (IIRC) NFPA regulations talk about "solid fuel appliances" being disallowed in sleeping spaces. Gas doesn't count. Pellet stoves, wood stoves, coal stoves or fireplaces burning any of those aren't allowed. Gas is allowed.
 
Well, if this is true I will be very angry at all the time wasted looking at stoves at several stores. Is it possible none of them know of this rule? And the installer too? I can't wait to call the building department on Monday.
 
Do you have an adjacent room you could heat your bedroom from?
 
Do you have an adjacent room you could heat your bedroom from?

Yes, we have a bonus room that is separated by a walk-in closet that is open to the bonus room as well. That would have been my first choice anyway but my husband wanted it in the bedroom. I'm thinking that, even if local code allows it, it doesn't seem to be a good idea anyway if it's discouraged by some stove manufacturers and not allowed by some municipalities. There must be a good reason for the restriction. I've been reading a bit more on this and learned that Jotul says on their instructions not to place the stove in a bedroom. So there you go. Can anyone advise how to get the best kind of stove that would move heat to the bedroom without blasting us out of the bonus room? We want this for emergency heat (preppers in training, lol). I'm thinking a stove that has a fan which doesn't require electricity. Do they work well? Any other advice? Thank you all for your posts. I've learned something very important here.
 
We used an F100 as our only heat source in a very small house, approx 21' x 24', and faced some bittterly cold outside temps during the winter. There were two small bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and a living/dining area. The stove pretty much was located in the center of the house, kept us warm and on some days too hot where we had to open some windows. You won't get an overnight burn. Whether allowed or not, I just don't think having that stove in a bedroom is great idea. The light from the fire would be bright, and I noticed that as the unit heated up and cooled down, it would make the pinging sound metal makes as it warms/cools. That could be a bit distracting if you're trying to sleep. Placing the stove in an adjacent room would be fine. If the natural convection doesn't move the air, you can always help it along with a small fan. We had no trouble keeping all the rooms warm without the use of a fan.
 
We used an F100 as our only heat source in a very small house, approx 21' x 24', and faced some bittterly cold outside temps during the winter. There were two small bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and a living/dining area. The stove pretty much was located in the center of the house, kept us warm and on some days too hot where we had to open some windows. You won't get an overnight burn. Whether allowed or not, I just don't think having that stove in a bedroom is great idea. The light from the fire would be bright, and I noticed that as the unit heated up and cooled down, it would make the pinging sound metal makes as it warms/cools. That could be a bit distracting if you're trying to sleep. Placing the stove in an adjacent room would be fine. If the natural convection doesn't move the air, you can always help it along with a small fan. We had no trouble keeping all the rooms warm without the use of a fan.

This is very good information. The brightness and noise are two other factors we hadn't considered and I think it's clear that having the stove in the bedroom is not a good idea and we'll have to look for a larger unit now. Thank you for your post.
 
Give us some more details about the size of the area you want to heat, ceiling height, and how open the floorplan is. With that information we can start narrowing down choices.
 
How do you heat the rest of your home? Any particular reason that you only want to heat the bedroom area? Quite a few members here heat their entire homes which can be up to ~3000 sqft with a single stove usually located centrally in the living room or similar. When you can post a floor plan and tell us more about your heating needs and plans for the future we can help you with assessing the available options.
 
[quote="Yes in the USA anyhow (IIRC) NFPA regulations talk about "solid fuel appliances" being disallowed in sleeping spaces. Gas doesn't count. Pellet stoves, wood stoves, coal stoves or fireplaces burning any of those aren't allowed. Gas is allowed.[/quote]

The codes and standards advocated by the National Fire Protection Association I do not believe are laws themselves. Any more experienced forum members please step in if I am wrong. It is only when a local jurisdiction whether it be city, county, state or the like adopt the NFPA standards as law does it become an enforceable regulation. The NFPA simply advocates these codes and has no enforcement authority. Some insurance companies choose to follow the NFPA regs also and may not cover you if you have a wood stove in a garage or a bedroom. It is possible there are no local restrictions on this in your area. I would hope the sellers would know of local regs but some are not very helpful. Personally I would default to following the NFPA recommendations for safety.
 
From four different Jotul wood stove user's manuals I just looked at.

"Do not install this stove in a bedroom/sleeping room."

All your authority having jurisdiction or insurance company needs to gig you.
 
From four different Jotul wood stove user's manuals I just looked at.

"Do not install this stove in a bedroom/sleeping room."

All your authority having jurisdiction or insurance company needs to gig you.

Good point BB. One would hope the local dealer would have some familiarity with the individual stove requirements they are trying to sell.
 
Fire code aside, generally speaking it is not a good idea to put a wood stove in a bedroom, because you will get roasted out while you are trying to sleep. With the setup you are describing, you might have a 64 degree bonus room and a 73 degree bedroom, to each his own, but I would like those numbers reversed.
 
Give us some more details about the size of the area you want to heat, ceiling height, and how open the floorplan is. With that information we can start narrowing down choices.

Begreen, the bonus room is 18x14. The walk-in closet is 6x18. Both have 8' ceilings.

The bedroom is 22x14. The hall that attaches the bathroom is 4x7. The bathroom is 12x16. All have 9' ceilings.

The bonus room is separated from the bedroom by the walk in closet. The heat must go from the bonus room, go left to heat the closet and continue on and turn left and right to heat the bedroom and bathroom. Will the heat move around like that? Thank you for your help with this.
 
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How do you heat the rest of your home? Any particular reason that you only want to heat the bedroom area? Quite a few members here heat their entire homes which can be up to ~3000 sqft with a single stove usually located centrally in the living room or similar. When you can post a floor plan and tell us more about your heating needs and plans for the future we can help you with assessing the available options.

We heat our home with a heat pump and propane backup. We want the wood stove for emergency heat in the event of a long term power loss and no availability of propane. A stove that heats just a few rooms should be sufficient for that purpose. Please see my response to begreen for room measurements and layout. Thank you.
 
We have had 2 Vermont Castings Intrepid II's now for our 2nd year. The house is only 1700 Sq ft but the master bed, bath and closet is 24x32. One is in the living room and heats the rest of the house and the other is in the bedroom. I never heard anything about one not being allowed, the dealer installed it. We typically only use it on nights in the low 30s and under though or it gets quite warm.

We've had zero issues with it and we enjoy having it. I don't find the light bothersome or anything negative.
 
The amount of heat that will travel from the bonus room thru the walk-in closet to the bedroom will depend on the openings between the rooms. If these doorways are large (say 4-6 ft), some heat will migrate. If they are conventional 36" or 30" doorways, then not as much. The bathroom may get the least amount of warmth if I have this all visualized correctly. A fan could make a big difference in heat getting into the bedroom, but that will not be operational in an extended power outage.

The Jotul F100 does not have the bedroom warning in the manual that their larger stoves do. The best thing to do is to contact the inspecting authority tomorrow and ask if there is a restriction on putting a wood stove in the bedroom. Then ask your insurance company. If both have no problem, then get it in writing.

Is this bed room on the main or second floor? Will there be a wood heated space below it in the event of a power outage? If yes that may help warm the bedroom.