I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it after 16 years using my Jotul Oslo. This year I discovered a better way to light a cold stove.
I side load, placing a few splits on the floor, east, west, then criss cross a few smaller splits on top of that. Place a fire starter in the middle and light with the side door open. Yea it rips with the side door open. But when the door is closed, the stoves normal air supply path, dog house is blocked from supplying air between the splits. It needs to supply air to light off a new area of wood, as the previous burning area goes out. All this leads to a long cold start up's. And occasionally it goes out.
So here's the trick for other Oslo owners, and other stoves that have the same setup. The Oslo has a sunken floor. It's about 2 inches below the front door and dog house. The dog house has 3 holes that supply the normal air, The problem is the splits on the floor, east, west block the air from getting between the splits. So now I place a piece of kindling, north, south from the front lip to the rear of the stove. I put the east west splits on top of the kindling. There's a 1 inch air feed right in front of the air holes going under the splits. I still light with the side door open, But when I close the side door the fire erupts up through the middle of the splits.
So you have a tip or trick. Help your brothers out and post it here.
I side load, placing a few splits on the floor, east, west, then criss cross a few smaller splits on top of that. Place a fire starter in the middle and light with the side door open. Yea it rips with the side door open. But when the door is closed, the stoves normal air supply path, dog house is blocked from supplying air between the splits. It needs to supply air to light off a new area of wood, as the previous burning area goes out. All this leads to a long cold start up's. And occasionally it goes out.
So here's the trick for other Oslo owners, and other stoves that have the same setup. The Oslo has a sunken floor. It's about 2 inches below the front door and dog house. The dog house has 3 holes that supply the normal air, The problem is the splits on the floor, east, west block the air from getting between the splits. So now I place a piece of kindling, north, south from the front lip to the rear of the stove. I put the east west splits on top of the kindling. There's a 1 inch air feed right in front of the air holes going under the splits. I still light with the side door open, But when I close the side door the fire erupts up through the middle of the splits.
So you have a tip or trick. Help your brothers out and post it here.
I load E-W and put a couple kindling on the front/top of the load, with of a couple small chunks of SC mixed with the kindling, and medium-small splits under the kindling. The air wash will feed plenty of air to the front/top of the load, and it heats up the top of the stove (the re-burn area) pretty quickly. And with a top-down start there's almost no smoke coming out of the stack from the get-go.
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