NOOB Jotul 550 How to use damper to control heat output

It sounds as if your wood might not be seasoned quite enough and that is why you get black glass in the morning. However, with it cleaning itself, it must be close. Getting the black glass, I'd say you should not close that damper any further lest you begin really building up creosote.

I'm not familiar with your stove but leaving the damper full open for 1/2 hour seems like a long time. More like 15 minutes would probably be a bit more normal. Depending upon how many coals we have and what type and how much wood we put in, our damper stays fully open anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. Only on very rare occasions have we had to leave it open longer. It all depends upon the dryness of the wood, type of wood, coals in the stove, outside and inside air temperature. There simply is no blanket answer. You just have to use your judgment every time you get the fire going. It soon will become second nature to you and all will go well.

I can go along with Backwoods Savage's line of thinking and I can add 2 cents to the pot with a wild guess.

Pleas tell us about the flue set up. I am wondering if there may be a draft issue that could be improved. I noticed my stove was doing such stuff so I added 3 foot of chimney pipe and the matter has cleared up.

as far as heat output id use a temp gauge, i notice big dif in the heat output at dif stove temps. still need to get a temp gauge for the stack though.

mcollect said:

Pleas tell us about the flue set up. I am wondering if there may be a draft issue that could be improved. I noticed my stove was doing such stuff so I added 3 foot of chimney pipe and the matter has cleared up
The insert sits in a double sided fireplace with an inside chimney that is fully lined with a 6" stainless liner, about a twenty two foot height. Today I used a temperature gauge to check on the upper right side of the face. At 1/2 damper I could get to 200 degrees at full open not even to 150. Does that sound correct? Thanks for your replies.

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You might check out other threads here directed and responded to by 550 owners. Just go to the advanced search box and type in Jotul 550 and see if it comes up. There are a few of us on this forum all getting used to how our inserts operate.

Therm. where you have it will not give accurate temp. Either get an IR thermometer and use it to check top of insert where blower air comes out at the top of your unit or put your magnet therm. on top in that slot. (There are threads on how to do this too somewhere..)

Running air full open will burn through your wood very quickly and burn too hotly and most of your heat will go out the chimney.

Depending on outside temp. it takes several steps before I can begin shutting down the air. First a good bed of coals and a temp of approx.250*-300*. I then cut back to 1/2 open and see what happens both inside and outside. If flame continues to burn and my chimney outside is not showing any smoke I wait about 10 minutes and shut down to 1/3 - repeat the checking process and then finally shut it to about 1/8.

Flame off of logs has to stay lit or else you loose secondary burn and chimney starts smoking a lot. The hotter my temp is the lower I can shut down the air and still maintain a clean burn with the flame wicking off of the logs and feeding the secondaries. Mine likes to be at about 600* - which I check with an IR therm. My wood is hard wood and seasoned.

I am still learning. Be patient and check past threads.

BeGreen said:

Temps are low. The stove should draft better than that with a 22 ft liner in an interior chimney. I'd check the chimney cap screen to be sure it's not getting plugged up.

The most important thing to check is the wood. How large are the splits that are being burned? Have you checked the wood for moisture content? If you split a log in half and put the fresh cut wood up against your cheek, does it feel cool and damp? Do the logs sizzle and bubble on the ends when first place on a hot coal bed?

If the cap screen is clean, and the wood is truly dry, then I am wondering if the liner was badly ovalized at the damper?

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I never tried the put it up to your cheek method... Sounds dangerous! I can maybe use your method to keep my pillow cool at night instead of flipping it over all the time.
I'm just joking around here! You painted this picture in my head that struck me as funny! I picture you cheek to check with a split!