I'm loving the Jotul F 400 Castine!

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Soadrocks

New Member
Nov 1, 2009
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Rochester, NY
Growing up my good friend had a wood stove in his basement, and it always mesmerized me. I knew when the time came, I would get one. Fast forward 20 or so years, the wife and I finally got the stove.

We bought 12 face cords not knowing how much that was. Luckily for us, that same friend, his mom recommended an honest wood guy, and all his wood up to this point has been 15-20% with our China made moisture meter. It took us two days, 9 hours to stack that wood. I wish I found this site first before that all happened, because my wife and I were clueless on how to properly stack this wood, we just shoveled it into our shed and then in between our house and fence, and then with the rest, on our backyard patio.

I know some people on here have become a little frustrated with getting these EPA stoves to get going well, but let me tell you, stick your nose around here for some time, and the amount of information you can pick up is priceless.

I've learned so much. For a rookie, I think I'm doing pretty well with the stove. The people in the Gear forum helped me pick out a beautiful Fiskars axe which I never knew existed. Holy crap, there amazing, beats the crap out of our old wood handle axe from the 60's.

Sitting by the fire with the wife, 50 inch plasma, NFL playoffs, and some cold chocolate milk in my PJ's, you can't beat it! Our furnance has been set at 50 since the winter and we've been toasting warm, keep in mind we practically live in our basement with our sleeper sofa, but the upstairs does get up to 60.

thanks for all the feedback guys! And those who are frustrated...keep reading!!! A lot of good stuff here !
 
I'm glad it is working out for you.

Side note: There have been a lot of Jotul threads lately. I had no idea they were that popular.
 
Yup. I'm not sure if they still have pole position, but last I read, Jotul is the #1 stove maker in the world.
 
I know Jotul is the oldest stove maker out there, since 1853. They make a decent stove.
 
Question for the Castine owners.

I've been running mine now for about a week and I've hade trouble getting the stove top over 500 degrees. Is that normal? I've got a 23' Class A inside a exterior chase and it seems to be pulling pretty hard.

I've experimented a bit with split size but even when I load the stove with 2-4" splits and run it wide open it runs out of steam at 500 or so. I'm burning red oak that has been split and stacked for about 2 years. I know this isn't the long term fix, but, I have tried opening the ash pan door to get it going and it really takes off. I haven't left it open for more than a minute or so but it seems It wouldn't have much trouble breaking through 500 if it were left open.

I might pick up some grocery store wood this afternoon to compare the burn rate with what I'm getting off my stack.

Any other ideas?

Right now It's 20-30 min up to 500 then half air for another 20 min then I shut it down and it steadily drops to 350 over the next hour and a half. Is that normal for the stove?
 
450-500 is where my Castine seems happiest. I think it's normal.
Joe
 
...sounds low. I run my Castine in the 400-600°F sweet spot, but with each burn I like to run it hot up to 650-700°F before I crank the blower to cool her down and bring it back into range. You need dry wood or this will be very difficult to do. Also, run the stove at whatever temp is necessary to heat your room properly. With this temp range I get the upstairs of my house to the 68-72°F range depending on how hot I want the room and how much fuel I feed the stove.
 
cycloxer said:
...sounds low. I run my Castine in the 400-600°F sweet spot, but with each burn I like to run it hot up to 650-700°F before I crank the blower to cool her down and bring it back into range. You need dry wood or this will be very difficult to do. Also, run the stove at whatever temp is necessary to heat your room properly. With this temp range I get the upstairs of my house to the 68-72°F range depending on how hot I want the room and how much fuel I feed the stove.
Click to expand...

The heat output is sufficient thus far for heating the house. However, i'd like to figure out the key to breaking through to get it up to the 650 range. The last stove I regularly ran was an old VC defiant so I'm not all that familiar with epa stoves. Hopefully the fix is just dry wood.

I took the baffle out last night and removed the two screws holding the top down. I checked the seal at the top and it seemed to be in good shape.

What do you all ususally see for burn times? After 2-3 hours I'm back down to the 250-350 range on top. With a couple large splits I have coals that will allow for relight up to about 6-7 hours.
 
Those burn times sound normal. How much air are you running? If you have the EUR inspection cover, I recommend installing that. Search the forums for threads on that one. W/ more air you should be able to hit those temps. I can easily hit them w/ a good load of wood.
 
Try dry wood first. I had no problem hitting those temps with the USA air cover. All it required was good fuel and keeping the air control a bit more open.
 
You should be able to get more heat out of it as you close the air down a bit. Try half way closed and see how hot it gets. I hit 600 with ease...
 
For sure, Jotul's prefer dry wood. However, you can burn wood that has only been aged 3-6 months provided you keep it dry, split it a bit smaller, and run with a little more air. With a good wood supply the USA plate works quite well, particularly if you like to back off the air a lot to extend the burn time of your fuel load. If your wood supply is a bit more suspect and/or you are not as familiar with running the stove, the EUR plate makes it a bit easier to ignite a new load of wood in the firebox. That being said, once it gets going, you have to back off on the throttle because it lets in 2X as much air and it is easier to over-fire the stove. It's your call as to which setup you prefer.
 
I have heard from so many people , and read so many threads about how particular the Castine stove is to dry wood, and perfect setttings , etc ..... My buddy got one as he needed a rear outlet stove just as I do ....He is not having fun getting his to run good either .... I guess once all the variables are right , it's a great stove .... I'm sure that you better have plenty of flue pipe hooked up to this stove , and a good draft , or you are just out of luck as far as the stove running higher temps .... I like my stove to be easy and efficient.....If I can't have both, I don't want it ......Good Luck getting things straightened out with your stove .... Sometimes it's just a matter of giving it a little more air for the area you are in , or layout of the flue pipe, as long as your wood is dry ...Dry wood is a must in ANY stove ....Some are a little more forgiving than others, but every stove likes dry wood !!....Good Luck ...Jim
 
I have heard from so many people , and read so many threads about how particular the Castine stove is to dry wood, and perfect setttings , etc ..... My buddy got one as he needed a rear outlet stove just as I do ....He is not having fun getting his to run good either .... I guess once all the variables are right , it's a great stove .... I'm sure that you better have plenty of flue pipe hooked up to this stove , and a good draft , or you are just out of luck as far as the stove running higher temps .... I like my stove to be easy and efficient.....If I can't have both, I don't want it ......Good Luck getting things straightened out with your stove .... Sometimes it's just a matter of giving it a little more air for the area you are in , or layout of the flue pipe, as long as your wood is dry ...Dry wood is a must in ANY stove ....Some are a little more forgiving than others, but every stove likes dry wood !!....Good Luck ...Jim
 
I would say the Castine needs a properly designed chimney, but I don't think it is too particular. I am running a 13.5 foot liner out the top of mine and it is fine. However, I did install block off plates and insulation at the top and bottom of my chimney. With a rear vent this stove becomes a bit more finicky and you really want at least a 15 foot chimney (which is what Jotul specifies in their manual). That being said, I have never had any sort of drafting issues with this stove.

I have been burning some 3-6 month aged oak with no problem in my Castine. However, you can't just throw a massive split of this in there and magically think it is going to ignite. You have to use good wood burning techniques and then you are fine. With my 1 year aged wood, I can pretty much just shove it in the firebox and it burns.
 
As a point of information i was looking at the manuals for both the Oslo and Castine I have and the recommended stove top temp was 400-600. I have been guilty of running above sometimes but I'm going and try harder to stay in the recommended range.
Joe
 
I read that too. It's not my intention to run the stove at temps exceeding 650. I just think something must not be right with the stove or setup and I want to make sure It's dialed in

I'd like to be able to push the stove up to 550 close it down let the secondary burn push it up to 600 and let it roll for an hour or two. Come back two hours later to a 400 stove top and adjust as needed.

Right now I'm hitting the wall at 500 closing it down and slowly dropping. Two hours later I might be at 300.
 
Thanks for your input guys ..... I would have to take a closer look at what my buddy installed ......First off, I would think that if he had the same issue as I had, which he said he did , he did not have much clearance on the top of his fireplace ...I only have 28 inches to play with ....It's his girlfriends house, and she is VERY particular and I know she would not shell out for a new Castine and let him cut the legs .... So this means that he went out the back and I remember him talking about connecting a "T" so I'm sure he did go out the back ....Now he has to add even more length to the 15 ft required for a good draft .... I would guess that he not only added the "T" , but is not running his flue as long as the required length which would lead me to believe all of the above being his problem ...

I went to a local Home Depot today , and they have one Englander NC30 left on the floor ...It has one broken fire brick and the guy said I could have the unit for $900 plus tax .....It's local , it's right there in front of me , and comes with the pedestal and the leg kit , so I think I might go for it .... I will cut down the legs on it , and bring it up to my cabin for the install ...Since a lot of it will be in the fireplace , I will also order a fan kit for it .....Thanks for everyones input .....Sincerely, Jim
 
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