Burning a Jotul Castine F400

[G6 at Snook TX]

This is my first winter to burn this stove, and I have burned it in and last night was the first real fire. I set my draft control to about 40% open, and had to put wood in once an hour. Seasoned, split oak. Is that about right? It burned about about 450. Plenty of flame.

My second question stems from a night like tonight. It will be cool, not cold, and I need a light fire to heat the house. Would it be appropriate to cut back the draft control nearly shut, or would I be inviting trouble with not burning hot enough? Would this be the "smolder burn" noted in recent post?

I have plenty of experience with fireplaces, but that knowledge has only limited use for me with this stove. At least so it seems.

 

[Stump_Branch]

I know this may sound backwards but go ahead and pack the stove up. When it gets going cut the air back in increments as far as you can with secondary flames. This will give you the burn times. Let this burn down to coals and the stove begins to cool. Open air back up and reoad. Thats a burn cycle. Only on the coldest days am i loading much sooner.

I know they are fun to play with, but efficency is letting the stove do its thing and do a complete burn cycle.

Good luck.

 

[shawneyboy]

First off I am not familiar with this specific stove... that being said.

Todays stoves run better when run in cycles. It may be harder to do at this time of year all depending on fuel, setup, etc. but.... Putting wood in once an hour is not how stoves of today are disigned. It is better to load her up, and burn her down to coals before reloading again.

You ask about cutting back the draft control. As counter-intuitive this may sound cutting back the draft control (air intake), can make for a much more effecient and effective burn. This stove is a non-cat secondary burn stove. By cutting back the air you are actually able to burn off the gasses that would otherwise go up the chimney and form the creosote. Obviously it is better to burn these gasses than it is to send them up and out. 40% is probably your problem, shut her down more, and you will most likely increase your stove temps, increase the heat in the house, make a cleaner and longer burn.

There is a fine balance, and each stove and setup is slightly different, you will need to experiment a bit. The first year is always the hardest, let alone the first shoulder season.

There is a world of difference between an open fireplace and a stove. Keep that in mind.

You certainly have come to the right place to get through the learning curve faster, and to get any questions answered.

Shawn

 

[Shari]

This is my first winter to burn this stove, and I have burned it in and last night was the first real fire. I set my draft control to about 40% open, and had to put wood in once an hour. Seasoned, split oak. Is that about right? It burned about about 450. Plenty of flame.

My second question stems from a night like tonight. It will be cool, not cold, and I need a light fire to heat the house. Would it be appropriate to cut back the draft control nearly shut, or would I be inviting trouble with not burning hot enough? Would this be the "smolder burn" noted in recent post?

I have plenty of experience with fireplaces, but that knowledge has only limited use for me with this stove. At least so it seems.

Sounds like me the first day of burning my Jotul Oslo. When the house got up to 85 °F I decided to quit feeding the fire.

You need to do the entire 'burn cycle'. Load it up, lite it up, start decreasing the air when temps get up around 450. Shut air down to 1/2 (temp will go up), ten or 15 minutes later shut 'er down to 1/4 air (temp will go up again) and let it burn down. At around 300 °F in the burn down cycle you can then reload.

The above temps are for my Oslo which the owner's manual says to burn in the 400-600 range. Your stove temp specs may vary. Read your manual for proper temps - and, burn on, Snook, burn on!

 

[G6 at Snook TX]

Me thinks I made a few rookie mistakes last night. I was adding wood as it started to burn down, not after the wood had gone to coals. Basically, it sounds like I ran it like a fire place. It also sound like the reason my viewing glass clouded up. Jotul talks about the "air wash" of the glass, but I am a bit skeptical. Should I be?

When you say "load it up" I take that to mean you want add two or three pieces of wood rather than one when you do load her up after a burn cycle is complete?

Do these stoves burn with the draft control all the way shut? I comprehend the choking back on the air, all the way to 1/4 or less, but full off?

Sounds like I will get a trial and error work out this winter. Thanks for the comments and advice. I appreciate it.

 

[Shari]

Me thinks I made a few rookie mistakes last night. I was adding wood as it started to burn down, not after the wood had gone to coals. Basically, it sounds like I ran it like a fire place. It also sound like the reason my viewing glass clouded up. Jotul talks about the "air wash" of the glass, but I am a bit skeptical. Should I be?

When you say "load it up" I take that to mean you want add two or three pieces of wood rather than one when you do load her up after a burn cycle is complete?

Do these stoves burn with the draft control all the way shut? I comprehend the choking back on the air, all the way to 1/4 or less, but full off?

Sounds like I will get a trial and error work out this winter. Thanks for the comments and advice. I appreciate it.

1. I don't 'count' the number of pieces because my pieces are all different sizes. I fill the stove & leave a little air space at the top so as not to jostle the air tubes. When I say fill it up, I am saying when I really need heat - like this morning when outside temp was mid 30's and we hadn't had a fire started since around 5pm yesterday. House was down to around 69 and to me 69 is cool for inside temps. I prefer around mid 70's for inside temps.

2. Yes, these stoves will burn with the air control all the way closed because these stoves are not really air tight. I don't normally shut the air lever all the way off unless the stove top temp is getting up there too fast and I don't want to get into an overfire situation.

If you glass is getting black, there are a couple of possibilities for that:

A. Your wood is not less than 20% moisture. When first starting out with the newer EPA stoves having a moisture meter is of great help. You can get a reasonably priced moisture meter from Harbor Freight - online or in the store.

B. Low draft/blackened window: You don't have a good draft. Make sure when first starting the stove you get the draft going, flames going, before you shut the door. I'm not sure if your Jotul model has an ash pan but if it does NEVER use the ash door for starting your fire - turns your stove into a blast furnace, can warp the insides and could void your warranty.

C. Low draft/blackened window: You chimney might be too short which can also cause a low draft situation.

D. Blackened window: You might be shutting the air down either too soon or too far. Practice makes perfect in this instance.

E. Blackened window: Not enough fuel (wood) to get your stove up to optimum operating temp.

There's more to say on this topic - but - I have a stack of oak sitting outside which has a date with the splitter this morning. Have to get to work.

 

[PapaDave]

Secondary burn. When you close the primary air there is still air coming in the stove for 2ndary combustion......the stove never has zero air (assuming you don't block that opening).
shawnyboy siad it, 2ndary is when the stove gets to temp, you shut the primary to a point where the 2ndary starts to burn the gas coming off the wood. Burn less wood, but still create heat. Pretty cool stuff.
I see a bit of that going on in my pre-EPA stove when conditions are just right.
Stay here long enough, you'll have your masters degree in wood burning. :coolsmile:

 

[gpcollen1]

The basic idea with this stove is you can either load it full and burn a complete cycle or feed it a bit at a time like you are doing - I do it both ways. Feeding a bit at a time helps me not overheat the house. Full cycles will give me significant heat.

Feeding here and there, stove temps of around 400 seem about right, though you can get them higher. The thing you are doing wrong is only closing that air down under half. Once my stove gets burning, I go right to 50% and then close it down some from there...eventually to about 90% closed and let here go for a while. At 40%, too much heat going up chimney.

On full loads, I do it about the same...to about 50% and then more from there.

I am also using the Euro air inlet plate on mine that focuses the inlet air into the middle instead of on both sides of middle. It enables me to close the front door sooner when the stove is getting going.

Enjoy that Stove!!

 

[G6 at Snook TX]

Well, I think some of the clouded issue arose last night from flame and a piece of pied oak had butted up against the glass, but during the burn in, I noticed it was much worse than last night. I assume that was due to the heat of the fire and the way I operated it.

I will make sure to manipulate the draft control correctly. Also, the dealer, who installed it, explicitly told me to never use the ash pan door to get air to the fire. It would void the warranty and destroy the stove. The chimney is double walled, and hast two 45* in it to get to the roof. It is easily clear of the ridge line of the roof by multiple feet. As for the clouded glass, I will keep burning it, right, and go from there. It also sounds like a Harbor Freight trip is in my future for the moisture meter. Finally, Super Cedar makes lighting a fire real easy.

 

[JBinKC]

The Jotul Castine is notorious for requiring a strong draft and dry wood so those could be the culprits why your glass got dirty. If there is a slight dusty haze that is normal especially after a week of burning. As for damping down I typically damp down to around 1/4 however you can damp down to an 1/8th or less provided your draft is very strong like one aided by a strong wind or colder weather.

The only time would I ever consider to add wood in the middle of a burn cycle is if I were burning a large "ugly" piece that needed more wood to fully combust.

I would recommend that you go to woodheat.org and watch the 3rd video on stove operation. The only disagreement I have is I seem to get better performance with the stove when I load the larger pieces in the front given the tiered design of the secondary burn tubes.

 

[firefighterjake]

Lots of good advice here from Shari, Stump and Shawneyboy . . .

Just echoing some of the advice from a user of the Castine's bigger brother, the Oslo.

-- Burn in cycles. Adding a piece or two at a time wastes wood and gets old quick. Instead load the stove up as Shari suggested and start cutting back the air when you reach Temp X . . . avoid the temptation to reload until the coals are the size of softballs or baseballs . . .

-- If you only need a bit of heat, don't re-load the stove . . . or don't load it up to the gills. The way you control the heat output with these stoves is with your fuel -- how much you put into the firebox, how often you load and what species you load. During this time of year I typically fire up the stove, get it heated up and then just let the heated cast iron radiate heat for the rest of the day . . . if I reloaded the stove I would get cooked out of the house.

-- Draft . . . Shari and others pretty much explained what you want to do . . . you may or may not be able to "close" the air control all the way . . . a lot depends on your chimney and draft . . . and a lot depends on the wood quality. In my own case most of the time I can close it all the way to get a nice secondary burn and long burn time . . . but sometimes I have to keep it open at the quarter mark.

-- Seeing lots of flame does not always equal lots of heat . . . leaving the draft open 40% or more means you have a lot of potential heat going right up the chimney . . . the free burning flames may look impressive, but lots of heat is going outside . . . besides, once you see a secondary burn you will truly see an impressive light show.

-- Clean glass. As mentioned by Shari there are several reasons for the glass getting dirty -- unseasoned wood and burning too cooly being the prime culprits . . . draft is also an issue . . . and as you mentioned if you have a split roll up against the "glass" (actually a ceramic) it can dirty up the glass. Generally the air wash system works pretty well . . .

-- I am pleased to hear the dealer mentioned not using the ash pan. Many of us Jotul users were offenders . . . I know I was until I saw a picture of a horribly mangled (well warped) ash grate . . . that curbed that bad habit quickly . . . opening up the side door on a cold start is acceptable and safer . . . providing you don't wander off into another room.

Good luck, welcome to the forum . . . and continue to ask questions.

 

[begreen]

This is my first winter to burn this stove, and I have burned it in and last night was the first real fire. I set my draft control to about 40% open, and had to put wood in once an hour. Seasoned, split oak. Is that about right? It burned about about 450. Plenty of flame.

My second question stems from a night like tonight. It will be cool, not cold, and I need a light fire to heat the house. Would it be appropriate to cut back the draft control nearly shut, or would I be inviting trouble with not burning hot enough? Would this be the "smolder burn" noted in recent post?

I have plenty of experience with fireplaces, but that knowledge has only limited use for me with this stove. At least so it seems.

You can cut the air control all the way depending on the wood being burned and the strength of the draft. The draft is going to vary with the outside temperature. At 50F outside the stove is going to need smaller splits and more air. It will need to be fed more frequently, but usually after one or two hot fires the house is heated up. Let the stove go out at that point. At 30F you will find the stove a different animal. On a moderate coal bed, you'll be able to load in large splits, tightly packed. Then as the wood starts to catch fire you will be able to reduce the air, in stages, almost all the way closed.

How far the air is closed will depend on the wood. But close it down until the flames get lazy and slowly dance at the top of the wood load. With hardwood you should be able to get a 6-8 hr burn this way.

 

[G6 at Snook TX]

Thanks fellows.

 

[Shari]

Well, I got that oak split & stacked and I see others chimed in here. This is THE place to learn how to use / burn / heat with a woodstove. Hang around here too long and you will become a master burner. Welcome and 'burn on, G6, burn on."

 

[Frostbit]

I was gonna chime in and offer my advice since I have the same stove, but as I read down through the thread virtually all the things I wanted to comment about were covered!

So, I don't have anything to bring to this F400 party. Burn away!

 

[Butcher]

I'm new here and am only a month into my new 500 Oslo so I cant give you any tips other than you, like I, are going to find that old habits are hard to break. I've learned a lot these past few days just poking around this site. I've found on my stove that burning in cycles is the best way to go. I need to get up on the roof and check the flue also. It's been a week since I been operating it properly and I need to take a looksee. Dont forget to do that yourself!

 

[adrpga498]

I was gonna chime in and offer my advice since I have the same stove, but as I read down through the thread virtually all the things I wanted to comment about were covered!

So, I don't have anything to bring to this F400 party. Burn away!

Ditto