Found the Sweet Spot on my Jotul F3

[River19]

I finally found the sweet spot with my Jotul F3…………..

After a few successful months of heating with the Jotul and keeping her somewhere in the 300-400 degree range (as measured on the stovetop not the pipe), I have finally had my “ah-ha” moment. Each weekend we get to the cabin and I immediately clear out the ash drawer and I was getting rid of a good portion of ash from the firebox as well, not all of it but a lot of loose stuff. I would then struggle to get the stove to maintain 400+ degrees for a couple hours until I had a nice base of coals.

The past weekend I did my drawer but left the bulk of the ash in the firebox……….bingo…..easily got to 400+ and maintained it reasonably well through wood additions and then hummed along all weekend in the 450-520 degree range with a large bed of coals.

Of course in related but separate news I realized I was hemorrhaging BTUs in my heated basement (main heat source is propane HWBB) through the foundation walls which have an R-Value lower than my IQ, which isn’t good. So I will speed up the basement finishing project and we should be able to get it to R-17.5………..burning through over $100 in propane a week isn’t good. Plus I missed a setting upstairs on the programmable thermostat so it was defaulting to 60 degrees for several hours per day………….freakin’ moron…

 

[tutu_sue]

Congrats! A number of F3 burners have found better burn times and faster heating letting the ashbox fill up for the winter and shoveling out the door. I had mine when I stopped turning the air down all the way to try and make longer burns. I leave a little open and get longer burns and a ton of heat.

Make sure you caulk or foam well the perimeter of the rim joists and sill before you insulate - keeps cold air out in winter and humid air out in summer.

 

[f3cbboy]

Nice - find what works for your setup and run with it! I only empty my ashpan once a year - In April! Couple of shovel fulls out of the firebox every couple of days is all i need.

 

[River19]

Maybe I’ll try letting the ash box just fill up and clean her in the spring……….Since we come in to a cold stove each Friday night (like tonight) it is no problem to do a little shoveling of some ash when needed.

I believe one night last weekend I left the air open bout 1/8” to a ¼” and got a better night long burn. No matter what I always have some embers to get her going again in the morning, usually with just kindling and sometimes with a little paper. I think I’ll try getting it up to 450-500 and getting a good coal bed, then pack it tight and leave a little air going in vs. shutting it down. We’ll see how she rolls with that.

As for the basement, luckily it is a new log cabin we built last year and this is the first full winter, so no real crap has built up around the sill plate so caulking it should be easy enough. I’m thinking a regular silicone, or actually we do have a few tubes of the sealant used in between the log courses that would be decent as well….although not sure about how it would adhere to cement. Either way, a good round with the shop vac to clean the surfaces and maybe I’ll caulk tomorrow of Sunday. Good suggestion…..thanks.

I also have to foam around our walkout door down there as well.

 

[wahoowad]

I have not emptied my F3 ash drawer for at least 2 seasons. Got tired of doing it over and over - I figured why bother?

Your temps sound low. Maybe you have a bad thermometer? Do you get a good 1 to 2 hours of reburn going on out of your secondaries? I just don't see how someone could have those low temps unless you are starving it for air during the initial charring each fresh load should get. Mine cruises between 500 and 600 for 75% of each burn cycle. Then maybe 300 to 400 as I burn down my coals.

 

[River19]

When I’m getting 300-400 degree temps I’m not trying to get it higher, I am literally burning one log at a time on a small bed of coals at that point. Getting 500-600 is no problem at this point, just 500-600 is hot as hell in our cabin even with the cathedral ceiling. Several hours of maintaining 400 degrees gets out 1140sq ft up to 70 degrees which is more than warm enough for me.

When I crank it with new logs now I routinely see 500+ degrees with the air on 2/3 open or so.

That sounds about what you say you are seeing with yours.

For optimal burn what temp do you normally run at? Do you keep it at 500+ or let it settle down to 400-450?

Thoughts?

 

[wahoowad]

Ahhh, OK, makes more sense. Awesome that you are getting all the needed heat you want.

I see a range of temps based on where I am in the burn cycle:

(assuming I am reloading following a prior load)

time 0: reload: temp usually ~ 300
within 20 minutes usually ~ 550
for 2 hours cruise 500 to 600
last hour 300 to 400 as I burn down coals

Mine settles in 500 to 600

 

[River19]

Thanks for the feedback on this….it is always good to hear it from folks with the same stove.

For our heating needs, 425-500 seems more than enough for a “hot” cycle…..when we are trying to bring the cabin from 50 degrees to mid 60s I’ll do what I can to get 500-600 out of it. So figure we show up late night Friday night, house is 50ish degrees (hopefully) I immediately crank up a fire and within an hour or so the stove is purring along at 400+ and the house will get up to about 58-60 or so…….I stoke it and go to bed. IF I get up to take a leak in the middle of the night, say 3am or so I chuck a log in. Get up around 7am and chuck some kindling in along with a small batch of pine cutoffs (building a log cabin leaves plenty of scraps to burn)…….get it purring at 400-500degrees and by 9am the house is usually in the high 60’s then by mid day 70+ degrees unless I back off.

Last Sunday it was -9 at 8am when I got up (slept in) and we had the house to 70 all day….was real nice.

 

[wahoowad]

cool. i'm stuffing mine with at least 4 splits to get my burn output i shared