"Interesting" Experience with Joutl Oslo. Need Advice

[fugazi42]

I re-lit my Oslo tonight like I've done 100 times before. The stove was cold after letting this morning's fire burn out completely. I emptied the ash pan, loaded it up with some splits, kindling and fatwood, got the draft going the right way, and lit it with the side door open. Everything looked OK so I went downstairs to feed the rabbits.. I came up 5 minutes later and the fire was rolling so I closed the side door and went back downstairs. I came up 10 minutes later and the stove was an inferno- hotter and brighter than I've ever seen. The stove top and horizontal run of stove pipe through the thimble were both glowing. This was unusual, to say the least.

I cut the air back all the way and gave it a few minutes. The glowing subsided but the stove top temps kept rising and the fire was still rolling.. Then we heard a metallic BANG. Not the crack of a moisture pocket in a split popping, but the sound of metal snapping. We both ran to the stove and it looked OK. I didn't see any cracks, but I did find the culprit.. I had closed the ash door incorrectly. The handle side of the door was out of alignment with the catch.. The handle was tight and the door was closed, but the seals didn't line up leaving a gap of about 1/4" around the door. I'm not sure how I managed to do this, but I'll look out for it in the future.

So, now that the stove is back to a reasonable temp, I took a look around. I can't find anything obviously wrong- the secondary burn tubes look OK. I don't see an cracks in the bottom grate. Any ideas what might have made that bang? Are there any parts on the Oslo that are prone to breaking in an over-fire situation?

Thanks,
Josh

 

[woodconvert]

Any ideas what might have made that bang? Are there any parts on the Oslo that are prone to breaking in an over-fire situation?

Thanks,
Josh

Cast iron is that way when you reach a new temp or you get hot too quick. It's got a memory. If you can't find a crack, it seems to operate normally and you can still throttle it down from a normal hot fire then I wouldn't be too concerned. I've heard some pops n' doinks out of mine from time to time but it's usually when i'm on the verge of getting too hot. Stay alert with it for awhile and keep your eyes peeled for cracks....it's about all you can do.

 

[fugazi42]

thanks Woodconvert..

The stove made it through alright it seems. I let it cool down a bit and started it back up. I don't see any obvious cracks, and it does seems to respond to the air control so I guess it's OK. After hearing that crack, I though I'd arrive to see the stove in pieces on the hearth pad. I'm glad it's OK.

Watch that ash pan latch!

Josh

 

[ashpanannie]

Wow, Josh...how frightening! I'm very glad to hear your stove seems fine. I have that stove also, so if you find out how the closure fail happened with your ash pan door, could you post about it? Thanks!

 

[colebrookman]

Wow, Josh...how frightening! I'm very glad to hear your stove seems fine. I have that stove also, so if you find out how the closure fail happened with your ash pan door, could you post about it? Thanks!

Make sure that when you empty your ash pan you give it a little shake to level the ash as you pull the pan out. Also either look inside the pan cavity or use a scraper to get any fallen chucks of ash out or the pan won't fit back in properly. This will put pressure on the door latch and cause air problems.
Ed

 

[begreen]

Good tip Ed, that happened to me once with the F400. It's a good idea to use a flashlight when inspecting and cleaning the back of the ashpan cavity. Everything is light grey and ashen colored back there. A buildup of compacted ash can be hard to spot without a light shining in there.

 

[firefighterjake]

I don't know if I can really answer your questions . . . hopefully everything is OK and you can chalk this one up to an important lesson learned.

Another important lesson however is to not leave your side door open and then leaving the stove. Chances are things should be OK assuming the draft is going fine, but if for some reason you get caught up with a chore and forget about the side door being open you could also easily end up with an overfire situation . . . not to mention the possibility of a hot ember "popping" out of the door and landing on to something combustible.

Don't get me wrong . . . I nearly always leave the side door ajar when starting the fire . . . but I'm right there beside the stove. If I feel compelled to leave the stove to answer the phone, get more wood, etc. I'll take a second and close the door up before leaving.

 

[SWNH]

Wow...after lurking and absorbing SOOO much info here, I think I can finally contribute something.

I had the same noise emanate from my Oslo a few times. In my case, it was the ash pan itself warping and it does so all at once...with a BANG! Scary sound, to be sure. Yes, I had the ash door open to get the stove started faster (starting the "forge", so to speak). Once cooled down a bit, the pan resumed it normal shape.

 

[ashpanannie]

We had a nice, warm couple of days and so I had the stove at rest and really gave it a good cleaning. Indeed it is true, the ash pan area can have all sorts of stuff fall down while you have the pan out to empty, and that can prevent you from sliding the pan far enough back in before closing the door. I had not been sweeping it out as often as I should have been...thanks for the good tip!

It is because of this site that I quickly quit using that door to stoke up my fire. I found it very interesting that I was in the hardware store just last month where I bought my stove back in July. The floor model Jotul now has a large lettered warning sticker on the door saying use of the ash pan door for draft would void warranty! There was no such thing on the stoves when I got mine just last year.

Thanks for the mention about the sound of the ash pan warping! I think I heard something similar during my first few burns when I was still cracking that door a bit. I'm reformed, now! Great stove, by the way.

 

[fugazi42]

Peter- I sure hope the noise I heard was the ash pan. It's been two days since this happened and the stove looks OK, thankfully.

Ed- thanks for the tip re: ash build up preventing the ash pan from seating all the way. I've run into this several times. Now whenever I empty the pan I scoop out any ash that's accumulated in back of the pan. This wasn't the cause in my case, however.

Annie- You asked earlier in this thread if I could replicate the failure I saw Monday night. I let the stove cool down today and played around with the ash pan door. I found that if I don't close the ash door completely, leaving it open maybe 1/4", and put a lot of pressure on the handle I'm able to jam the locking mechanism so that the handle is in the closed position, the door won't move, but there is a slight gap around the left side of the door. In over a year of using this stove I've had this happen once, so it's not easy to do. The ash door handle is normally hard to close so I'm used to really cranking it down in order to completely lock it. When I close the door handle with a protective glove on, it's easier to misalign it since some of the tactile feedback is lost..

Anyhow, I'm glad I figured out what happened, and that my stove is OK. In the future I'll make sure I close the ash door correctly!

Thanks everyone.

Josh