Jøtul F 600

[nocdpc]

Thanks everyone for all your Jotul F 600 advice. The voice of experience is evident from all of you. I admit that I am also considering a F 500 Oslo, as a slightly smaller alternative. I like the better sealing of the single front door, though I would rarely open it. The extra 11,500 BTU in the F 600 is a plus for our north country winters, with a similar footprint.

My years of burning experience has been with Vermont Castings products and pure pleasure with two great stoves. My first early Defiant in 1981, that I ordered direct from the factory. The current Encore NC has also been great. Now with an additional room to our home, we need more BTU. Jotul is the front runner.

Thanks again. I may have more questions.

I have owned both the F500 and now the F600(due to larger heating area) Both are nice. I do like the door setup on the F500 better then the F600. But with both I rarely used the front door if at all. My F600 can and has achieved 10+hr burn times with good quality hardwood. I am getting longer burn times with the F600 then I have with the F500 due to firebox being larger. My family has always stuck with Jotuls for ease of use and build quality and the beauty of the craftsmanship.

Oh and you can open the ash pan door a bit if you are careful to help stoke up the flame =) It is not like your stove will explode or melt in front of your eyes... But as others have said becareful with it as you can and will overfire if you forget to close!! I have owned Jotuls for years with no problems.

Also if you have not already purchased one get a stove top thermometer.

 

[jugarf]

What size and layouts are you guys heating with the Jotul F600? Are you happy with it? Is the heat shield worth the extra money?
Thanks

 

[begreen]

As noted in many other threads. Please do not advise people to use the air pan door as an air supply for starting the fire. It voids the warranty and is totally unnecessary. The risks are cracking the grate and surrounding box floor casting. The repair is expensive and out of pocket + end of warranty.

Following the recommendation of someone - who is not paying for the repairs - can be a costly mistake. If in doubt, read the manual which explicitly warns to not do this. Why? Because Jotul has seen this problem many times before.

The other risk is a serious puffback explosion if the wood is not burning well and starts to smolder when the ash pan door is closed. Is that worth a 5 minute jump start on a fire? I don't think so. Try top down fire starting as an alternative. If you want an instant start, get a pellet or gas stove.

 

[kathie]

As long as were throwing pics around. oh yeah, I fabricated the heat shield out of some stainless sheet and then sprayed it with stove paint. The heat shield really throws the heat into the room

Oh and as far as the air lever, they all stick when moved to fully closed. I just tapped mine with the door handle until I threw a littel graphite lubei n there. It still sticks but not as bad. I would still say go with the f600 over the Oslo.

I have no complaints about mine. I have to replace all the rope seals this year but that is just part of owning a stove. I better get to it before 24/7 comes on.

my husband and i just ordered the jotul f 600 firelight cb blue/black finish, i'm a little nervous about trying to make the right choice, i think with this one it is the baffles instead of the second air chamber and not having any firebricks in it, any reply on comments, help!

 

[kathie]

my husband and i just ordered the f 600 firelight cb and have concerns about it having baffles instead of a second air chamber and not having any firebricks in the system, how is the output of heat we have a story and a half home 30 by 40 and thought about putting floor vents on the upstairs flooring so heat can rise to help heat upstairs 2 bedrooms. we have a menards cheapy in the basement and heat just does not radiate well at all, very cold down there takes a while to heat up room. need some advice on smart shopping, help!

 

[fraxinus]

craving: The burn tubes at the top of the Firelight inject secondary air with great efficiency. The inner parts of the stove are protected by replaceable burn plates rather than firebrick. This stove puts out an incredible amount of heat, so you've no worries in that regard.

The one thing I'd say is that to get the best from this stove, you have to use really dry wood. I struggled a bit last year because of inexperience, but the wood I was using was the real issue. Even under cover for two years, my wood was still not dry enough. (This has to do with a high humidity, foggy coastal climate - things may be different for you.) This year I've been using kiln dried wood (15 to 20% moisture content) and the difference is remarkable - much easier to start, more heat, longer lasting burns.

Whether it's worth cutting vents is pretty much a matter of personal taste.

 

[BrowningBAR]

We have one, and think it's great. It has a matt black finish, and on reflection I wish we'd opted for a shiny finish.
We've had ours for two years, and it chucks out a lot of heat. We live in a stone house in the wooded hills of central France, and the "salon" in which the stove is installed is cathedral-like, with a pitched ceiling about 25 feet from the floor. The Jotul has very good heat radiation, but most of our heat rises into the rafters so the mezzanine area we have gets quite hot and stuffy - we're thinking of fitting a slow moving ceiling fan to better distribute the heat.
We tend to only light it in the evening, and let it go out when we retire to bed, so have had no experience of letting it run all night. Luckily, it hasn't got cold enough these past two years.
The only real problem we constantly experience is with stiffness of the air control lever at the front.

Chris

Here are a few pictures of our F600, taken around Christmas time.

From a fellow stone house owner; holy crap, that is incredible looking!

 

[Dexter]

With regards to removing the burn tubes on the F600: It can be done, but I don't think it is something that should be done routinely. We have had an (early) Firelight CB for 11 seasons of 24/7 burning. We replaced the Secondary Burn manifold, which was a single-piece, pre assembled part, this Autumn. It was about $150, which is reasonable, considering the mass of iron and steel. (The burn-tube manifold sits ahead of the flue collar, anyway.)

This requires removal of the stove top, which is most easily accomplished by removing the flue collar and reaching the 4 attachment bolts through that opening. This part is not a big deal. I do it every year on chimney-cleaning day.

Replacing the secondary-tubes took and afternoon and a couple of beers. Two bolts hold the two heating chambers and tubes (as a single unit) in place at the back of the firebox. The weight of the manifold rests on a lip cast into the sides of the firebox. It also rests about 1/8 inch away from the secondary intake-air ports at the back of the stove; that means re-installation for the Secondary Air Manifold (with tubes) requires a good amount of carefully applied stove cement (to seal that gap), followed by break-in fires.

This is the only longterm maintenance I have really needed to do. We love the F-600, and I would recommend it to anybody who needs a big, reliable heater. We run the heck out of it.

Regards,

 

[southbalto]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f72PLn_Mts&feature=fvsr

Deadcalm's picks made me think of this install...............Check out the knuckleheads using the ash pan door opening to charge up the fire.