Jotul C450 Finally installed - the writeup

[FGZ]

I tried saving money on the install and sure enough it took several weeks to finish up between finding parts, doing some modifications, and catering to a 5 month old's sleep schedule. But it's done now, here's the story

The installer sleeved the liner down the chimney, capped off the top, and positioned the insert in the fireplace. He didn't have an elbow that would make the liner-to-stove connection because of clearance issues I discussed in THIS THREAD


I ended up removing the damper for more room around the pipe itself – was really hard to work with ovalized. Damper was pretty loose in there anyways, so a slow-but-steady and clean-as-you-go approach dropped it out with no issues.

With the damper out I had a lot more room to work and could even shove rockwool around the liner about 5’ up using an axe handle and myself sitting up in there.

At this point I had to deal with the elbow connection having kind of a kink in it and creating a gap. I asked around in THIS THREAD about that one.

I ended up fixing that with stainless fender washers and a high-temp alloy strip on the inside to squeeze the gap shut, plus stove cement. All that made the gap way smaller, much more manageable for my worry-factor

Now I was able to connect that stainless adjustable 90* elbow to the stove and slide it into place. Turns out I needed about 1 more inch to be able to put the surround back on, so I took out 1 brick that was already loose from the chimney sweeps removing the damper adjustment knob that had rusted in place.

Before, need 1 more inch:

After, just enough room now:

And everything finally in place:

And I just got my first cord delivered, we'll see how well it burns and adjust accordingly with pallets, but that's for another thread.

Next summer’s work will include a block-off plate and extending the hearth outward – for now we have to use an extender pad to meet code, and I’m hoping I will get good enough heat out put without the BOP for now. Can't wait to get a few burns in and see how it does. Wish me luck!

 

[vector1701]

Very nice. How did you run the power to it?

 

[CALJREICH]

Looks great.

 

[FGZ]

Thanks guys (c:

Fairly lackluster first firing last night. As it warmed up the snapstat kicked on pretty early IMO and I could see some smoke coming off the unit as expected. Between that smoke and adding a drier fuel a few times to get it started, I set off the smoke alarms in the house twice. My wood is only seasoned about a year, so I'm assuming that plus my inexperience are why I got not much heat out of it first time out.

For the very first fire I wasn't trying to get it roaring, but would have liked to see it get hot enough that I needed to close down the primary a little. Instead, it just looked nice with it wide open and died down too much with it closed any. Plus my 4 smallish splits are down to not much of a coal bed after about 3 hours. For next time I'll just hope I don't have to deal with the smoke issue as much, then I'll work on longer hotter burns and better heat output. One thing at a time I guess.

Very nice. How did you run the power to it?

Oh yeah that. It's plugged in on the right side now, just wasn't in the pic. There's a plug just around the corner where that orange cord is, so I'll use that till I can wire up something nicer looking.