Jotul F500 replacing VC Defiant
- Thread starter claydogg84
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Burning Hunk
Hey Claydogg how is the Oslo working out for you? I'm curious to know how you think it stacks up against the original Defiant. My brother is still running a Defiant and I'm gently nudging him toward a F600 or an Oslo. What do think now that you've had a bit of time with the Oslo? Thanks.
To be honest I'm a bit disappointed. Firstly, my wood splits are too big - I can get maybe 4 pieces in this stove with the wood I have. The Defiant ate through everything I put in there, that's why I have bigger stuff. Secondly, coming from a "Smoke Dragon" to this EPA nonsense is a bit aggrevating. I'm having to load the stove around 9:00 to go to bed around 10:00. I think heat output and burn time is comparable, but the burn time could be a bit better if I could pack the firebox better. The firebox is much smaller than my Defiant. I'm trying really hard to like it, but so far I've missed my Defiant. Getting that up to temp and ready before bed took tops 10 minutes. In the morning before work is also a pain especially if I don't have a real solid bed of coals to start with. The Oslo has done fine heating my house but we haven't hit a streak of continuous temps in the teens yet so it hasn't been truly tested. Overall I think I need more time - The ease of use is what's getting to me most though, but I assume everyone has to get over that at some point.
And I would definitely tell him to go with the 600 just for the size of the firebox alone. I would have gotten that but it won't fit in my fireplace.
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Burning Hunk
Yeah I understand your frustration, the Oslo is a heavy beast, more mass than the Defiant so it's slower to come up to temp, also the smaller firebox and no andirons makes packing in the splits challenging. It really helps to have small, medium and large splits so you can find that perfect size split to max it out. I'd love to have the F600 myself but like you it's too tall for my hearth install, I actually thought about customizing the legs to make it fit as I'd only have to shorten them by an inch or so but it's a bit daunting to pay big bucks for a stove and then have to alter it.
If its any comfort to you, more time with the Oslo will definitely help, I love mine and I wouldn't even consider going back to the old Defiant even though I loved that one at the time I had it.
Yeah, I'm really trying to hold final judgement till after this heating season. I also considered cutting the legs to make the 600 fit. In hindsight I wish I had.
Toploader
Burning Hunk
One thing that I do to help to pack the firebox full and get the stove settled a little faster is a top down fire with 3 or 4 splits, once the paper and kindling are burned up and the splits are going good I top up the firebox with splits. This works well for a cold start or even on a bed of coals sometimes I just throw in a couple splits and wait until they are going good before I fill the firebox. I don't load this way all the time only when I'm looking to max out my burn time.
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