I was looking to see if someone could walk me through startup of the Oslo to when to shut off the air? I would really appreciate it, right I am kinda fumbling through it and not really sure how to get a nice long burn.
Thanks
Thanks
Jotul Oslo
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Start with seasoned wood. It is you will be unable to get the stove up to operating temperature in anything like a reasonable amount of time - and maybe not at all - with poorly seasoned wood.
I use a stovetop thermometer placed in the right rear corner. Starting with a cold stove you may need to leave the side door open until you get the stove up to 300 deg. f. or so. I start cutting back the air at 350 to 400 deg. f. First step is the three quarters mark. If the temperature holds or continues to rise I cut it back to the mid way mark. I let it climb on up to 450 deg. f. and cut it back to the one quarter mark or a bit less. I can tap it back even a bit more for overnight burns; it is easy to see the change in the flame pattern when it starts to starve for air.
This sounds more difficult than it is.
The precise procedure will depend upon your particular installation as the amount of draft can vary pretty dramatically from one installation to the next as well as the fuel source (I burn white oak and hickory).
I use a stovetop thermometer placed in the right rear corner. Starting with a cold stove you may need to leave the side door open until you get the stove up to 300 deg. f. or so. I start cutting back the air at 350 to 400 deg. f. First step is the three quarters mark. If the temperature holds or continues to rise I cut it back to the mid way mark. I let it climb on up to 450 deg. f. and cut it back to the one quarter mark or a bit less. I can tap it back even a bit more for overnight burns; it is easy to see the change in the flame pattern when it starts to starve for air.
This sounds more difficult than it is.
The precise procedure will depend upon your particular installation as the amount of draft can vary pretty dramatically from one installation to the next as well as the fuel source (I burn white oak and hickory).
Sounds like I'm doing alright then....I just have an occasional dancing secondary flame? The stove is staying around 350f on the temp so I'm guessing that is where it should be? Thanks for the quick response.
remkel
Minister of Fire
Seems to me the temp is low and your stove is not at a temperature to sustain your secondary burn. That stove can run a lot hotter.
I woke up to a pretty warm stove this morning and was able to start it right back up......8 hr burn. I agree though that the stove could be hotter initially, because my heat pump kicked on about 4 this morning. I am still looking for that fire when I have to complain about it being to hot!
remkel
Minister of Fire
One thought, and you may have answered this earlier, is your wood. Is your wood very dry? What I find with my stove (F600) is that if the wood is a little wet I need to keep the primary air fully open for a longer period of time. If you are shutting down your air and the temps and intensity of the fire are dropping, your wood may not be ideal. When you drop down the primary air, watch your secondaries. If they fall off, increase the air a bit. Eventually you will be able to shut the air down.
I tried an Encore-style overnight burn last night for the first time in our new Oslo, just for the hell of it - get a good bed of coals, throw in a a good load of wood, then shut it way down. Good bed of coals 8 hours later, but the lovely glass window was so black I couldn't see the flames. It seems to be gradually clearing, did I do something wrong or is this just the way they work?
Oh, any idea what the "official" word is on opening the loading door to get a bit of extra air? The directions say NEVER NEVER NEVER open the ash door, but are mum as to the others, which I guess could be taken as indirect approval.
(I'd ask the Jotul dealer but they don't answer the phone - you never get a person, got to go through a phone tree then leave your number and now that I've bought the damn thing they never call back.)
Oh, any idea what the "official" word is on opening the loading door to get a bit of extra air? The directions say NEVER NEVER NEVER open the ash door, but are mum as to the others, which I guess could be taken as indirect approval.
(I'd ask the Jotul dealer but they don't answer the phone - you never get a person, got to go through a phone tree then leave your number and now that I've bought the damn thing they never call back.)
My manual says you can leave the side door open for starting up the fire. I leave mine with the latch rotated against the inside of the frame, which leaves the door just a bit ajar. When doing a cold start I leave it there until I get 350 or so on the stove top.
If your glass is black, you cut the air down too much. I burn 24/7 and (almost) always have a nice bed of coals after 8-9 hours and never, ever, have black glass. I can get a new fire going even after 10 hours, but it takes some kindling if I wait that long.
350 deg. stove top and only a few secondaries suggests poor fuel. I want at least 400 deg. and more like 450 deg. following a reload. Mine does demand a FULL load, however to get up to 450 or more. Not stacked full of 16" pieces, but full front to back, top to bottom. The secondary combustion is spectacular, not just the "occasional dancing flame". To clarify farther, you do not get secondaries once the volatile gasses have burned off - or at least not as much. For convenience I'll say a four hour cycle is one hour with gradually diminishing secondaries, 90 minutes of steady burning, and 90 minutes of char-coaling. This is what I get with oak, anyway.
remkel
Minister of Fire
My question would be did you get the fire going after loading up on those coals, or did you just load it and shut down the air? You have to get the fire going or else the fu ll load of wood will just smolder all night (which would explain your black glass).
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
My technique . . . get the woodstove going . . . when the flue temp hits 500 or so degrees F I begin shutting down the air control incrementally typically (if I've been burning for some time and doing a reload sometimes I close things more quickly . . . and skip a step or two in my incremental closing of the air control.) I start by closing the air control to the 3/4 mark, wait 5-10 minutes to see that the temps on the flue and stove top (usually 400-600 when "cruising") are stable and then turn it down the half way mark . . . and I keep waiting and turning the air control down until I've reached the point where I have a sustained secondary burn and the temps are good . . . sometimes this means I can shut it all the way down and sometimes just open a bit.
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
A little low . . . feel free to run 'er a little hotter. Normal operating temp on the stove is 400-600 degrees F.
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
You may or may not be able to shut 'er down all the way . . . you might try to get to the point where the secondaries are still going off and not suffocate it too much. Generally, the "glass" should remain more or less clear if things are burning the way it should be . . . sometimes you might get a little smudge in one of the corners where the air wash is weaker . . . or if a split rolls up against the glass impeding the air wash. The good news is a hot fire or two should burn that black off.
Side door . . . yeah . . . I suspect most of us use the side loading door on the start up fire . . . but not the ash door.
remkel
Minister of Fire
Once you start getting her good and hot you will keep that glass clean. You may see some darkening when you reload, but it will burn off once it gets up to temperature.
Jotul832,
Interesting, my manual does not say anything about leaving the side door open to help start a fire, so when I discovered this technique by experimentation I thought I was going against the factory recommendations. I have used this method for about 6 or 7 years now so I'm comfortable with it, but I'm still careful to not leave the door cracked open for very long and certainly do not leave the stove unattended during start up. I do one thing that is NOT factory recommended however; I use a few ounce of diesel instead of kindling to start my splits in a cold stove. The fuel catches quickly and, since I don't use much, I have found no real downside. I use wood scraps in my wood shop stove, which is not a Jotul, since the mess is insignificant there and the wood needs "disposal" anyway.
Interesting, my manual does not say anything about leaving the side door open to help start a fire, so when I discovered this technique by experimentation I thought I was going against the factory recommendations. I have used this method for about 6 or 7 years now so I'm comfortable with it, but I'm still careful to not leave the door cracked open for very long and certainly do not leave the stove unattended during start up. I do one thing that is NOT factory recommended however; I use a few ounce of diesel instead of kindling to start my splits in a cold stove. The fuel catches quickly and, since I don't use much, I have found no real downside. I use wood scraps in my wood shop stove, which is not a Jotul, since the mess is insignificant there and the wood needs "disposal" anyway.
Using the side or front door to provide a little start up air is fine. However, I would not use an accelerant to start the fire. This could void the warranty and is explicitly warned about in the manual. You would be far better off using the wood scraps to start the fire.
Begreen,
Yes, I'm aware that the diesel is NOT factory approved, but it works great and is cheap and easy. I don't use more than a few tablespoonful, so in spite of the the factory recommendations I have not seen any downside. Fire starters are usually made with paraffin wax, which is manufactured as a byproduct of the lubricating oil process, so it is fairly close to being the same thing as diesel, just in a different form. My stove is long out of warranty and runs perfectly so I don't think that I've done any harm at any point by using one petrochemical over another. The manual advises against using chemicals due to the possible generation of carbon monoxide, but since I run the side door partially ajar and use such a small amount of fluid, that possibility is pretty low as far as I can tell.
That said, if you have a good source of dry wood scraps and are willing to use them I can't say anything against the practice. I use my wood scraps elsewhere and find the convenience and effectiveness of diesel to be the best practice for the house stove, a Jotul F 500.
Yes, I'm aware that the diesel is NOT factory approved, but it works great and is cheap and easy. I don't use more than a few tablespoonful, so in spite of the the factory recommendations I have not seen any downside. Fire starters are usually made with paraffin wax, which is manufactured as a byproduct of the lubricating oil process, so it is fairly close to being the same thing as diesel, just in a different form. My stove is long out of warranty and runs perfectly so I don't think that I've done any harm at any point by using one petrochemical over another. The manual advises against using chemicals due to the possible generation of carbon monoxide, but since I run the side door partially ajar and use such a small amount of fluid, that possibility is pretty low as far as I can tell.
That said, if you have a good source of dry wood scraps and are willing to use them I can't say anything against the practice. I use my wood scraps elsewhere and find the convenience and effectiveness of diesel to be the best practice for the house stove, a Jotul F 500.
Sorry, you will not get any support for this practice at this site. This site is about helping people how to burn well and safely. Please stop discussing it in multiple threads.
Thanks for understanding. Hearth.com reaches thousands of people daily. We need to stick to what is safe here.
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