Q&A New Jotul Firelight - Should I wait?

Question:

Jotul has told me their firelight is being revamped to a non cat stove. It won't be available till summer. Besides the combuster what other parts need to be replaced or maintained in a cat stove? Why do steel stoves have a life time warranty while cast stoves usually have 5-6 year warranty?



Answer:

Many steel stoves have only a 5 year...I should not say only, since 5 years is quite a long warranty. You will find that longer warranties cover less..sometimes to the point of being worthless...for instance, they may cover parts only, and what good is a slab of steel going to do you?

Others cover parts and labor, but you have to return the stove to a place FAR away, often costing you hundreds of dollars in the process.

Lastly, 90% of the stove companies in business 10 years ago are already gone, so those lifetime warranties are not much good. A fair warranty might be better than an overblown one.