Howdy all. Brand new on this site. Live in the sunny piny woods of East Texas due east of Big D (that's Dallas). We're far enough north of the coast it can get pretty cool. Last year we had a lot more "cold" than usual and our new stove, a Jotul F100 just wasn't up to the task. That and there were some things I just plain didn't like about it.
Spent weeks doing research, seeing what options were available until a pattern started setting in. I thought about what I didn't like about the F100 and how to avoid those (few) problems. What I came up with was, I wanted a big glass view, (the F100 does have a fine view) and really liked the idea of having a side load option and just had to have an ash pan! The F100 doesn't. :sick:
If burning all day, we had to let the fire burn down in the afternoon/early evening to clean out the ash for the fire to burn well the rest of the evening. Then it seemed every time we opened that front door we had ash all over the place. Nope. Had to have an ash pan. Finally, I never got comfortable with that top air inlet. I seemed to forever be adjusting airflow by opening the door just a bit.
We wound up coming back to Jotul, there wasn't anything wrong with the quality of the build. We chose the "Oslo" F500. Fire capacity more to our liking/needs, big front glass, ash pan, and a side loading door.
The bragging part comes in saying how little I paid for it. Just under 1800 + tax.
There was a 20% discount for floor clearance- then they offered me another $250 off to take their display model. Got it home and found a crack in the base plate, lashed to a pallet it may have been travel damage, any how, they brought me out a brand new stove! :lol: It pays to shop!
Got it set up outside to do the break in burns and paint cook off tomorrow. Then we'll move it in.
I confess I don't burn prime wood. I'm disabled and on a fixed income so buying wood to burn just doesn't fit the budget. Then again, I live in the country in the middle of the woods. That makes buying wood to burn morally offensive! ;-)
But, I can't cut down trees and split lumber like I did before arthritis. So I tend to burn what I call "road kill wood." I tend some cows in various pastures for a friend. As I drive around if I see some good branches down, I chuck them in the back of the truck. Nobody cares about that. Gives me a good supply of 3"-6" I just cut to length. Occasionally I get to work over a blow down in somebody's pasture. (Got a couple to work right now) Still, I keep a good supply of nice dry oak or hickory. Just avoid the sweet gum- burns good but, ack! The "gum" may be "sweet" but, the smell sure isn't!
I was raised well north of here and besides wood have burned coal and fuel oil. I am well familiar with the burning process and was often the hero in army barracks with less than modern heating. But, it's become more of a science than an art and these are a new generation of stoves from the old pot bellys and box wood stoves. I look forward to learning more about the working of these.
About my screen name. I borrowed from the old "smokey stover" comic strip but figured that name had to be taken here. Since I'm an old stove 'stoker' and it rhymed with 'stover,' it was just the thing. Wouldn't have been surprised had it been taken too.
Anyway, that's about it and more than enough for now.
Spent weeks doing research, seeing what options were available until a pattern started setting in. I thought about what I didn't like about the F100 and how to avoid those (few) problems. What I came up with was, I wanted a big glass view, (the F100 does have a fine view) and really liked the idea of having a side load option and just had to have an ash pan! The F100 doesn't. :sick:
If burning all day, we had to let the fire burn down in the afternoon/early evening to clean out the ash for the fire to burn well the rest of the evening. Then it seemed every time we opened that front door we had ash all over the place. Nope. Had to have an ash pan. Finally, I never got comfortable with that top air inlet. I seemed to forever be adjusting airflow by opening the door just a bit.
We wound up coming back to Jotul, there wasn't anything wrong with the quality of the build. We chose the "Oslo" F500. Fire capacity more to our liking/needs, big front glass, ash pan, and a side loading door.
The bragging part comes in saying how little I paid for it. Just under 1800 + tax.
There was a 20% discount for floor clearance- then they offered me another $250 off to take their display model. Got it home and found a crack in the base plate, lashed to a pallet it may have been travel damage, any how, they brought me out a brand new stove! :lol: It pays to shop!Got it set up outside to do the break in burns and paint cook off tomorrow. Then we'll move it in.
I confess I don't burn prime wood. I'm disabled and on a fixed income so buying wood to burn just doesn't fit the budget. Then again, I live in the country in the middle of the woods. That makes buying wood to burn morally offensive! ;-)
But, I can't cut down trees and split lumber like I did before arthritis. So I tend to burn what I call "road kill wood." I tend some cows in various pastures for a friend. As I drive around if I see some good branches down, I chuck them in the back of the truck. Nobody cares about that. Gives me a good supply of 3"-6" I just cut to length. Occasionally I get to work over a blow down in somebody's pasture. (Got a couple to work right now) Still, I keep a good supply of nice dry oak or hickory. Just avoid the sweet gum- burns good but, ack! The "gum" may be "sweet" but, the smell sure isn't!
I was raised well north of here and besides wood have burned coal and fuel oil. I am well familiar with the burning process and was often the hero in army barracks with less than modern heating. But, it's become more of a science than an art and these are a new generation of stoves from the old pot bellys and box wood stoves. I look forward to learning more about the working of these.
About my screen name. I borrowed from the old "smokey stover" comic strip but figured that name had to be taken here. Since I'm an old stove 'stoker' and it rhymed with 'stover,' it was just the thing. Wouldn't have been surprised had it been taken too.
Anyway, that's about it and more than enough for now.
