New Oslo owner

[firefighterjake]

Thanks ploughboy. I wrote the comments below before I saw your post. I'll post them anyways. I think the R-value is around 1. I've felt the bottom of the decking and the protruding screws from the crawl when the floor is at it's hottest. It's just warm not at all hot. But I know plywood has an r value as well. I don't know how to calculate the temp on the other side of it.

I have done the dollar bill and light test. I can pull the dollar bill through, but there's resistance. I don't have any problem controlling the fire once it's going and the flue definitely stabilizes and cools down some. I'm just on edge when getting up to temp. Seems like a lot of draft (but nothing like if the ash door is cracked a hair). It appears the flames are likely reaching/going up the flue a bit. Should I experience this with the doors sealed and primary open? Are other Oslo owners seeing this? On my previous setup I couldn't hear it so much with the door closed. Of course it was a different setup, I could burn the whole load wide open. Is it possible, in-spite of being able to control the fire, I may have significant air leakage? Thanks for the replies so far.

A few items . . .

Do not burn this stove with the ash pan door open . . . open the front or side door to get the fire going . . . but not the ash pan door. Not that the warrantee is still in effect, but doing so can void the warrantee . . . and more importantly . . . it can damage the stove . . . there have been some Oslo owners in the past who paid the price for doing so. It's a bad habit to get into . . .

I assume the baffle and insualtion blanket are in place . . . you can see the baffle by looking in the firebox . . . and you can feel for the baffle blanket or even do a visual inspection by removing the oval plate at the top of the stove . . . it may only seem as though the flames are going up the chimney . . . I mean to say there will be a lot of flames . . . but if things are all in place . . . things should be fine.

In my opinion if you can control the fire . . . i.e. once you're up to temp you start to dial down the air and you begin to see secondaries . . . you probably do not have an air leakage issue.

Oh yeah . . . definitely do not run this stove with the air open all the time . . . this will put more heat through your chimney . . . and you will not burn efficiently . . . i.e. no secondary burn and short burn times.

 

[firefighterjake]

Sorry it took so long. Now that my wife's made fun of me for taking pictures of the stove and asked if it will turn up in our family photo album, here's kid #4, Oslo :cheese: I had just lit the fire...nothing impressive there. Hopefully the pictures will show what you want. The legs are about 8 1/2". So I guess they're standard.

From the pic it looks like the standard legs . . . and don't worry about the wife giving you hard time taking pics of the stove . . . my wife always rolls her eyes when I dig out the camera to take pics of the stove, woodshed, woodpile, etc. . . . we here at hearth.com appreciate stove pornography . . . I mean art.

 

[cptoneleg]

The bottom heat shield comes loose and needs to be installed by owner, it comes flat and has lines where to bend it. the bolts for mine were in the bottom of ash pan for shipping, and it had built in spacers. So the original owner may not have installed this. If the bolts are under there now I would say it was never installed.

You said $100, sounds high but I think one comes with all stoves, the legs look normal to me I think the others are real short.

Good Luck

 

[pyrojoe]

Thanks everyone for the input. I think, as someone mentioned, much of the sound that was alarming me was the air going through the passage into the secondaries. It sounded like the flue, but as I studied it more seems to be from the back of the stove. The baffle and blanket are in place. Still am wavering on the probe. I think I'll try making a heat shield. I bought the rear shield for over $100 and since it's more visible am happy I did, but it's still a steep price for what you getting IMHO. I'll continue watching like a hawk when things are getting up to temp for a while. I'm sure I'll grow more comfortable with time. As for the ash pan door...I rarely use it. But when you just have a few small coals it's great for getting the kindling to catch. No more than that though. I have plenty of draft to take it from there. No way I'd run this thing wide open any longer than necessary. Definitely see the danger (and waste) in that.

 

[firefighterjake]

PyroJoe . . . glad to see you've seen the proverbial light . . . that said . . . as you can probably tell more than a few of us did the same thing before reading personal stories of folks who damaged their stove by using the ash pan . . . most of us figured out that using the side door and leaving that ajar can accomplish the same thing . . . just takes a bit more time and patience.

 

[Stump_Branch]

pyrojoe -

Did you change the finish on the wooden knobs? I LIKE that! Been thinking of doing the same thing......

Mine came black just like the handles, i sanded all three and stained them. It was a major pain couple high heat paint, heat, and hard wood, those buggers take awhile to sand, even with a sander.

But it was worth it to me