Smoke escapes from Jotul 602 in certain conditions: OK????

[staceyneil]

We recently installed a Jotul 602. it's about 5 years old and in beautiful condition; I don't believe the previous owner used it more than a handful of times.

We've been using it daily for about 6 weeks, and most of the time it's great. Sometimes, on starting up from cold, a wee bit of smoke drifts out of the back corner, where the two "walls" of the firebox join, but as soon as the fire gets going, this stops.

Lately the weather has been warmer (40s) and rainy/windy. Last night I tried to start a fire, and did not have enough kindling. I tried anyway, but the combination of the outside temps, lack of kindling (could not get flame started properly), and possibly wind direction caused a huge smoky mess. When I gave up and closed/tamped the damper all the way shut (closed the stove up to the best of my ability) smoke still came gushing out of the stove at all the side joints, AND from around the "burner" on the top of the stove (not sure what you call it: the round cast iron thingy that can be lifted off. It just sits there, has no gasketing or anything...)

I'm wondering if this is OK, or if it means there's something unsafe going on with this stove.

Or, if its just a nuisance thing, how to repair it.

As I said, it behaves perfectly fine when the fire's going. We have a CO detector in the room and its never gone off.

Thanks!

 

[firefighterjake]

Welcome to the forum Staceyneil.

First off . . . with the weather we had yesterday (warm temps, rain, high winds, etc.) it can sometimes me a challenge getting a stove going . . . especially if you don't have a good draft to start with . . . which is what it sounds like you may have. I would suspect that when it's cold outside and you start a fire you probably have very few issues vs. starting a fire in the Fall, Spring or with milder temps like yesterday.

Draft can be affected by the size of the chimney both in terms of diameter and in length . . . if we knew your set up we could possibly make some long-term suggestions for your specific stove (i.e. you may need to use a liner if only using a masonry chimney . . . you may need to extend your chimney if using a Class A metal type chimney.

A short term solution is to pre-warm the chimney and firebox . . . some folks do this by using a hair dryer, small propane torch or simply balling up some newspaper and setting it on fire . . . the idea being to warm up the stove and chimney just enough to warm things up and establish a draft . . . you may also try opening a window near the stove while attempting to get the stove to light.

The reason for the smoke is that there is a negative draft which means the smoke doesn't want to naturally go up the chimney, but rather is being pulled back into your home . . . and as such it will escape out of every crack and crevice in the stove.

Seeing smoke from some of these crevices is expected . . . around the door . . . especially if the gasket isn't a good, tight fit . . . around the top plate which isn't held down or latched . . . seeing smoke coming out of one of your stove's corners is a little more concerning . . . although probably not a big deal . . . you may wish to put a flashlight in the firebox (when the fire is out) and see if you or someone can see the light outside of the stove . . . if so . . . it wouldn't hurt to a) make sure there are no cracks and/or b) seal the joint in the corner with some furnace or stove cement which you can pick up at any local hardware store.

 

[staceyneil]

Thank you! That's all good news and reassuring. You're basically confirming what we thought

The stove has a new 6" stovepipe to a 8" Metalbestos chimney system... no masonry. It's pretty short and straight (just two 45s to accommodate and offset between the chimney and stove location), goes through a low cathedral ceiling to the exterior where it has plenty of height and clearance. And in most conditions it seems to draw well and be very happy.

We'll try the sealing up that back joint (where we'd seen the smoke a few times before) this spring. The door itself has good, tight, new-looking gasket braid stuff.

And when I attempt to start a fire today, I'll definitely prewarm the chimney. I sort of knew about that, but it had been SO easy to light and get going before now, that I'd gotten lazy

Thanks.

 

[begreen]

Is this an older 602 or a newer 602CB?

Sounds like there may be a couple issues. The stove normally connects to a ~5" flue (150mm) in Europe. That would be an area of about 19 sq in. heading into a short 8" pipe of about 50 sq in. This is could lead to marginal draft at times.

The second concern is that it sounds like the stove is leaking at the rear corner joint. If smoke is getting out there, then air is coming in when the stove is hot. That should be sealed. As a temporary measure, remove the side burn plate and tool in a bead of Rutland furnace cement into that back corner. Cure according to directions and see if that improves things.

If you want to fix the stove correctly in spring, it's not that hard to take it apart and to properly seal the corners.

 

[rover47]

We have a 602 in the kitchen. Itis hooked to a straight up 6'' single wall to a 6" double wall total height about ten or twelve feet. Some times from cold I have to warm up the pie to get the draft going. You can tell this by cold air comes out when you open the door. I use the hair dryer method. As soon as the cold flow goes away I light the fire. Also some of your problem may be the 8" chimney.














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[rover47]

2nd reply I have seen my 602cb do the same thing when I don't warm it up. Smoke out the griddle.

 

[staceyneil]

Thanks, all!

The stove was sold to us as a 602CB, and the owner had that manual, and had purchased it only a couple of years before. It LOOKS just like the 602CB on the Jotul site (door, etc.) But the model number cast into it is 602N. So I don't know what that really means. Was the 602CB just a 602N with things added like heat shields, etc? Ours has some.

Thanks for the draft advice. This thing cost so much to hook up, there's no way we can afford to replace the 8" chimney now. (It was existing from an older stove that was in the house when we bought it.) If it's more of a nuisance thing (poor draft in some situations) I hope we'll be OK like this for a while.