The score of a lifetime (aka my new Jotul F400)

[grunyon]

So I'm 26 years old and I just bought my first house which is a little 700sq foot house on two acres. It's going to be my little man cave. Now I'm in the service industry and meet a lot of people every day and the other day I met a guy who just bought a big, beautiful farm house the day before. "Nice stove, I'm gonna have to get something like that soon for my new house" I said. "You want it? I'm getting a gas fireplace there. If you can haul it away it's yours for free." And that's the story of how I drove home with a Yotul F400 that looks barely used. Quite a step up from the Home Depot units that are more in my price range.

So anyway, I'm wondering if you guys have any suggestions or recommendations or advice. Should I take it apart and give it a good cleaning? I'd like to try to use the stove as my primary heat source. Are the burn times on this unit good for that? The plan is to use the chimney my oil furnace used to use (I got a high efficient propane unit) so I guess I'll buy a chimney liner kit and slip that in there. Also... floor space is limited in this house. Anything I can do to really scoot the stove in towards the wall? Again any tips or advice is great.

Thanks!

 

[begreen]

Congratulations. That is quite a score. Clean out the stove and inspect the insides and outsides carefully for any cracks. Look especially closely around the grate. Then check the door and ashpan gaskets with a dollar bill. If it pulls out firmly you may be fine.

The F400 likes a good strong draft and dry wood only. Dry wood means fully seasoned splits with a moisture reading under 20 on a freshly exposed face of wood. With good dry oak the F400 will provide about 6 hrs between loadings depending on how cold it is outside. When it's colder you'll be pushing it harder and burn times will be shorter. The stove likes to run at between 400-650F stove top temp. This is a radiant heater, respect the clearance requirements. If you put up a proper NFPA 211 wall shield behind the stove the rear clearance can be reduced to 7". Does the stove have the rear heatshield attached?

Basement installs are not the best for heating, especially if the basement is not insulated. The walls will suck out about a third of the heat. How tall is the chimney?

 

[Grisu]

Yes, congrats, you really lucked out.

Clearances also apply only to combustibles. If the chimney you want to use is masonry without any combustibles you could theoretically push the back of the stove right next to it. Do you have a pic of your preferred location?

 

[rsw49]

Excellent score at that price. We heated 1200 sq ft with our F400 last winter and enjoyed the mid 70's temperatures it provided. For our first winter we burned mostly poplar since we had quite a bit of it and it was all we had dry enough. On one occasion I had several large pieces of oak and that produced our best overnight burn with coals in the morning after nine hours. Heating 700 sq ft will make for some toasty temperatures but running complete burn cycles will give you some control over that. Begreen questioned chimney height and the F400 manual calls for 15 feet. There have been complaints of smoke spillage if the chimney is shorter. I put an extra 3 foot section on ours to bring it to 18 feet. Once again running complete cycles can prevent that. Load the stove, get it running and don't open the door unless necessary until coaling and reload. Sometimes it is unavoidable if a split falls against the glass or you are pushing the stove and adding wood before the cycle is complete. There are some very knowledgeable people on here that can help with installation questions so you have come to the right place.
Rich

 

[stovelark]

Hi Grunyonj- congrats on the Castine. Its a nice heater, good sized pieces of wood (18-20") and a reasonable burn time (6-8hrs).
Hopefully the flue is venting off the stove vertically, that will optimize your draft. Good dry seasoned wood is the key. Jotuls are great wood stoves, especially at your price....

 

[kennyp2339]

Congrats on the score, Like begreen said - inspect for cracks, RSW49 is totally right about chimney height and setup. The other recommendation I have is to (and if you can) install double wall dvl black pipe from the stove collar to main chimney, us 45deg elbows rather than 90deg. Are you installing this yourself? Can you provide us with some basic knowledge of your house and how your going to install the unit?
The install is more important than the actual stove, safety is the most important part, clearances, shields, chimney pipe, hearth pad must be done applied correctly. You want to be able to sleep good at night as the Jotul as working hard keeping the place toasty warm. The next important thing is wood supply, like begreen said again - wood splits need to be under 20% moisture content. To put it in perspective if you have a wood split that weighs 10lbs with 20% moisture that means 2 lbs alone is water. Would you take a 2lb cup of water and dump it in your stove? If you cant secure a good supply of wood for this year, think about taking some money and buying compressed wood brick like neils, redstone, bio brick to name a few. Good luck and we all look forward to answering any question you may have. FYI google your stove and get a copy of the manual if you don't have it

 

[georgepds]

My first stove was a Jotul Combi-fire. I used to burn bonfires in the back yard before i owned the stove. I went to a guy offering free wood with my brother and a pick-up truck. Turns out the guy's wife made him throw out the stove. We saw it sitting in the field by the free wood pile. He said I could have it if I wanted. I did. I hauled it back, sanded it down, and used it for 30 Years

The front door finally warped, and I'd hold it in place with a chain. Soon enough my wife said enough with the chain already. We got a Woodstock Progress Hybrid. I had to pay, but in the past 30 years, I managed to set aside a little cash that made it easier to buy

I wish you 30 years of luck with your find

--G