I've had a love hate relationshjip with my Avalon Olympic woodstove for 10 years now. I'm heating an 1800 squ ft. ranch style house. One floor with an open floor plan. Perhaps I am asking too much of the stove on those very cold below zero nights. I'm looking at a jotul f-55 stove. I notice the BTU's are 10,000 higher but the rest of the specs are about the same as the Avalon I own. I've been burning wood for 40 years so I'm no rookie but just want more heat on those zero nights. When temp is 20 degrees the Avalon seems ok, but when it's zero it can't keep up. Any thoughts from anybody on the situation?
10 years with my Avalon Olympic-Time to upgrade?
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bushman
Burning Hunk
I have a little bigger ranch style house and have ran the sister stove to your Olympic, the Lopi Liberty and when it's sub zero we just burn more to keep it warm. This year we installed a blower and it was a big difference in moving the heat around. The size of stove and footage you got should be right on.
The main difference in switching to the Jotul would be the firebox layout. The Olympic is primarily an E/W loader. The F55 has a deeper, squarish firebox and can be loaded in either direction. N/S typically allows a fuller load because there is no anxiety about logs rolling into the glass.
Funny you mention that. I've been loading my Olympic north to south for all these years. I cut the wood shorter which makes it easier to handle for the wife and as you say, no rolling against the glass. I've always found this the better way to load the stove.
Ha, well there you go. A lot of people won't go to that trouble. In that case you may not find a huge improvement going to the F55. It might be a better investment to put in some more insulation and seal up small leaks. An energy audit with a blower door test can help determine the best course of action.
bushman
Burning Hunk
Later, is your stove running poorly as of late or have you been generally underwhelmed? I found this season on my Liberty that too much ash accumulated on the baffle top, this made it run like crap until I took it apart and cleaned it out. As for the Jotul,Top load is very nice. I switched stoves and the Isle Royale is top or front load, I have not opened the front doors but a few times and never to load wood. My knees are thanking me every day .
bushman
Burning Hunk
When I swept my chimney I would open the bypass thinking all the sweepings would fall into the firebox, quite a bit made it on top of the baffle.
The house is only 12 years old. it is a modular that we had built. Supposedly the top of the line modular that money can buy. Supposedly really well insulated. Our first stove when we moved in was a tiny quadrafire that was way too small but at the time we didn't know anything about the modern wood stoves. We found out quickly that the squ. ft. coverage of these stoves is very overated. We burned a fisher mama bear for 25 years and it was a heat producer and a creosote producer also.
I have a 90 degree turn in my stove pipe going into my chimney. When I clean my chimney I dismantle my stove pipe completely and clean the entire inside of the stove including the baffle.
It has been a rough winter. Most systems in the Northeast have been pushed to their limits.
The largest capacity 6" flue stove is the J A Roby Ultimate. We have only had one report on that stove. Sounds like it heated well for him. He is in a high heat loss stone house in Quebec. The next down I think is the Enerzone 3.6. For more firepower you may need to go up in flue size to 8". There you can get into a Kuma Sequoia, Regency 5700, Blaze King King, Country Canyon, etc..
The largest capacity 6" flue stove is the J A Roby Ultimate. We have only had one report on that stove. Sounds like it heated well for him. He is in a high heat loss stone house in Quebec. The next down I think is the Enerzone 3.6. For more firepower you may need to go up in flue size to 8". There you can get into a Kuma Sequoia, Regency 5700, Blaze King King, Country Canyon, etc..
ToltingColtAcres
Member
The JA Roby Ultimate is a beast. I did get a chuckle out of the manual though, when it mentioned "reduced clearances" of "only" 10 inches, compared to my F55's 2.5" requirement (double walled stove pipe w/ flue-collar shield and protected walls). Based on its size, the hearth requirements, and clearances, it would take up 1/2 of my parlor. I would love to feel that thing crank heat!
Can you tell us more about your setup? What kind of chimney? How tall? Do you have an outside air supply?
How far can you close down the air? Do you know the stovetop temperature?
Also important is the dryness of the wood you are burning: How long has it been split and then stacked in the open? Did you ever test it with a moisture meter by resplitting a few pieces and checking the center of the fresh surface?
How far can you close down the air? Do you know the stovetop temperature?
Also important is the dryness of the wood you are burning: How long has it been split and then stacked in the open? Did you ever test it with a moisture meter by resplitting a few pieces and checking the center of the fresh surface?
My setup is a corner installation in the center of the house. The house is 66 ft long by 26 wide. The chimney is roughly 15 ft. high and extends beyond the roof line. It is a masonry chimney but after burning one year with the much to small quadrafire stove I had an insulated stainless steel liner installed in 2004. I have no outside air supply and I've never measured the stove top temp. But I plan on doing that with an infared temp gun. I cut and split m own wood. It is stacked and seasoned for at least a year and in most cases two years. a mixture of soft maple, cherry, black birch and beech. As I said I am from the old school of burning in that when I had the fisher bear stove I just kept feeding it when I walked by and thought it needed some woo. I probably never got the hang of burning one of these new stoves. I do know that when I clean the chimney once a year I get only a coffee can full of dust. But I just think the stove burns so inconsistent. Right now it is 18 degrees outside and a nice 75 in the house, cooler at the far end. But I've seen the same outside temps before and the stove can't warm the house. I've never shut the stove air down more than half way. When I load it at 11 at night I usually give it half air after I've gotten it going pretty good. By 3;30 am there is not enough usable heat coming off the stove so I reload. But I have lots of charcoal that isn't burnt. I am more than willing to go buy a new stove, but not if I get the same results. Thanks for your interest.
I think there are a couple of things you can try to get more heat out of your current stove. Having plenty of charcoal and those short burn times is certainly not normal.
With only 15 ft of chimney but two 90 degree bends your draft is probably not the best. And the new EPA stoves really require good draft to burn properly. Since your home is new and you don't have an outside air supply that may further impair draft. When you crack a window close to the stove does that visibly improve the fire? Do you have problems with smoke rolling back into the room? Ways to improve draft would be: adding outside air supply, changing one 90 degree turn for two 45s, adding some class A pipe on top of the chimney.
Fuel: One year may be enough for some of the species but others would need at least 2 years. Excessive coals is often a sign of wood that is not dry enough. A moisture meter would help to figure out whether your wood needs more time.
Operation: In contrast to an old-style pre-EPA stoves, a modern stove does not burn hotter with the air fully open. When you reduce the air control, less air comes in from over the door but more is injected into the top of the firebox. That "secondary" air makes sure all woodgases and smoke particles are burnt up and most of the heat stays in the stove instead of going up the chimney. With good draft and wood you should see stovetop temps going up when you reduce the air. The goal is to get the stove cruising between 500 F to 700 F at the lowest possible air setting. That will give you the most heat and the longest burn times. Once the fire is going well, try to reduce the air in stages. Reduce air until flames become slow moving ("lazy"), wait a few minutes for the fire to pick up again, reduce air again until flames become lazy etc. At the end, the air control should be between 1/4 open and all the way closed. You should see plenty of flames in the top of the firebox mostly coming from the burn tubes and few flames in the wood itself. See if you can get the stove up to those temps and keep it there for several hours when operated that way. If not your wood and/or draft will likely be the culprit.
With only 15 ft of chimney but two 90 degree bends your draft is probably not the best. And the new EPA stoves really require good draft to burn properly. Since your home is new and you don't have an outside air supply that may further impair draft. When you crack a window close to the stove does that visibly improve the fire? Do you have problems with smoke rolling back into the room? Ways to improve draft would be: adding outside air supply, changing one 90 degree turn for two 45s, adding some class A pipe on top of the chimney.
Fuel: One year may be enough for some of the species but others would need at least 2 years. Excessive coals is often a sign of wood that is not dry enough. A moisture meter would help to figure out whether your wood needs more time.
Operation: In contrast to an old-style pre-EPA stoves, a modern stove does not burn hotter with the air fully open. When you reduce the air control, less air comes in from over the door but more is injected into the top of the firebox. That "secondary" air makes sure all woodgases and smoke particles are burnt up and most of the heat stays in the stove instead of going up the chimney. With good draft and wood you should see stovetop temps going up when you reduce the air. The goal is to get the stove cruising between 500 F to 700 F at the lowest possible air setting. That will give you the most heat and the longest burn times. Once the fire is going well, try to reduce the air in stages. Reduce air until flames become slow moving ("lazy"), wait a few minutes for the fire to pick up again, reduce air again until flames become lazy etc. At the end, the air control should be between 1/4 open and all the way closed. You should see plenty of flames in the top of the firebox mostly coming from the burn tubes and few flames in the wood itself. See if you can get the stove up to those temps and keep it there for several hours when operated that way. If not your wood and/or draft will likely be the culprit.
Thanks for all the info. You can teach an old dog new tricks. I was always under the impression that the more air it gets, the hotter the fire. As for draft, when I had the liner installed by a professional he tested the draft and assured me I had plenty. I just now cut the air back on the stove like you said but I have to get one of those temp measurers to make sure it is hot to begin with.
Just to update my situation. I bought the stove top thermometer and also an infared one to read my stove temps. Even bought a moisture meter. Followed your instructions to a tee. Had no trouble getting the stove temp to 600-700 degrees. Went there rather quickly. The moisture in the wood is 5%. Cut the air back when it hit 650 and the temps continue to rise to around 700 or more. The stove holds that temp for about an hour and then temps decline and in about 3hours I'm back to 300-350. So everything is working right temp wise except the temp doesn't hold for very long. Is it possible that my door gasket has something to do with the temp not holding. It is the original door gasket of 10 years and it doesn't pass the dollar bill test. Could this be keeping my stove from holding the temp for a few hours?
Definitely replace the door gasket. It's overdue. That should restore more control over the fire and increase burn time.
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