Adding handle to Jotul F400 double door

[surferjoe]

Hello! I just installed my new (used off craigslist) Jotul F400 Castine double door and am SUPER PUMPED about it. These Jotuls seem to have a good rep, but I found it impossible to get in touch with them with some questions. Hopefully you guys can help.
The door handle for this stove is detachable. There's a square nub connected to the door latch, and when I want to open the door, I have to pick the handle up off the floor, slide it over this nub, twist, open the door by kind of angling the handle and gently pulling on it, put the handle down, add some wood, and reverse. I see that the single door models have an attached handle. Does anyone have any experience or suggestions for converting my cumbersome detachable handle to a permanently attached one? The ash pan uses the detachable handle too, but that doesn't bother me as much.
Second question, anyone know how to match the touch-up paint on a Jotul? It's blue, but not a very dark blue, and I see that Jotul sells two paints that might match: indigo blue, and blue majolica. I think I can rule out blue-black.
Picture of my setup attached.
Thank you!

 

[begreen]

I think they used the drop handle because the center location gets the full radiant heat from the fire. If it stayed in place it would get very hot. The single door F400 handle is designed so that the wooden knob is parked outside of this direct radiant heat.

The stove looks great there. Keep an eye on the mantel temp above the stove. It looks a bit close. Do you have the manual for this model? The newer F400 needs 25" to a mantel trim or mantel shelf that is thicker than 1". Also, is there enough hearth in front of the doors to provide 16" of protection?

 

[Bad LP]

I think they used the drop handle because the center location gets the full radiant heat from the fire. If it stayed in place it would get very hot. The single door F400 handle is designed so that the wooden knob is parked outside of this direct radiant heat.

The stove looks great there. Keep an eye on the mantel temp above the stove. It looks a bit close. Is there enough hearth in front of the doors to provide 16" of protection?

This. Same as my parked and retired VC with the double door.
I'll bet picking up a pan by the handle that was in the oven is child's play compared to the wood stove.

 

[surferjoe]

Makes sense. I guess I'll get use to the handle. Thanks!
Good eye, mantle trim starts 18" above stove. I watched it during the first few fires and it didn't get very hot, but I'm planning on installing a mantel shield 1" beneath the white trim to meet clearances.
For the hearth in front of the stove, I have an 18" fiberglass hearth extension fiberglass pad. Didn't seem to get very hot at all.

 

[begreen]

Sounds good. The F400 can radiate a lot of heat. A discrete mantel shield will bring peace of mind when it's zero outside and the stove has been pushed for hours. A hearth extension is supposed to be permanent, or at least fixed in place during the months of operation. The fiberglass rug is not really code acceptable, but better than nothing. Sparks and embers can pop out unexpectedly and go unnoticed. We have a small burn mark on our floor from when this happened. The ember went sideways, past the hearth and I missed it until it was too late.

 

[surferjoe]

I'd definitely like to be code. The hearth rug/pad/extension/board has got me a bit confused then. The manual states
"The Jøtul F 400 Castine requires one of the following three
forms of hearth protection:
1. Any UL, ULC or WH listed hearth board. (No bottom heat
shield required).
2. Any noncombustible material that has a minimum
R- value of 2.0. (No bottom heat shield required.)
3. Any noncombustible material with the use of the stove’s
bottom heat shield."
Would something like the Ember King or HY-C be correct? Or do you think I should add the F400 Bottom Heatshield and keep my flexible rug? I wish rule 1 specified which UL/ULC/WH code.
Thanks again for the help!

 

[begreen]

Does the stove have a bottom heat shield? It was standard on our 2006 F400. If it does then just ember protection is fine. Some folks have remarked that they weren't very happy with the Hy-C quality. I don't know anything about the Ember King, but with 10 ga steel it sounds very stout.

If no bottom heat shield the R=2.0 hearth extension requirements are quite stout. Based on what you have said you may have the heat shielding as part of the ashpan assembly.

 

[surferjoe]

Yes, it has its stock heat shield around the ash pan. I guess I'm good for the hearth below, I'll just get that shield for the mantel above.
Any ideas on which color blue my stove is? I want to touch up the top, but maybe I'm wasting time because I doubt touch up paint will last very long.

 

[begreen]

Sorry I don't know which color this is. Contact Preston Trading Post in CT. They have a long history with Jotul stoves and may recognize the color.

 

[surferjoe]

Thanks for the tip!

 

[charger4406]

It looks like the same blue as my F600, majolica blue.

 

[surferjoe]

Thanks charger! any luck with Jotul's touch-up paint?

 

[charger4406]

I had some that came with the stove,
used it to touch-up a foot, turned out ok.

 

[stovelark]

The 2 door Castine was not a huge seller for Jotul- it turned out that a lot of people thought the opening bolt looked unfinished (including all of us). It was only a double door for a couple of seasons, once it went single door, sales easlily tripled or quadrupled. That looks like Majolica blue, but hard to tell. Touch up kits from Jotul are still available, I believe. And BG was correct in stating that the handle had to be detachable due to temps, but the rather large and cumbersome design of the door handle (don't lose it, pretty rare), that didn't help things either. One thing tho, at the time the castine matched its sister gas stove the Sebago, also having the two door design.