Greetings! To all the Jotul F45 Greenville operators in the group - does the cooktop allow you to lay a frying pan and cook up some food beyond just heating up a kettle or soup pot? Thanks for taking the time to reply!
Yes, for stews, etc. leave the top on. I have just started slow cooking on our stove's trivet top. A temp on the trivet top of around 250º is good. I cooked a turkey breast this way for Thanksgiving. It came out great!The F-45 top when removed is direct access to the top of the baffle/firebox. The stove top temps will run between 400-700 degrees. That should be plenty of heat to cook with. My concern would be that it’s supplying too much heat. For example if you you had a stew directly on top of it likely the stew would boil.
As Bgreen mentioned I have the F45 V2 and do some limited cooking on it. Mostly soups, stews and warming leftovers but Have also used my cast iron Dutch oven a few times on a trivet. The top like you said is directly exposed above the baffle and can get quite hot but it’s a pretty large surface so moving a pan off to the side or corner gives a somewhat cooler temp.We looked at a Jotul f45 v2 Greenville today and are still weighing the pros and cons of switching from our old cookstove. I am confused about comments about removing the top for a hotter surface for limited cooking. The top looks well secured and not something removable. Reaching inside it felt like I was touching the underside of that cast surface not an interior firebox. Am I missing something? Is the v2 different that way? It would be great to get a little more perspective on this and the ability to do some limited cooking.
I talked to another dealer about the Alderlea t5 with its swiveling trivets but was quoted a surprisingly higher price, out of our range .