Double Sided Firplace - insert or wood stove

[EbS-P]

Those are the bolts for the whole top, not just the 'cook plate' in the center?
That would probably make it a lot easier, not sure I love the idea of leaving the top unbolted though. Not that it would come flying off for no reason

So it looks like there are bolts with tabs for the cook plate and nuts with washers for the top. The manual states to reinstall washers and nuts.

I think this is probably worthy of its own thread. As more are sold more people will have to clean them and I think that it would be much easier to just lift the top off.

It’s been said and I believe it that the removable top is required in the UK. it can’t be removable if bolted.

I don’t see the top going anywhere. I don’t think not bolting the top down has any significant issues. To me ease of cleaning means you will do it more often and not skip a cleaning which outweighs any negatives.

 

[begreen]

I am not sure if the F45 is sold in the UK. It's an American made stove. Whether they have set up the top for quick removal like the castiron Jotuls is a good question for their tech support. We have some folks with the cast iron stoves that have removed the top lid bolts permanently. IIRC one person identified them as shipping bolts, but it would be good to ask if this also applies to the F45 and F55. Hopefully yes, because cleaning this stove otherwise is more work than others.

 

[pirates712]

It's been pretty mild here so far so I've only burned about 1/3 of a cord so far. Still figuring out how to run this stove.
One thing I think I've learned so far is the masonry surrounding the stove holds a ton of heat and seems to keep the stove top from transferring heat 'normally' - it seems to keep the stove hotter for longer than if the stove was out in the open where air can circulate freely. I've measured the cavity above the stove at around 350F. I've found that a large fan behind the stove helps a ton when burning a full load on hot coals. Without the fan, the stove goes right up to 700F and would probably keep going. Going longer between reloads and burning smaller loads is less of an issue.

I'm still figuring out when and how much to turn down the air. My liner connects directly to the stove so I don't have a good place for a probe, so I'm relying on stove top temp, what the fire looks like, and what's coming out of the stack (when it's light out). I'm having a hard time finding a middle ground between turning the air down too fast and losing secondaries and turning the air down too late and sending the temps up to 700+ where I need to run the fan.

This morning I reloaded with the stove at around 300F and maybe a few handfuls of coals. Left the air open full until I just started getting secondaries, then turned it down gradually trying to maintain secondaries. I only had secondaries from the first and second rows of the secondary air baffle, and not across the whole width of the stove. With the air turned down fully I only had secondaries for about an hour, but the stove was running at 550F stove top without the fan and the flames were blue which seems to indicate that things are pretty hot. Since it was dark outside I couldn't check whether I was getting smoke.

I guess whether I'm not sure how much secondary action I want. I know it depends on lot of factors like the wood species, how dry it is, split size, outdoor temperature, but it seems like if I wait for secondaries to be what I would consider robust my stove top will go up to 700 requiring the use of the fan. This may just be because of my installation fully inside the fireplace, but I want to make sure I'm not overfiring.

 

[EbS-P]

Mine is fully in the fireplace too. I have a squirrel cage blower on the floor behind the stove blowing up. In fact I just upgraded to this. Is dead silent to setting 4/10.

Your assessments are similar to mine. I have tried taking temp at 3 locations with a washer probe. Stove top under a piece of metal. Shoved down between liner and adapter and punched up between liner and insulation. The first two were really effect by the blower. Stove top seemed to be the best but kept being pulled off. It’s tucked between liner and insulation now. I ordered the pipe probe and will drill and install it in my appliance adapter soon. I am run my insert with the probe there, both Auber AT200s. I can see 700 degrees STT at the hottest spot (my first IR gun topped out at 725).

Measuring flue gas allows you to turn down the air quicker and see when you have turned it down to far almost instantaneously.

I run my new quiet fan almost all the time. It has a temp probe and you can set the on/off temp and the speed. I have found from a cold start it takes almost a full load to warm everything up and the first reload always needs the fan.

Happy burning. Evan