Euro style air intake for Oslo 500

[spendaviscpa]

I actually had similar frustrations as member Nonprophet. I did lots of reading and asked a few questions. I finally drilled 2 additional holes in the dog house. I have been very happy with the results. I figured I could always plug them up if I was not happy.

Prior to modifying the dog house, the stove was starved for air. The air control lever made no difference. Once I modified the doghouse, the fire would respond to different air control settings AND the startup seemed a little easier. I still had to leave the door cracked for 5- 10 minutes.

Overall I like the stove. Because I am a member here, I do tend to look at other stoves from time to time. However, I have no serious plans to replace the Oslo. My advice to the OP: Burn the stove and see how it does. You may be talking about an issue that may or may not apply to your setup. Time will tell!

 

[begreen]

Is the flue setup still with a couple 90's on 8" pipe?

No. We replaced that when we got the Oslo. The current setup is 5' of 6" interior singlewall straight up to ceiling thimble, and then 16' of Class A 6" pipe straight up--no 90's, no bend, straight run.

NP

I agree with you, that should work pretty nicely for any stove.

 

[Nonprophet]

I am very pleased with it maybe your purpose here is to run down a great easy operating stove I would not change one thing about this stove.

Lol no, my purpose is not to "run down" the Oslo. This is a forum for the exchange of information where we share our experiences with hearth products (good, bad, or indifferent) so that we can all make informed decisions about what products will work best for us.

Wood stoves are very expensive and very heavy--it's not like you can just "try them on" like a pair of shoes to find the one that fits you the best. What we rely on then is people's honest assessments of stoves so that we can purchase one that will best suit our needs.

Many folks are happy with Oslos. Some are not. The important thing is IMHO is not to dig in and get into "Stove Wars" over who's stove is better, but rather find the one that will work best for YOUR needs. I've been very forthright about my experiences with our Oslo because after having fooled with it for two years and tried many, many things to remedy the problems we had with it, I've come to the conclusion that if you don't have a very good draft (and very dry wood) that an Oslo is probably not going to work well for you. In our two years of using our Oslo and talking about it here, I've yet to find many people with 25' plus of chimney that had problems with the Oslo--the people who seem to have the most problems are people with 20' or less.

So yes, if I see someone saying "Hey, we've got 4 cords of 6 mo. seasoned oak and a 14' chimney--do you think an Oslo will work well for us" I'm going to give them my honest opinion based upon our experiences with the Oslo (or any other wood stove we've used for that matter) in the hopes that we can help people out just as they have helped us.


NP

 

[cptoneleg]

Hey I burned just fine with 4 cords of 6 month Oak and a 14' chimney my first year, You post what you want I don't know how many times I have heard your BS story about the 25' chimney you are just giving bad info no need to reply again to me it's time for the "Ignore " button on you because you have beat this point to death, someone may read your post and think they need something they don't. Who knows what your problem was like I said I had a problem and was given a New Stove.

 

[sullystull]

Hey I burned just fine with 4 cords of 6 month Oak and a 14' chimney my first year, You post what you want I don't know how many times I have heard your BS story about the 25' chimney you are just giving bad info no need to reply again to me it's time for the "Ignore " button on you because you have beat this point to death, someone may read your post and think they need something they don't. Who knows what your problem was like I said I had a problem and was given a New Stove.

I'm not sure I want to jump in the middle of this conversation but, I will say this: It's not fair to call NP's story BS. If this is what he experienced than it's just that...his experience with his setup/stove. That being said, I wouldn't say this is bad info either. Again, it's his experience.

NP--thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[cptoneleg]

Hey I burned just fine with 4 cords of 6 month Oak and a 14' chimney my first year, You post what you want I don't know how many times I have heard your BS story about the 25' chimney you are just giving bad info no need to reply again to me it's time for the "Ignore " button on you because you have beat this point to death, someone may read your post and think they need something they don't. Who knows what your problem was like I said I had a problem and was given a New Stove.

I'm not sure I want to jump in the middle of this conversation but, I will say this: It's not fair to call NP's story BS. If this is what he experienced than it's just that...his experience with his setup/stove. That being said, I wouldn't say this is bad info either. Again, it's his experience.

NP--thanks for sharing your experience.

Good Point, I am going to put my flip flops on and go cut some wood, :lol:

Have a Nice Day

 

[Stump_Branch]

Oh geez come on guys im sure theres another thread for banter. Topics the doghouse, not the whole stove.

Still havent seen a photo of a modified euro style or whatever.

 

[begreen]

I think I still may have the Euro cover from the Castine in the garage somewhere. Will look for it later. My recommendation is that if it's not broke, don't try to fix it.

 

[WOODBUTCHER]

It's nice to hear that it is going to work out well for you. The Isle Royale is an exceptionally easy breathing stove. FWIW, this F500 experience seems to have been an anomaly. Hard to say whether is was terrain related or not, or perhaps something was already wrong with the used stove?

I don't know BG, if you read through the Oslo ratings/review pages here on H.com, there's more than a few people complaining about sluggish startups with the Oslo and a general feeling that the stove is needing more air. And when I was going through this two years ago when we first got our Oslo more than a few people said they were having similar problems. I did everything possible to check our stove for defects: I did the "incense check" for air leaks, I ran a stiff wire through all the air chambers to check for blockages, I removed the burn tubes and used an air hose to blow out any clogging, I reoved the doghouse cover and used an air hose to clean out any fly ash or other obstructions in the air chambers, and I drilled more holes in the doghouse cover. The added holes in the doghouse cover did improve startup somewhat, but still the over-riding problem with the stove was just that it needed more air. We could not, under any circumstances, build a fire on the Oslo without leaving one of the doors cracked for 15-20 mins.

Given that there are a lot of people using the Oslo that are quite happy with it, I would suspect that the issue boils down to draft. Other than blocked air passages, I can't imagine any other "defect" that would make an Oslo a "dud." Also, it seems to me that of the people who rave about the Oslo have 25'-30' (or more!) of chimney, and most of the people having problems have less than 15' of chimney, even though the Oslo manual says 15' should be enough.

You would have had to see for yourself the stunning difference in burn quality between the Oslo and the IR once I switched them out--it was night and day different in the same setting with the same wood and operator.

It would be interesting to do a poll on the average height of chimney used by happy Oslo users......



NP

I remember the thread, my Oslo is rear vented with an 18' stack. Bought it new October 2004.
My stove will quickly run away with the front draft control wide open.
My Oslo behaves the same way as my families F600 and F3CB.
I think your Oslo might of been a fluke.........

WoodButcher



WoodButcher