Help me decide -jotul F3 or f400?

[2fireplacesinSC]

I am going to put a wood stove in an existing masonry chimney. The room it's located in is 460 sq ft with 10 foot ceilings and windows make up 3 walls of the room. The 24' chimney is on the interior of the home (2300 sq ft main floor, 2000 sq ft 2nd floor) and oddly enough actually has an OAK built into it originally in 1986. The room this is going in is on the north end of the house with a 30" doorway to the rest of the reasonably open floor plan with above average weather sealing for the age home. But I live in mid South Carolina so it's generally pretty mild -sometimes into the teens in the winters but not many days in general. I'm not too interested in going with a cat because it's my first stove and just wanting to stay simple. I like the look of jotuls but can't decide if I should go with the f3 or f400. Clearance isn't an issue. I'm just not sure if I'll have too much stove if I go with the f400. Hearthstone, VC, Buck, High valley (cat though), and enerzone are carried by the local dealer and they can get most anything else including BK, but I'm partial to the jotul look and it fits my clearances well. They don't sell many f3's so it's not on the floor to look at - f100 and f400, f500 , etc are though.

The goal for getting this is primarily to use as supplement and/or emergency heat but I entertain the idea of more frequent burning. Not likely to do 24/7 but I could see 1-2 fires a day for a month or two during the coldest time of the year. I'd love to stop using electric heat as our primary source and use this stove to take the edge off the winter power bill and get to see some good pyrotechnics to boot.

My plan is to put the stove almost completely into the firebox (straight up into the chimney) due to small children and use the masonry as a heat sink rather than getting an insert with blower, etc. I have two ceiling fans in the room and some through the house to move air. Will the f400 burn efficiently and easily with an f3 or f100 sized fire in the stove? Is it better to just go with the f3 which is probably better sized for the room? Also, the door on the f3 opens by bringing the handle down and across the door face on the video, anyone burn their hand that way? The f100 and f400 looks like the handle lifts up when opening and down with closing, which is more intuitive to me. Price for the f3 is $1859 and $2259 for the f400, not including liner and install. Is it worth the extra $400?

If this works well, I'll be looking to put another stove in the other fireplace in the future.

Thanks for any insight you may be able to offer.

By the way, great site. Really enjoying all the great info. Wood is split, stacked, and seasoning waiting for the stove

 

[stovelark]

In your climate it would probably make more sense to go with the tried and true Jotul F3. However hearing 10 foot ceilings and lots of glass, it probably would be fine with the Castine. You'll appreciate the longer burn time of the Castine and longer pieces of wood too. The F3 is a durable stove, but does have a small firebox and a small door to load through, ideally 15-16 inch pieces of wood, but the firebox is 18 inches wide. I know the Carolinas are much milder than here in NE, but I'd go with the Castine anyway, you can put in less wood to temper it to a degree, or just open a window if its too hot... BTW, those are MSRP prices for painted black and Jotul is doing their 300 dollar allowance for stoves in fireplace installs or to replace older non epa rated stoves now through August. I think the dealer has to participate in the program, but its a great deal and I would inquire with them. Good luck with your choice. PS- Good job on having the wood ready, that is the most important thing anyway and yes I do think the Castine would be worth the extra cash...

 

[2fireplacesinSC]

Thanks for the reply.

By "tried and true" do you mean the F3 has been made for a longer time and has a longer reputation? Jotul's literature makes a point to say it's the best selling small/medium wood stove in North America.

Is it easy enough to build a small sized fire of 2-3 splits in an F400 (or something equivalent to what you could get in an F100)?

For some reason, I was thinking Jotuls' $300 off was only if you traded in an old wood stove. Does it also include new installs into old wood burning fireplaces? If so that'd be great.

Chimney sweep comes today to clean the chimney and give me a letter of inspection to show the stove store.

Thanks again.

 

[begreen]

I'm going to vote for the Castine. It will do fine burning a partial load of fuel but will also provide a longer burn for cold nights. It has better air control, wider capacity and a much better fireview. I've run both for a season and like d running the F400 better.

 

[2fireplacesinSC]

Thanks. Just what I was needing to hear.

 

[JAKE DEAR]

THE CASTINE GETS MY VOTE TOO.

 

[stovelark]

Discussing both stoves, yes the F3 has been out longer (since the mid 90's, the Castine debuted early 2000's. The F3 has a good reputation, as does the Castine. The reason I too would go with the Castine is longer burntime, longer pieces of wood, a much better fireview. I also agree, you can control it well enough, don't think its too much stove. They both are fine heaters in their own rights. Yes, Jotul (up here in NE anyway) says putting one into an inefficient fireplace qualifies for the 300 dollar allowance. I'd check to make sure though your local dealer is participating with this promotion. Good luck in your ventures.

 

[2fireplacesinSC]

Wanted to give you all an update. I wound up with the F3. I really wanted the F400, but between the extra cost (around $500) and the dealer and chimney sweep pushing me hard toward the F3 instead, I just couldn't do the Castine. However, I've been extremely pleased with the little F3. Seems to fit very nicely in the fireplace and the wife is happy with the looks. I put it inside the fireplace because we have young children and seemed safer to start with. If I find it doesn't heat well enough I'll move it out onto the hearth.

So far I've burned it in (got a bit beyond 600 degrees though briefly on the third break in fire- oops). Now I've had two or three "regular" burns in it, just couldn't help myself. Weather in SC is just too pleasant to do much burning yet, but I'm telling my family I'm "taking the chill off of the room". It's been down to 52 or 54 at night a few times so far. Won't be long though and it'll be cold enough it'll get some regular use. I even got secondaries this morning.

I have noticed I seem to have really good draft. Hopefully not too good though. It's about a 30' straight run up the chimney, lined. Even at it's lowest setting I can't kill the fire off. And that's in mild weather. I'll keep a watch on it and let you know if I need to add a butterfly damper.

Only other thing, the installer did not do a block off plate. He was adamant that insulation at the top of the chimney and just above the stove (?in the flue- not sure the technical term for the location) was more than adequate. I'm still planning on putting in a block off plate, but really so far I've had excellent heat results. The mass of the heart/chimney seem to act as a nice heat sink and slowly let off heat as well as getting the "blast" from a rocking F3.

Thanks to Begreen especially for some guidance you gave FionaD from Scotland on her F3. It helped me a bit look at the fire instead of the stove top temp.

Great forums. Really enjoy reading here. Thanks everyone.

 

[Grisu]

Looks great in there. If that is an interior fireplace don't worry about any heat loss. The masonry will take it up and release it slowly into the house many hours after the stove is out. However, be careful with the fireplace tools there. That close to the stove they may get pretty hot when you are having the stove running well. I have a pair of welder's gloves that I use every time I reload my insert. I highly recommend getting some if you have none yet.

 

[branchburner]

Looks nice! Regarding good draft and the fact that the stove is fully recessed into the fireplace: if you find the stove temps getting a bit high, and/or not quite enough heat is coming out into the room, try placing a small fan on the floor to one side of the stove to act as a blower. Blowing cool floor air towards the rear will pull some heat off the stove and off the masonry behind it and reinforce the convective air flow.

 

[fahrvegnugen]

Yup nice going. It gets -11 here and winter lasts 6 months and I heat the whole house with one F3. Good thing about you going with that size is that you'll be ready for it to go out not long after its up to temp (most days) I bet. I like having a fire when its 50, but if it hits 600º its hot enough let burn out and when I wake up in the morning it still feels warm enough to get ready for work. Looks great. Its like having a mini f400 for $500 less. When it gets below freezing I'd like the F400, but I have a furnace so I still have my legs when I wake up.

 

[2fireplacesinSC]

Grisu- I actually went ahead and got the Jotul fireplace gloves since the welder gloves I had from Lowes were a bit short. They work great. I did notice the tools getting warm, so they are moved away now. (live and learn)

BranchBurner- I got an EcoFan from amazon and have it on the back left corner of the stove. Fits nicely up inside the fireplace and seems to blow air well. There are two ceiling fans in the room too that move air as well. The EcoFan helps me gauge the temps too by seeing how quickly it's turning. (The IR gun helps too)

Fahrvegnugen- I'm only planning on being an occasional/weekend burner and didn't want to roast the room out. It's more of an emergency heat source combined with feeling like I can use the fireplace and enjoy it, rather than worrying about smoke/etc. Like the fire viewing size on the F400 but the price on the F3 better. So far we are very happy with it.

Now, I need to get an anti-chimney fire device to have just in case. (got a couple of small fire extinguishers nearby already)

The kids have been enjoying a fire while laying in front of it for a couple of mornings so far. Getting excited about maybe getting a little chilly here the next few days.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[begreen]

Looking good. Stick with dry, fully-seasoned firewood and the chimney should stay pretty clean.