I Ordered a Jotul F500

[bladeofanduril]

Hi all,

After much reading and consideration, I pulled the trigger on a Jotul F500 v3 in Blue Black enamel with blower, rear heat shield and short leg kit. Thanks to you fine folks for your input that helped lead me to this choice.

I have a few more questions I'm hoping you all can help me with. The stove will be hearth mounted in front of a masonry fireplace - rear exit, elbow, and up the existing chimney (about 25' tall, external to the house). The installer I have lined up is planning to use single-wall Forever Flex liner - Jotul doesn't require a double-walled liner for this type if install per the manual.

First question - Is single wall enough, or is there a reason I should pay extra for double-walled, even though not required by Jotul?

Second question - I read a lot on here about temperature gauges on stove-top, stove pipe, and cat. Which of these would be wise to have for the F500? Can you recommend good ones? I see Condar mentioned a lot.

Thanks!

 

[begreen]

The double-wall flex will not be an advantage and it has a nasty habit of puckering inside, creating 'fishmouth' pockets. For that reason it generally is not recommended here. An insulated, medium, or heavy wall liner is a better investment.

 

[newengland86]

Hi all,

After much reading and consideration, I pulled the trigger on a Jotul F500 v3 in Blue Black enamel with blower, rear heat shield and short leg kit. Thanks to you fine folks for your input that helped lead me to this choice.

I have a few more questions I'm hoping you all can help me with. The stove will be hearth mounted in front of a masonry fireplace - rear exit, elbow, and up the existing chimney (about 25' tall, external to the house). The installer I have lined up is planning to use single-wall Forever Flex liner - Jotul doesn't require a double-walled liner for this type if install per the manual.

First question - Is single wall enough, or is there a reason I should pay extra for double-walled, even though not required by Jotul?

Second question - I read a lot on here about temperature gauges on stove-top, stove pipe, and cat. Which of these would be wise to have for the F500? Can you recommend good ones? I see Condar mentioned a lot.

Thanks!

We just had a Jotul F500 V3 installed in November, pretty much same setup into masonry chimney with 27.5 ft draft. We use an Imperial for the Cat temperature gauge (the allen screw comes out and the thermometer goes right in). This is a great way to monitor your combustion temperatures. I also had to do the short leg kit since we are about 1/2 inch under the lentil, it fit perfect.

I have 2 Inferno thermometers on the top of the stove (you can see in the first pic during a break in fire). The top right corner seems to be the hottest location the top left is about average for the rest of the stove so I pretty much average the two. I have a handheld temperature gun and the Infernos are always within 30 degrees.

Our installer did call Jotul and they recommend a double wall or insulated flex in colder areas. We are in Northern CT almost Massachusetts in the hills, so it does get pretty cold up here. The double wall and/or insulated helps with draft and hot flue gases = less creosote. We ended up going with the double wall flex SS/Titanium, we have had no issues and the stove burns well. We have a 3000 sq ft house w/ 9 ft ceilings and I have no problem heating the whole downstairs 70-76 when its 10 degrees or colder. The upstairs will stay around 66-68. When it really gets cold, I will run the stove around 550 and turn the air down to 1/8, the cat and baffle tubes really get going. Hope this helps, enjoy the stove.

 

[bladeofanduril]

We just had a Jotul F500 V3 installed in November, pretty much same setup into masonry chimney with 27.5 ft draft. We use an Imperial for the Cat temperature gauge (the allen screw comes out and the thermometer goes right in). This is a great way to monitor your combustion temperatures. I also had to do the short leg kit since we are about 1/2 inch under the lentil, it fit perfect.

I have 2 Inferno thermometers on the top of the stove (you can see in the first pic during a break in fire). The top right corner seems to be the hottest location the top left is about average for the rest of the stove so I pretty much average the two. I have a handheld temperature gun and the Infernos are always within 30 degrees.

Our installer did call Jotul and they recommend a double wall or insulated flex in colder areas. We are in Northern CT almost Massachusetts in the hills, so it does get pretty cold up here. The double wall and/or insulated helps with draft and hot flue gases = less creosote. We ended up going with the double wall flex SS/Titanium, we have had no issues and the stove burns well. We have a 3000 sq ft house w/ 9 ft ceilings and I have no problem heating the whole downstairs 70-76 when its 10 degrees or colder. The upstairs will stay around 66-68. When it really gets cold, I will run the stove around 550 and turn the air down to 1/8, the cat and baffle tubes really get going. Hope this helps, enjoy the stove.

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Thank you!! That's very helpful. I'll order those thermometers and look further into recommendations for my area as far as the liner goes. I'm in southeast PA, so we sometimes see teens, rarely single digits but most winters stay in the 20s-30s.

 

[armanidog]

I love this video for the Jotul 500 by some guy in PA. Jotul should use this video for instructional media.

 

[armanidog]

There is a second year video the fellow posted. Lessons from the videos:

1. Cut wood 22 inches or less.
1. Do not use the ash pan, keep the ash door closed tight.
3. The glass will get dirty. I have a different brand of stove and for the tough stains on the glass, I use oven cleaner.

 

[firefighterjake]

After watching the two videos and his gas cleaning video . . . and relying on 14 years or so of burning with this particular model (well I do have the gothic arch) . . .

The Ash Pan: Many thoughts here. First off, it can sometimes be a debate, but I would say when used correctly the Oslo ash pan is very well designed and works exceptionally well. Burning 24-7 I only dump the ashes once, sometimes twice, a week. Stirring the coals and allowing the fine ash and smaller coals before loading in the morning works quite well and results in the ash pan full of . . . well . . . ash . . . and not a lot of coals (which appeared to not be the case in the videos as there seemed to be a fair number of coals.) And as he mentioned . . . using the ash pan door is a bad idea . . . and not just due to the possible damage to the glass he mentioned.

Hazy Glass: He ended up buffing out the haze. In my case I had some haze and was able to remove it by using either lemon juice or vinegar -- to be honest I forget which did the trick. Usually though I only get a bit of fly ash on the glass and a damp paper towel works fine. If there is a bit more of a smudge, I dip the paper towel in the fine ash to clean the "glass."

The Hearth: I liked the design, but my wife would kill me if I let it get that dirty with ash, coals, etc. Then again . . . it is in the basement.

Size matters: Yup. I found out years ago that cutting the wood 2-4 inches shorter made it much easier to reload a stove.

Finally . . . someone needs to tell him about top down fire starting!

 

[JamesGuido]

We just had a Jotul F500 V3 installed in November...We use an Imperial for the Cat temperature gauge (the allen screw comes out and the thermometer goes right in). This is a great way to monitor your combustion temperatures.

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i apologize for using the OP thread for my question... @newengland86 did you remove the magnet from the Imperial thermometer or simply kept it in place?
Thank you.

 

[bladeofanduril]

i apologize for using the OP thread for my question... @newengland86 did you remove the magnet from the Imperial thermometer or simply kept it in place?
Thank you.

Not @newengland86, but I found that the install is detailed toward the end of the F500 manual. According to that, the magnet is used, but flipped around.

 

[JamesGuido]

Not @newengland86, but I found that the install is detailed toward the end of the F500 manual. According to that, the magnet is used, but flipped around.

Thank you!