Introduction, and my Jotul C550 Rockland review to date

[Mastertomos]

Hi all,

First time poster, but I was watching and researching for several months before I bought my Jotul C550 Rockland. A bit about myself. I am 25 years old and cutting, splitting, stacking, burning, and selling firewood has been a part of my entire life. When I bought my house about 3 years ago, I was ecstatic about the beautiful limestone fireplace in the living room.

After 2 seasons of inefficiency, I decided it was time to get a wood burning insert. I shopped and compared every brand that was available to me within 100 miles. My parent's cabin has a wood burning Jotul F 3 CB stove and it hasn't skipped a beat in about 20 years, so I was partial to the name to begin with but brand preference and budget don't always coincide.

The C550 was the unit that would fit best in my fireplace, so if I was going with a Jotul that was the one I wanted. However, most quotes were around $4,500. Some places even broke $5,000 installed. This was simply not in the cards for me nor did it make financial sense for return on investment. I looked at Jotul, Vermont Castings, Pacific Energy, Vogelzang, Avalon, FireplaceX, and a few others so I had a broad range of quality and pricing. I really wanted the cast design over complete sheet metal and I felt like Jotul was still one of the best looking units.

Luckily, after months of shopping and researching, I scored a floor model C550 that had never been burned with full warranty delivered to my home for just over $3,600 including a 20' stainless pipe and cap kit (kit retails for around $600). I also saved several hundred dollars by installing this myself with my brothers help (this was surprisingly very simple).

Onto the review:
Looks: 10/10. I love it. It looks elegant. There's not much more to say other than it looks great.

Burn time: 6/10. To begin, Manufacturer says "up to 10 hours of burn time". I haven't come close to this at all. Realistically I am looking at about 5-6 hours on some of my bigger burns despite using different kinds of wood (mainly oak and elm). After about 2 weeks of continual burning, I have cleaned out the ashes once. This thing burns wood very efficiently and completely. I can turn the damper way down and prolong the fire, but with the added time comes sacrificed heat.

This brings me to my next point:

The fan system: 7/10 The fan system itself works pretty well, but I don't understand the thermostat. When set to "automatic" it shuts on and off even during large healthy hot fires. I often times switch it to manual and just leave it. Also, the knob and the switch are hard to access with the lower grate on. More of an annoyance than anything. Functionally it's doing it's job.

However, nit-picking aside...

Value: 9/10 it is currently 2 degrees here in northeast Iowa, and my home furnace has not been turned on this season despite the "polar vortex". My house is an about 1,100 square foot ranch on top of a hill (I am subject to some nasty winds). Anything below 0 and I believe I will have to turn the furnace on for piece of mind with water pipes in mind (just to be safe). You'll probably get this with many wood-burning inserts, not just specifically the Jotul. I would not have purchased this for $4,500-$5,000 but what I paid, it fits the bill and I'm happy.


Feel free to ask questions! I look forward to learning more and continuing to instrument with my new fireplace.

 

[AK13]

Congratulations! I've been running my 550 for 4 years now. I really like mine and think you made a good choice.

The fan thermostat is on the bottom of the unit. My experience has been that it often takes too long to kick on (especially when its full of ash), but I never have it intermitenly cycling off. I would check to make sure that it is properly fastened under the stove (I can't tell you how because I've never had to dig into this myself).

I certainly don't get 12 hour burns. Of course this will take a 24" log and I only feed it 16-24". I bet if it was chock full of 24" oak it would burn for quite a while. I do find that I almost always have enough coals in the morning to fire it back up with a couple sticks of kindling, but I wouldn't call it an overnight burner.

 

[Mastertomos]

I definitely have coals leftover after a 5-6 hour burn and am able to start just about anything with them. I wondered about the ashes affecting the thermostat myself. I have been fiddling with different burning techniques to see what lasts the longest while creating adequate heat.

Knowing that this thing could burn 24" logs, I cut my first couple of cords right around 20-24". I did have some smaller stuff around 12" in length as well. I am going to cut some differently in the future to continue experiments but I think that non-split oak or elm about 3" in diameter and about 10-12" in length stacked front-to-back, rather than side-to-side and about 3 rows tall might be an efficient, long burn. I will report back as I experiment.

 

[AK13]

I think I need to clean ashes about once per week when I am burning continuously. It drives me crazy when it gets full and I get ashes floating out when I load it.

I think that with these inserts with no ash pan that getting an ash vac is the way to go. I didn't have one the first couple years and its just so much cleaner to empty it now.

 

[ekg0477]

Just wanted to follow this thread as I just had a 550 installed recently. Always looking for more tips and tricks. I'm currently getting around 3 hour burn times before I reload. I'm not letting it burn down all the way so I. Sure I could get another hour or so.

 

[pigc]

I'm installing this weekend. I'm sure hoping to get overnight burns. I'll continue to monitor this thread and report back results.

 

[AK13]

If you mean overnight burns with heat still coming out in the morning, that won't happen with the Rockland. But if you mean, have hot coals to rake to the front and toss more wood on in the morning, then that is definitely doable.

 

[Fiziksgeek]

I'm in my 3rd season with my Jotul Rockland insert. Something is definitely wrong with your thermostat. Once my fan comes on, it stays on until well after the fire goes out. Sometimes I get impatient and turn in on manually before it comes on automatically. I never quite sure what "burn time" means, but I load up the stove before bed ~9:30, and in the morning, ~6, I rake the coals, throw on some kindling and wood, leave the door cracked open, and with in a few minute, the fire is roaring. The fan is running in the morning about half the time, and the stove is always still warm to the touch. If I want to clean out the stove well, I'll rake out the coals in the morning and leave the door cracked to help everything burn down to a fine ash. If the fan wasn't on, it comes back on shortly after the coals are raked! If I am home all day, I typically throw a couple logs on every 2-3 hours to keep a nice steady output.

 

[begreen]

Masteromos, with the fan unplugged, locate the snap disk thermostatic disk and see if you can bend its bracket so that it makes tighter contact with the insert body.

 

[mellow]

You will wake up to hot coals, and the fan off, 5-6 hours is a very good estimate on meaningful heat out of that insert.

 

[Mastertomos]

I agree completely. Overnight, I could come out in the morning and rake coals and start another fire with kindling. But if I want to just open the door, throw in a log (or logs), close the door, and walk away I'm looking at about 4-5 hours realistically without work.

I had not been cleaning out ash as often as I should have, and I believe that was the cause of my fan not kicking on automatically (ash was too thick between the fire and the bottom of the unit-took longer to warm up). I keep a pencil by the fireplace and just turn it on/off manually mostly anyway.

Burn times also differ with types of wood obviously. I'm blessed with a pretty much unlimited supply. I mainly use oak and elm, and have used some cherry as well. All pretty good stuff.

Other observations:

We had some pretty brutal winds and snow here in Iowa today. I had some snow blowing off my roof and it must have been getting in around my chimney cap up top somewhere, because I had a small leak from inside the chimney (not the pipe, the actual chimney). Anyway, that's besides the point. I had removed the surround to clean up the drips I had (needed to be cleaned anyway, it turns out). The observation I discovered was these put out a LOT more heat with the surround off (similar to a stove would). Just a side note for folks. The surround is pretty easy to remove, so if the power ever goes out, furnace fails, ect and you're in need of heat, slide off the bottom guard and the surround.

Also, I purchased an ash vacuum from Menards. It is a Cleva unit (on sale it was like $60, normally around $80-90 I believe). I have mixed feelings on it. It is LOUD and obnoxious, low HP, but does what it's supposed to do. Glad I didn't spend $90 on it though. I did, however, discover at Sears (and I'm sure other places) you can buy extra heavy duty air filters for any old shop vac (around $25-30 for a filter) and it allows it to suck cold ash through them. Most vacuums can't handle ultra-fine ash, and it's a no-no. But instead of spending $80-100 on a dedicated ash vacuum that is pretty "meh", I'd suggest just grabbing a regular shop vac for a similar price that's much more versatile and get a ultra fine filter for it as well. Was honestly really on the edge of returning the ash vacuum and just grabbing a filter for my Craftsman shop vac, but I use my craftsman in cars and such and decided a dedicated ash vacuum isn't such a bad thing. Once about every 5-6 days for ash removal is about right for me with continual burn.

Other than that, I'm liking it. I get a lot of compliments on it, and it reduced my heating bill from about $6/day to 78 cents/day in November and December this year compared to last year. I'll take it.

 

[ekg0477]

I'm looking for more instructions on how to remove the surround. Does the stove need to be pulled out a few inches to remove the surround?

I bought a nice powerful little ash vac from Amazon
PowerSmith PAVC101 10 Amp Ash Vacuum https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060EUA32/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_ukzSub1V92C0F

 

[Bad LP]

I don't recall the brand of my ash vac but as mentioned it's very loud by anyone's standards and is a total POS. I use an old Craftsman vac out on the porch with an extra long hose on a cold stove then dump the ash right away, remove the filter and toss it into the air a few times to get the heavy off then blow it out with an air hose. I'll have to poke around some for the auto fan control as see what's going on. It works but takes a very long time to start and shuts off earlier than I'd like. Overall I very happy with the 550 stove and bought it during a Jotul birthday sale for 3K. The brown enamel put the stove at the top of the list but I was pretty sure on the brand going into it.

 

[jatoxico]

I'm looking for more instructions on how to remove the surround. Does the stove need to be pulled out a few inches to remove the surround?

I bought a nice powerful little ash vac from Amazon
PowerSmith PAVC101 10 Amp Ash Vacuum https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060EUA32/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_ukzSub1V92C0F

To get the surround off I open the door and remove the grill covering the fans by lifting straight up (be careful) of the fan switch). Remove the lower trim then you can lift the side trim boards up (top is attached). If the unit is pushed tight to the brick/stone or whatever you have you may have to wiggle the stove forward until its free. I leave mine off the brick 1/2-3/4". Lets some heat out plus I can get it off if I ever have to even if the stove is running.

 

[Mastertomos]

I suppose if your surround is flush against a flat surface, it may be tricky. Mine is against natural limestone so I am able to slide my fingers behind it in a few places to lift it off.

 

[jatoxico]

I suppose if your surround is flush against a flat surface, it may be tricky. Mine is against natural limestone so I am able to slide my fingers behind it in a few places to lift it off.

Yeah, for instance when my "professional" installers put my unit in they had to rock it forward to get the surround to catch on the tabs then they let it back down. This caused the surround to be wedged tight against the brick at the top and had a bit of gap opening up towards the bottom. This made it impossible to get off without moving the unit forward by an inch or so. Now that I've had it out and leveled it it's no longer any problem to take on and off.

 

[drewsome]

Yeah, for instance when my "professional" installers put my unit in they had to rock it forward to get the surround to catch on the tabs then they let it back down. This caused the surround to be wedged tight against the brick at the top and had a bit of gap opening up towards the bottom. This made it impossible to get off without moving the unit forward by an inch or so. Now that I've had it out and leveled it it's no longer any problem to take on and off.

Let me guess: did you buy from Taylor's? The installers they sent were a joke. Barely spoke English and scratched up my floor. And owner wouldn't return my phone call.

 

[Holderjc]

I know this is semi old, but looking for advice. I’ve been recommended this stove and anything made by blaze king. Totally different animals but looking for something that can heat a 2000 sq/ft ranch and last me a long time.

 

[ekg0477]

I know this is semi old, but looking for advice. I’ve been recommended this stove and anything made by blaze king. Totally different animals but looking for something that can heat a 2000 sq/ft ranch and last me a long time.

My Jotul is holding up extremely well. Heats my colonial up nice and quick. Highly recommend

 

[jatoxico]

You can see my comments in the 550 tips thread.

 

[Bad LP]

I know this is semi old, but looking for advice. I’ve been recommended this stove and anything made by blaze king. Totally different animals but looking for something that can heat a 2000 sq/ft ranch and last me a long time.

The stove has a small firebox and nothing can change that. It's an insert that fits flush. Does it throw out heat? Yes. If you are expecting to load her up at 10PM and awake at 7AM to a fire burning that is not my experience however I can restart it from the coals but the fan is not blowing hot air. It's a great looking fire viewing stove made by a well respected builder that burns pretty clean with out needing a cat. I don't regret my purchase. I do not use it as a primary heat source. I use it solely to supplement my wood boiler, shoulder season heating and ambiance and once in a while I like a 75 degree house.

There are many BK fans here. I know nothing about them.