Jøtul F 600

[Timebandit]

I have the Jøtul F 600 firelight with the porcelain finish installed last march. This will be my first winter using it. My manual says i can get a 10-12 hr burn time out of my stove. What exactly does this mean and has anyone with this model stove experienced this? Thanks.

 

[meathead]

It means you load the stove up, and in 12 hrs there are still enough good hot coals to get a fire going again quickly without a re light.

8 to 10 hrs is no problem - 12 in my experience is not unreasonable but you need good hardwood and one or two really large splits in the mix.

 

[Timebandit]

Have you been able to do this at all?

 

[meathead]

Yeah it's no problem. With the amount of wood you can fit in the thing it would still be burning in a fireplace in 8 hrs. I get good heat out of mine for 7 to 9 hrs, easy relights for 8 to 11 hrs, and can hit 12 to 13 for an easy relight if I have some big chunks of oak to put it.

Have you loaded yours up and let it rip yet?

 

[Valhalla]

Hi guys,

I am looking to upgrade to a Jotul F 600. How do you like yours?

I need the BTUs! Any quality or functionality issues? Thanks in advance.

 

[Deadcalm]

We have one, and think it's great. It has a matt black finish, and on reflection I wish we'd opted for a shiny finish.
We've had ours for two years, and it chucks out a lot of heat. We live in a stone house in the wooded hills of central France, and the "salon" in which the stove is installed is cathedral-like, with a pitched ceiling about 25 feet from the floor. The Jotul has very good heat radiation, but most of our heat rises into the rafters so the mezzanine area we have gets quite hot and stuffy - we're thinking of fitting a slow moving ceiling fan to better distribute the heat.
We tend to only light it in the evening, and let it go out when we retire to bed, so have had no experience of letting it run all night. Luckily, it hasn't got cold enough these past two years.
The only real problem we constantly experience is with stiffness of the air control lever at the front.

Chris

Here are a few pictures of our F600, taken around Christmas time.

 

[ashpanannie]

Deadcalm, your pics are really beautiful, and if you made them into Christmas cards I would most certainly buy a pack!

(if it were my place, I'd replace the chandelier with a helicopter blade to push that heat down! lol!)

 

[Timebandit]

Wow what a beutiful setup you have deadcalm. I will post some pics of mine soon.

 

[fraxinus]

Valhalla:

I'm a very new (2+ months) user of the F 600, so for what it's worth:

The choice for a new stove came down to the Jotul and the Pacific Energy T6. The Jotul won out largely because of its appearance and my preference for a radiant heater over convection type. So far, I'm very happy with the F 600 - no problems with quality or workmanship at all and it really throws out the heat.

I thought I would hate the ash disposal system and take care of ashes the old fashioned way, but I've come to really like the Jotul set up. I had a second ash pan and a simple cover made at a sheet metal shop. Now I can move coals off the grate, brush ashes through the grate and into the pan, remove the full pan, cover it with the lid, put the second empty pan in, and take the hot ashes outside with close to 0 mess in a very short time. The ash pan doesn't hold very much, but this is such a quick process it's no chore at all to do it frequently.

The front door latch system is awkward to say the least, and opening the front doors inevitably lets ash fall out, so I've found adding wood is best done exclusively through the side door.

The bulk of my wood supply was split last October and has been stored under cover since May. This is a humid coastal climate and this past summer was terrible for drying. My wood does fine once the stove reaches a surface temperature of 400 or so, but I do find I need to use a good quantity of kindling and some super dry wood to get things started; then the regular wood is fine.

I do wish there were some sort of structure inside the stove to protect the glass. I know I'm a little paranoid about cracks and breakage, but it doesn't seem as if it would be very difficult to provide some means of keeping wood from rolling toward the glass. In a similar vein, I wish there were some sort of mechanism for increasing the draft when first lighting a fire. Jotul recommends leaving the side door open for a time and I do frequently find it necessary to do so for several minutes, but this seems an unnecessarily awkward means of supplying extra air. The single air control lever works fine, but I do miss the old Defiant's thermostatically controlled air entrance system, basic as it was.

We have really not had any truly cold weather yet, but I know I'm using less wood and achieving greater warmth in the house overall. I've never been comfortable with stuffing a stove full before going to bed. Even with the fire dying down the stove has retained very good heat over night.

I'm very pleased with the stove and I'm also happy to be supporting in a small way what seems to be a very good company. Jotul's North American headquarters is only about 50 miles from here and the operation has won several awards as well as a word of mouth reputation for being a great place to work.

 

[Deadcalm]

Fraxinus - try leaving the ash pan door open a tad, rather than the side door for easy starting - it's far less awkward.

Chris

 

[semipro]

Fraxinus - try leaving the ash pan door open a tad, rather than the side door for easy starting - it's far less awkward.

Chris

I, and others, have cracked our Firelights by doing this. At least that's the cause according to Jotul.

 

[eightpilot]

Yeah the ash door trick is not a smart move. You can easily overfire the stove if not watched carefully. Leaving the ashpan full will extend your burn times as well... 8

 

[begreen]

Good observations Fraxinus. I too wish for a thermostatic control on the stove. Our Resolute had this and it worked well. We minded the having the door ajar to start the Castine at first, but but got used to it. Not a big deal and still have to do this with the T6.

deadcalm, using the ashpan door to start the fire risks damaging the stove and voids the warranty. It is also a good way to get a serious puffback if the wood being started is too large or not fully seasoned. Don't do this.

That said, you have a stunning home and setting for the stove. It's really beautiful.

 

[WOODBUTCHER]

My BIL has one, we cut our wood to 20" and leave some splits BIG So If your burning good sized splits of Hickory....Black Birch....White Oak at night, you should have a nice chunky coal bed after about 10-12 hrs.
Don't expect that out of Red Maple...Silver Maple or even Black Cherry.

It also depends on draft......chimney height...stove operation.....and again the size and length of your splits.

Good Luck this year and enjoy that F600.

 

[Deadcalm]

Oh, dear - I only crack the ashpan door open whilst I'm lighting, and even then only when it's attended. If that's a no-no, I'd better think again...
Thanks for all the complimentary comments on the photos, by the way - it's a nice place to live in!

Chris

 

[f3cbboy]

deadcalm - that is a real nice setup. looks great.

 

[Valhalla]

Thanks everyone for all your Jotul F 600 advice. The voice of experience is evident from all of you. I admit that I am also considering a F 500 Oslo, as a slightly smaller alternative. I like the better sealing of the single front door, though I would rarely open it. The extra 11,500 BTU in the F 600 is a plus for our north country winters, with a similar footprint.

My years of burning experience has been with Vermont Castings products and pure pleasure with two great stoves. My first early Defiant in 1981, that I ordered direct from the factory. The current Encore NC has also been great. Now with an additional room to our home, we need more BTU. Jotul is the front runner.

Thanks again. I may have more questions.

 

[firefighterjake]

Fraxinus - try leaving the ash pan door open a tad, rather than the side door for easy starting - it's far less awkward.

Chris

It's been said . . . but bears repeating. A bad idea . . . but something that many of us did before knowing better . . . some of us learned early and prevented damage . . . some of us learned too late. It's much better to rely on the side door.

 

[firefighterjake]

I have the Jøtul F 600 firelight with the porcelain finish installed last march. This will be my first winter using it. My manual says i can get a 10-12 hr burn time out of my stove. What exactly does this mean and has anyone with this model stove experienced this? Thanks.

First off, you have to realize that the manufacturer's specs for burn time and square footage heating are often a rough guideline. In the case of square footage heating, they are figuring these numbers based on lab testing and real world can be quite different depending on the house layout, fuel, house insulation, climate, etc.

In the case of burn time we come to the crux of the problem which is what is the defintion of burn time . . . is burn time the time it takes from when the stove is lit until the flames are gone . . . the time from first light to the last coal no longer glows . . . the time when the stove top reaches Temp. X until the temp goes below that temp? The fact is . . . no one really seems to know the answer to this . . .

I originally considered and would suggest that burn time would be the time at which the stove top reaches it's normally operating temp (Temp X for whatever brand/make and model) until the stove top temp dipped below that temp . . . but some folks would consider (and it's a good argument, one I could easily buy into) that burn time is the time when the stove reaches it's normal operating temp to the time when you can still easily get a fire restarted with coals (of course the fly in the ointment here is how does one define easily . . . no kindling, minimal kindling, just toss some splits back on the fire without having to fiddle with the air control, etc.)

 

[firefighterjake]

We have one, and think it's great. It has a matt black finish, and on reflection I wish we'd opted for a shiny finish.
We've had ours for two years, and it chucks out a lot of heat. We live in a stone house in the wooded hills of central France, and the "salon" in which the stove is installed is cathedral-like, with a pitched ceiling about 25 feet from the floor. The Jotul has very good heat radiation, but most of our heat rises into the rafters so the mezzanine area we have gets quite hot and stuffy - we're thinking of fitting a slow moving ceiling fan to better distribute the heat.
We tend to only light it in the evening, and let it go out when we retire to bed, so have had no experience of letting it run all night. Luckily, it hasn't got cold enough these past two years.
The only real problem we constantly experience is with stiffness of the air control lever at the front.

Chris

Here are a few pictures of our F600, taken around Christmas time.

Great pics . . . beautiful home.

Nice stove.

Try the ceiling fan . . . it's worth a shot.

To fix the sticking air control when the stove is cool try opening up the doghouse (I assume the Firelight must be built similar to the Oslo) which is right above the air control lever . . . remove the doghouse and sprinkle some graphite powder on the metal slide mechanism . . . I did this to my Oslo and it works like a dream now.

 

[firefighterjake]

Thanks everyone for all your Jotul F 600 advice. The voice of experience is evident from all of you. I admit that I am also considering a F 500 Oslo, as a slightly smaller alternative. I like the better sealing of the single front door, though I would rarely open it. The extra 11,500 BTU in the F 600 is a plus for our north country winters, with a similar footprint.

My years of burning experience has been with Vermont Castings products and pure pleasure with two great stoves. My first early Defiant in 1981, that I ordered direct from the factory. The current Encore NC has also been great. Now with an additional room to our home, we need more BTU. Jotul is the front runner.

Thanks again. I may have more questions.

Well I can't speak to the F600, but I can say a few things about the Oslo . . . but first a word from our sponsor . . . or at least our membership . . . don't forget we also have a stove ratings section here at hearth.com where you can check out the stove reviews of users . . . I found that to be quite useful when narrowing down my choices.

About the Oslo . . . love the reliability -- and I love the heat . . . it just pumps it out and is a great stove. I like the ash pan . . . and I love watching the secondary flames through the large glass window (don't worry about the glass -- it's tough and will withstand a split or round rolling against it . . . just don't put in too long a split and then try to slam the door shut. I really have no negatives about this stove with two exceptions.

First negative: It's minor . . . and it's a common complaint. When you open the front ash door, ash inevitably will fall out . . . it happens . . . I just deal with it with a little brush and pan.

Second negative: And it's my own "fault" . . . if I was to do this over again today I would have sprung for the blue-black finish vs. the matte black . . . another common buyer's remorse thing with this stove.

 

[Valhalla]

Hello fellow firefighter Jake,

Thanks for your comments also. We are leaning toward a F 600. The F 500 Oslo is a close second.

Now a question, when cleaning the flue and stove can I remove the above burn tubes, and then easily rotary brush the flue upward? Afterward then vacuuming all particles below and reassemble the tube unit. It seems like the way, but it is not mentioned in a F 500 or F 600 manuals at all. Cleaning inside the stove is very briefly mentioned in Jotul manuals.

Thanks! Stay safe.

 

[firefighterjake]

Hello fellow firefighter Jake,

Thanks for your comments also. We are leaning toward a F 600. The F 500 Oslo is a close second.

Now a question, when cleaning the flue and stove can I remove the above burn tubes, and then easily rotary brush the flue upward? Afterward then vacuuming all particles below and reassemble the tube unit. It seems like the way, but it is not mentioned in a F 500 or F 600 manuals at all. Cleaning inside the stove is very briefly mentioned in Jotul manuals.

Thanks! Stay safe.

Hmmm . . . not sure. I know some folks have removed the top plate or the entire top cover, but I don't believe I've read of anyone removing the burn tubes in the F500 or F600.

 

[Arlo]

Fraxinus - try leaving the ash pan door open a tad, rather than the side door for easy starting - it's far less awkward.

Chris

Don't do this No offense Dead! It will crack your grate plate. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Arlo]

(broken image removed)

As long as were throwing pics around. oh yeah, I fabricated the heat shield out of some stainless sheet and then sprayed it with stove paint. The heat shield really throws the heat into the room

Oh and as far as the air lever, they all stick when moved to fully closed. I just tapped mine with the door handle until I threw a littel graphite lubei n there. It still sticks but not as bad. I would still say go with the f600 over the Oslo.

I have no complaints about mine. I have to replace all the rope seals this year but that is just part of owning a stove. I better get to it before 24/7 comes on.