Jøtul F400 Castine review

[EbS-P]

This might be a bit long. So see the executive summary if you are short on time.

This review is not going to focus a whole lot on the stove. It’s a great looking, great burning stove. This will focus more on how the stove installation has preformed. Hopefully it will help others along their wood burning journey.

The executive summary.

Jøtul F400 Castine in ivory deep set hearth install top vent connected to 15’ insulated SS liner. Blower on fireplace floor behind stove. I could not control temps with out it. Would easily overfire when air control completely closed without the blower. Heats well on marginal wood but won’t heat a 2000sq ft stock 1965 brick ranch without some help from the heat pump when it’s cold. No blockoff plate. The draft seems about right.

Ash pan is a great to have. Love the auber AT200 thermometer/alarm.

I’m not impressed with the burn time but with enviro bricks it’s good, without I can relight after 5-7 hours.

Full review
The install—

The stove was installed by a professional into a 42”w x 29” h fireplace. It is connected, top vent, to 15’ of pre-insulated forever flex SS liner. The flue is 8x12 masonry and is completely vertical. The chimney is an interior chimney centered about 3’ above the ridge line. There is a second flue for walkout basement fireplace and the entire chimney is screened by an expanded metal 6’ high and topped with a flat stainless steel cap covering the entire 2’x3’ chimney The damper assembly, frame and damper, was completely removed and the top thee center firebricks were knocked lose and reset further back by no more than 1” to get clearance to drop the liner strait on to the appliance connector. The depth from the back of the fireplace to the front of the raised hearth is 41”. The stove only sticks out about an 1” beyond the front of the fireplace, a very large pink stand stone ( gotta love the 60s). The short leg kit was used and I have about 2 3/4” from stovetop to lintel. After burning less than a week I installed a Quadra fire pellet stove convection blower just set behind the stove on the fireplace floor. The blower draws from each end and I specifically chose this blower for this arrangement as with the short leg kit I did not want to stoves air intake near the the blower intake. A blockoff plate was not installed (I probably will install one this summer)

Draft—

Just meeting minimum height specs I was concerned that draft might be week. These concerns were in founded. I get a decent draft with as little as 10 degree temperature difference. The draft at temperature difference of 30-40* appears quite good. I have not measured it, but the stove, on a full load is small splits, will run quite well with the primary site completely closed. I could easily overtire the stove with the air completely closed if the blower was not running.

Stove operation—

I chose the Jøtul after running my father-in-law’s. It is simple and straightforward. Lighting fires top down with a good amount of newsprint some kindling and a piece of fatwood, the stovetop can reach 300* and engage the secondaries in 15 minutes. My firewood has been split very small. This results in short burn times. However with enviro bricks I can can have coals hot enough to relight the stove after 10 hours given a good layer of ash.

The ash removal system works well and I appreciate not shoveling or sifting. When I first got it I raked ash down the grate before every reload. The ash pan would need to be emptied almost daily. I now only poke the ash away from the doghouse and a little across the very back of the grate. The ash builds up and is compressed and if it gets to high I can poke a bit more down the grate when I clear the doghouse area. Doing this I can go a week before emptying the ash pan and stove. Operating this way I think the stove comes up to temperature faster. I have burned the last 10 weeks not using any fireplace tools, only my hearth gloves.

For small 1/2 loads when I don’t need maximum heat output I can keep the blower off and the stovetop temps will stay below 600. I measure temps using an Auber AT200 thermometer/alarm with the washer style thermal probe sitting on the back corner of the stove under a small piece of iron.

With a full reload load on hot coals the temps can easily go above 600 especially if the stove has been burning hot for several hours and the masonry is hot. This is why I believe that deep set installations need a blower. They blower can drop the stovetop temps by almost 100 in very short time.

Burn time—

Here is where everything gets relative. I can reload every 3 hours but cold start to build up. If I have a good ash layer and can get a big load of split started slowly (this is hard with small splits) I can still have enough cola to relight after 5-7 hours. If I want longer burn times I load up with sawdust bricks putting two east west end to end and adding a splits to keep the doghouse air from torching throughout them. Just adding two bricks I can get 9-11 hour relight times.

Heat output— so here I must describe our house. We have a 1965 brick ranch with 2000 sq ft upstairs and 600sq ft walk out basement and 600 sq ft garage next to that. The insulation and windows are all typical for the period of construction which is to say lacking. The floor above the crawl space (the portion of the house furthest away from the stove) can be 7-10 degrees colder than the room if it has been cold for a few days and the heat pump hasn’t been on much or at all. The chimney is located on the right third is the house that has the kitchen. There are no headers between kitchen, stove living room and a hallway that runs the length of the rectangular house down to the bedrooms (3). I think this is key to distributing heat and keeping the temps moderated in the stove living room.

The deep set hearth install while maybe not efficient means we can run the stove hard and never get run out of the living room. The stove and stone work can easily be dealt radiating heat 9-11 hours after the last reload. It functions like a masonry heater and it works well for our house and climate.

The short answer is that the stove is undersized and can not fully heat the upstairs if the temps remain near or below freezing. With better wood this could be improved to some extent but I knew it was undersized and am ok with that. If I wanted to babysit it I bet it could carry 80-90% of our upstairs heating needs for a typical winter. If you want to call what we experience in SE NC a winter

Wood plans—

I am still CSSing hurricane wood from September. I’ve got about 2 cords done. Mostly tulip poplar. Some dogwood and pine. I’m not certain oak is in the cards as I can probably get all the softwood I need/want at next to nothing as all the large long leaf pines left after the hurricane will be nearing the end of their lives in the next decade(s). I’m looking at my two adjacent neighbors and I see three. That said I see a big oak dying across the street. Seasoning oak might take 4 years here or if we have years like last year or it might never happen. Minus the 30’ of rain from the hurricane we still had 85”. Storing two years of wood (2-3 cords ) seams easiest than 4-6 cords if oak takes more than 3 years.

Overall I am very impressed with nearly every aspect of this stove and install. I will be routing blower and temp probe wiring in a better more permanent way and installing the blockoff plate. Even with marginal wood it has burned very well.

If you made it all the way through thanks. It got long.

Evan.

 

[webby3650]

I didn’t read the entire post, sorry if it’s mentioned. Why don’t you have a block off plate?

 

[2fireplacesinSC]

This might be a bit long. So see the executive summary if you are short on time.

This review is not going to focus a whole lot on the stove. It’s a great looking, great burning stove. This will focus more on how the stove installation has preformed. Hopefully it will help others along their wood burning journey.

The executive summary.

Jøtul F400 Castine in ivory deep set hearth install top vent connected to 15’ insulated SS liner. Blower on fireplace floor behind stove. I could not control temps with out it. Would easily overfire when air control completely closed without the blower. Heats well on marginal wood but won’t heat a 2000sq ft stock 1965 brick ranch without some help from the heat pump when it’s cold. No blockoff plate. The draft seems about right.

Ash pan is a great to have. Love the auber AT200 thermometer/alarm.


I’m not impressed with the burn time but with enviro bricks it’s good, without I can relight after 5-7 hours.

Full review
The install—

The stove was installed by a professional into a 42”w x 29” h fireplace. It is connected, top vent, to 15’ of pre-insulated forever flex SS liner. The flue is 8x12 masonry and is completely vertical. The chimney is an interior chimney centered about 3’ above the ridge line. There is a second flue for walkout basement fireplace and the entire chimney is screened by an expanded metal 6’ high and topped with a flat stainless steel cap covering the entire 2’x3’ chimney The damper assembly, frame and damper, was completely removed and the top thee center firebricks were knocked lose and reset further back by no more than 1” to get clearance to drop the liner strait on to the appliance connector. The depth from the back of the fireplace to the front of the raised hearth is 41”. The stove only sticks out about an 1” beyond the front of the fireplace, a very large pink stand stone ( gotta love the 60s). The short leg kit was used and I have about 2 3/4” from stovetop to lintel. After burning less than a week I installed a Quadra fire pellet stove convection blower just set behind the stove on the fireplace floor. The blower draws from each end and I specifically chose this blower for this arrangement as with the short leg kit I did not want to stoves air intake near the the blower intake. A blockoff plate was not installed (I probably will install one this summer)


Draft—

Just meeting minimum height specs I was concerned that draft might be week. These concerns were in founded. I get a decent draft with as little as 10 degree temperature difference. The draft at temperature difference of 30-40* appears quite good. I have not measured it, but the stove, on a full load is small splits, will run quite well with the primary site completely closed. I could easily overtire the stove with the air completely closed if the blower was not running.


Stove operation—

I chose the Jøtul after running my father-in-law’s. It is simple and straightforward. Lighting fires top down with a good amount of newsprint some kindling and a piece of fatwood, the stovetop can reach 300* and engage the secondaries in 15 minutes. My firewood has been split very small. This results in short burn times. However with enviro bricks I can can have coals hot enough to relight the stove after 10 hours given a good layer of ash.

The ash removal system works well and I appreciate not shoveling or sifting. When I first got it I raked ash down the grate before every reload. The ash pan would need to be emptied almost daily. I now only poke the ash away from the doghouse and a little across the very back of the grate. The ash builds up and is compressed and if it gets to high I can poke a bit more down the grate when I clear the doghouse area. Doing this I can go a week before emptying the ash pan and stove. Operating this way I think the stove comes up to temperature faster. I have burned the last 10 weeks not using any fireplace tools, only my hearth gloves.

For small 1/2 loads when I don’t need maximum heat output I can keep the blower off and the stovetop temps will stay below 600. I measure temps using an Auber AT200 thermometer/alarm with the washer style thermal probe sitting on the back corner of the stove under a small piece of iron.

With a full reload load on hot coals the temps can easily go above 600 especially if the stove has been burning hot for several hours and the masonry is hot. This is why I believe that deep set installations need a blower. They blower can drop the stovetop temps by almost 100 in very short time.


Burn time—

Here is where everything gets relative. I can reload every 3 hours but cold start to build up. If I have a good ash layer and can get a big load of split started slowly (this is hard with small splits) I can still have enough cola to relight after 5-7 hours. If I want longer burn times I load up with sawdust bricks putting two east west end to end and adding a splits to keep the doghouse air from torching throughout them. Just adding two bricks I can get 9-11 hour relight times.

Heat output— so here I must describe our house. We have a 1965 brick ranch with 2000 sq ft upstairs and 600sq ft walk out basement and 600 sq ft garage next to that. The insulation and windows are all typical for the period of construction which is to say lacking. The floor above the crawl space (the portion of the house furthest away from the stove) can be 7-10 degrees colder than the room if it has been cold for a few days and the heat pump hasn’t been on much or at all. The chimney is located on the right third is the house that has the kitchen. There are no headers between kitchen, stove living room and a hallway that runs the length of the rectangular house down to the bedrooms (3). I think this is key to distributing heat and keeping the temps moderated in the stove living room.

The deep set hearth install while maybe not efficient means we can run the stove hard and never get run out of the living room. The stove and stone work can easily be dealt radiating heat 9-11 hours after the last reload. It functions like a masonry heater and it works well for our house and climate.

The short answer is that the stove is undersized and can not fully heat the upstairs if the temps remain near or below freezing. With better wood this could be improved to some extent but I knew it was undersized and am ok with that. If I wanted to babysit it I bet it could carry 80-90% of our upstairs heating needs for a typical winter. If you want to call what we experience in SE NC a winter

Wood plans—

I am still CSSing hurricane wood from September. I’ve got about 2 cords done. Mostly tulip poplar. Some dogwood and pine. I’m not certain oak is in the cards as I can probably get all the softwood I need/want at next to nothing as all the large long leaf pines left after the hurricane will be nearing the end of their lives in the next decade(s). I’m looking at my two adjacent neighbors and I see three. That said I see a big oak dying across the street. Seasoning oak might take 4 years here or if we have years like last year or it might never happen. Minus the 30’ of rain from the hurricane we still had 85”. Storing two years of wood (2-3 cords ) seams easiest than 4-6 cords if oak takes more than 3 years.


Overall I am very impressed with nearly every aspect of this stove and install. I will be routing blower and temp probe wiring in a better more permanent way and installing the blockoff plate. Even with marginal wood it has burned very well.


If you made it all the way through thanks. It got long.


Evan.

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Beautiful install of a beautiful stove.

You’ve already fot the hang of it sounds like. If you have space and time, cut some oak into small splits, season till this coming winter and put a few near the stove in the fireplace, just not touching the stove and careful of wood temps. You may be surprised at how good a moisture content you will get after a day or so near that stove. And then you’ll love the occasional longer burn from oak. But to get a “good” long burn you’ll need bigger splits.

I found as well, softwood is really almost all you need in our climate. And no one burns it here. Pine will burn your house down, you know .

My F3 is even smaller. Same setup and yes the fireplace/hearth/chimney in your house envelope acts like a big masonry heater.

I found the same thing about needing a blower to keep the stove top temps controlled with the same setup.

 

[2fireplacesinSC]

Block off plate will help keep the heat in the room but if you’re doing well without it, I would consider leaving it like it is without one.

Putting one in may make stove get even hotter and you may not heat the upper chimney (upstairs) as much, negating some of the masonry heater component. That’s what I seemed to note on mine at least.

If I did put one in, I’d make sure it’s removable just in case you find it makes negative changes to your personal setup.

 

[begreen]

Nice write-up. That is a good looking setup.

The F400 is a decent area heater, but it's being challenged by the location and lack of block-off plate. I would put one in to help deliver more btus into the living space. Burn time is what it is. We got 6-8 hrs during mild weather but had to reload every 3-4 hrs during cold weather. It's only about 1.7 cu ft in capacity and one can't utilize all of that without concerns of a log rolling into the glass.

PS: Where in NC? I have relatives living in your neck of the woods.

 

[EbS-P]

We live in Wilmington.

Nice write-up. That is a good looking setup.

The F400 is a decent area heater, but it's being challenged by the location and lack of block-off plate. I would put one in to help deliver more btus into the living space. Burn time is what it is. We got 6-8 hrs during mild weather but had to reload every 3-4 hrs during cold weather. It's only about 1.7 cu ft in capacity and one can't utilize all of that without concerns of a log rolling into the glass.

PS: Where in NC? I have relatives living in your neck of the woods.

 

[Kevin Weis]

I looked at one of these at the stove dealer a few months ago. Even though the dealer sold them he was not recommending one for me. I looked at it anyways as it looked pretty as can be sitting in the showroom. I opened the front door and asked him what would keep the logs from falling out if you got it half full or more. He said "nothing". I'm not sure if it had a side load door but if it did it was on the opposite side of where I would need it (left I believe). But that could have been the next bigger Jotul? Walked away from it at that point. Just saying.

 

[begreen]

We live in Wilmington.

Nice town. My sister used to live there.

 

[EbS-P]

I haven’t ever had a log fall out. A couple times one will roll into the glass if it big I’ll crack the door and hold it in place with a stick or poker whileI open the door if it’s small I don’t worry about it. I guess I never needed to open the door when a full load was burning. Saw a European model that had log holders in front. Can’t remember what they are called. I’d be tempted to load too close to the glass if I had them. It’s a shallow fire box so I do feel like I am playing Tetris quite often if I want to load it clear full.

I looked at one of these at the stove dealer a few months ago. Even though the dealer sold them he was not recommending one for me. I looked at it anyways as it looked pretty as can be sitting in the showroom. I opened the front door and asked him what would keep the logs from falling out if you got it half full or more. He said "nothing". I'm not sure if it had a side load door but if it did it was on the opposite side of where I would need it (left I believe). But that could have been the next bigger Jotul? Walked away from it at that point. Just saying.

 

[bigealta]

I really like my f400. It Replaced an original Jotul 3 I burned for 20 years. Getting much more heat from the f400 but it also takes bigger and more logs.
Getting the secondaries firing just right takes a bit of practice.