Jotul 600 F side door handle question

[Nick Mystic]

I recently bought a Jotul 600 F stove and I noticed a quirk with the side door handle latching system. Here is a photo of what the door handle looks like when fully shut:



After I close the door and latch it a few minutes later I will here a small noise and the handle is in this position:



The door is shut fairly tight, but not locked down. When I push the handle shut I can feel increasing pressure up to the point shown in the second photo. The last few degrees pull the handle tight against the stove door and I can feel it come to a dead stop. However, it feels almost like it is on a hair trigger and the slightest touch will make it pop open that small amount shown above. I talked with another Jotul F 600 owner on this forum and he reports the same experience. I called the stove store where I bought my Jotul and asked him if he had any experience with this and he said he hadn't noticed that happening before. I asked him to check with his Jotul representative and see if he could find out how to remedy the problem. I haven't noticed it causing a problem with my fires and the door is still latched, so it's not likely to pop open all the way since gravity holds the handle from opening any further. I haven't been able to try the dollar bill test yet due to burning the stove 24/7 since installing it last Wednesday. Any other Jotul owners have this problem? If so, have you figured out how to remedy it?

 

[PapaDave]

You can still test the door. Use a piece of loose leaf paper instead of a dollar.
You may be fine. It's easy enough to find out and only takes a few seconds.

 

[Laurent Cyr]

Hi Nick! Like i told you earlier, I have the same issue, although mine doesn`t pop. It just slides back 1/4 to 1/2 inch, pretty much like in your photo.
Funny, but the day you mentioned it to me, I smelt smoke in the basement. Damned if I could find the source of it, but I noticed that the latch was not tight. So I pushed it back in position. I didn`t smell any smoke for the rest of the evening. I thought perhaps my chimney needed cleaning, so the next day I climbed up on the roof, and did my first chimney cleaning. There was a little bit of popcorn at the top, but overall, the chimney was pretty clean. Anyway, since it isn`t a blockage of the chimney, I figure the latch is the culprit for the smoke (that and a poor fire).
If anybody has a solution, we`d really like to hear it.

 

[webby3650]

I figure the latch is the culprit for the smoke (that and a poor fire).

It would take one "poor fire" to cause smoke to leak from a cracked door. It should have the opposite effect, an over-active fire. You must have something else going on, being a basement, I would guess a draft reversal? Caused by a furnace or dryer, etc.
I have never heard of this problem with the 600, if it's common, I'm sure someone around here has found a fix for it.

 

[Butcher]

Check the bolt/screw that holds the piece of steel inside the stove that the latch catches on. Maybe it was not tightened down enough from the factory?