Jotul Black Bear Flooded

[jd woodward]

Hello, My home was flooded 6 days ago. The high water mark was 42 inches. My F118 Black Bear was under water for approximately 12 hours. I would appreciate any help/advice from forum members to rehab my stove. The interior had ashes from two or three burn days. I emptied all that I could with the shovel and then wiped out more that remained below the "ribbed" surface of the stove bottom. It was a pasty mess and some still remains. The exterior top was covered with a thin layer of silt. The door and damper are wide open with a fan blowing. The cook plate and a small area near the door hinges have revealed some rust. My first inclination was to just fire it up, however I fear that may be the wrong approach. How should I proceed? And, should I remove the insulation blanket, clean, dry and replace it? Thanks for the help.
jd

 

[jatoxico]

Wow sorry to hear about this. From what I know there is an insulated blanket above the baffle. Think I'd pull the baffles and burn tubes etc to assure nothing floated up and clogged or blocked up the blanket or smoke path

Then you could build a small fire while you cleaning that stuff up to dry the box up. Good luck.

 

[begreen]

What a bummer. Very sorry to hear this. Drying everything out is the first step. I'd be inclined to replace the insulation blanket. For the stove, after it is dried out, do one or two small fires with kindling only to continue with the drying out process. Just get the stove top up to about 200F and let the fire die out. Then do a successive fire and bring it up to about 300F. At that point, when you get the time I would wire brush the whole stove down, wipe it clean with alcohol and then repaint with Stove Brite metallic black paint. After the paint has dried for a day or two fire it up and get the stove up to 400F or higher to bake in the paint. You'll want the windows wide open for this last step or fire it up outdoors with a 4' length of cheap stove pipe attached.