Jotul c 450 getting no air

[pmilam]

Hello
I'm new to the forum so please excuse any mistakes
I bought a jotul c 450 fireplace insert two years ago and have been burning it but I can't get any heat out of it. I bought a blower and all but no heat. I've been around wood stoves all my life and it seem to not be getting any air. When I shut the doors of the stove the fire goes out. If I crack them just the slightest the fire burn good. What I was wonder is there a block off from the factory on the air intake. I installed the insert my self and didn't check the intake. Didn't think I needed too. Any help would been app. The insert draws very good just on air when doors are shut

 

[pyro68]

the most common culprit with "no heat" and stove burning with doors open but not shut is moisture content of the wood. Would highly recommend buying a moisture tester & checking the level. Don't think they are very expensive. Do you have a liner run to the top of your chimney? If your chimney is on the exterior of your home may want to consider an insulated liner. Another possibility is the slide is not connected to the air control lever, when you move the lever back and forth you should be able to feel it moving a slide. i think there are two bolts right inside the center by the doors that removes the cover plate so you can see the slide & make sure the outside lever is connected.

 

[Jags]

I'm new to the forum so please excuse any mistakes

This is unacceptable - please return when you no longer make mistakes. :lol:

"The insert draws very good just on air when doors are shut" - this part is confusing to me. Would you please explain. If you have a fire and the doors are shut, it doesn't draw. But with no fire and the door is shut it draws???? I must be misunderstanding.

 

[pmilam]

The wood that I have been burning is dry.
it just seem that it getting no air to burn when the door are shut. I'm going to pull it out in the next day or so and see if any thing is blocking the air intake. The way it has been burning it won't keep the room that it is in hot and it is a small room. I thought jotuls was a supposed to be a good stove but if nothing is blocking this air intake and it won't get hot it's not worth scrap metal prices.

 

[Jags]

The wood that I have been burning is dry.
it just seem that it getting no air to burn when the door are shut. I'm going to pull it out in the next day or so and see if any thing is blocking the air intake. The way it has been burning it won't keep the room that it is in hot and it is a small room. I thought jotuls was a supposed to be a good stove but if nothing is blocking this air intake and it won't get hot it's not worth scrap metal prices.

Make no mistake...Jotul has a very good reputation for making quality stoves. I am sure there is a reason for this, stick with us and we can work through it one thing at a time. Keep us posted after you have inspected your stove and stack in the next day or two.

 

[firefighterjake]

The wood that I have been burning is dry.
it just seem that it getting no air to burn when the door are shut. I'm going to pull it out in the next day or so and see if any thing is blocking the air intake. The way it has been burning it won't keep the room that it is in hot and it is a small room. I thought jotuls was a supposed to be a good stove but if nothing is blocking this air intake and it won't get hot it's not worth scrap metal prices.

Guessing here . . . if the wood is dry, probably a problem with the air control or air intake. As mentioned, Jotuls have a pretty good reputation for their reliability and heat output . . . but if you decide you want to sell your Jotul insert for the price of scrap metal I would suspect there are more than a few Hearth.com members who would be willing to pay that amount. Good luck with the exploratory "surgery" and let us know if you find anything.

 

[begreen]

Greetings. This is an excellent heater, you should be getting decent heat. Hopefully the fix for the current problem will be something simple. We'll need your eyes and help to see what you are seeing and maybe somethings that are not so apparent. Please be patient, it will take several questions to get familiar with this installation. Let's start with the basics. When was it installed? Has it ever worked well?

Have you already taken the inspection cover off of the air control and checked to be sure that the air slider is working correctly when the air control is moved from side to side? If the slider is not coupled with the air control lever, there will be no air control.

If the air control is working correctly, we'll need to know a lot more about the installation itself. The insert's combustion air intake is on the back of the stove. Is there some clearance between the back of the fireplace and the insert so that it can feed air?

If that is fine, and there are no obstructions to the insert's combustion air intake, please describe the fireplace and flue in detail. Is this an interior or exterior wall fireplace? Masonry, yes? We'll need to know whether there is a liner or not, whether there is a cap on the flue or liner, when the chimney and cap was last cleaned. Also, is there a damper seal (aka block-off plate) installed?

It would also be good to know how the dealer has been working with you and whether this situation is new this year or you burned all last year without a blower. Is the blower coming on occasionally or not at all? If not at all, has the blower snapswitch been temporarily bypassed to assert that the blower itself is working?

 

[oconnor]

pmilam, welcome aboard the boards. I started my season on the Kennebec this year with some wood that was wetter than it should be. I was able to split it down to samller size (wrist size and smaller) and make a kindling fire with 7-12 sticks to get the stove and flue warm. This seemed to help with my wet wood problem. Even if you wood isn't suspect, you should be able to get the stove working well this way (I am able to get a thermometer up to 750 F in about 15 mins on the first burn)

As well, you shouldnt need to remove the cover (bump in front) to check the slide - removing it will likely require a new gasket to reinstall. Use a mirror to see if the slide is moving, or a screwdriver or small stick (don't break it off) to feel the slide open/close the holes.

That said, all the comments above re checking/cleaning the flue are quite likely sources of a sudden change in operation.

Mine cranks out enough heat to overheat our 1200 ft two storey 75 year old house. Stick around here, and yours will too.

 

[pyro68]

understand your feeling that your wood is dry, without a meter there is no way to tell for sure. We have our wood covered, but there has been enough rain here lately that the wood has obsorbed some moisture. Not much, just enough to make me fight to get a hot fire. 9 out of the 10 cases I see can be solved with truely dry wood. Not that there can never be another issue, just have seen this one come up many times. One way is to buy some wood sold at grocery stores by the bundle, you'll get ripped off, but that wood is typically totaly dry. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[pmilam]

Hello all
I took the insert apart today and looked the air intake. I took the cover off at the air control slide and it was packed with ash. There was no way it was getting much air. It was full. I couldn't believe that air hole in the insert could let this much ash through. I will make this a yearly part of maintenance now. I haven't fire the stove back up yet but will later tonight. I will let you know how it burns. Has any of you had this problem and how do you avoid it.
Thanks for all your help