Jotul C350 blower on "auto"

[grahamk]

Going through my first winter with the jotul C350.

First - could they have figure out a worse place to put the blower control switch? I need a flashlight and a screwdriver to move it from Auto to Manual. I have considered relocating it - anyone done that? Seems like I could just splice and extend the wires to the switch?

But before I do that.... I pretty much have left it in manual mode all of the time because I need to fire the stove well above 500 degrees and keep it there for at least an hour before the auto fan will kick on. Has anyone else experienced this with this stove? Right now, when I fire it up I just turn the fan on manually when I light a fire - i'd like the auto to turn on much earlier - is there a way to adjust this? Warranty issue?

Thanks,
Graham

 

[begreen]

It does take a while to get the mass of metal warmed up. Once the stove is hot, does the fan keep running? If the stove is slow to warm up, perhaps there is something else happening. Is the fireplace on an interior or exterior wall? Is there a damper block-off plate in place?

 

[stoveguy13]

if the floor gets a good build up of ash on it. it act as insulation and stop the snap disc from getting hot maybe something to look at

 

[oconnor]

My Kennebec can take 30-45 mins to start the blower - the snapstat on mine is on the back side of an air channel below the bottom front of the fire box - likely the last place in the stove to get warm. I suspect they have done this on purpose, as the only way I can speed up the procress of the fan switching on is to close the primary air down - seems it draws less "cooling" air thru the channel, allows it to warm up, and then the fan comes on. I'm thinking that they want a hot burn during the early phase of fire to keep temps up, and emmisions down, for the EPA test, and running the blower earlier will start to cool the stove earlier. My thermometer on the top will reach 700F long before the snap stat kicks in.

Mostly, I like the fact that it turns the fan off during the night when the stove cools down, and doesn't run the electrcal bill any higher than needed, as well as saving hours on the fan motor.

BTW, you should be able to get more heat than 500F from the C350 - I run my C450 between 600 and 750 all the time, especially for the first fire of the day.

Edit - just looked at the pic of the C350 and my temps noted above are likely hard to measure given the flat front of the insert - mine are stovetop in front of the flue exit, which isn't possible on the 350.

 

[boostnut]

Oconnor, you may find that if you adjust the mounting tab for your snap switch you'll see your fan come on earlier. I had the same problem with mine until I pulled the fan assembly and bent the mounting tab up so that the snap switch comes into direct contact with the bottom of the firebox. Problem solved. Not sure if this will work with the C350 as I'm not familiar with it. May be worth looking into.

 

[oconnor]

I adjusted mine a month ago, but didn't notice any better response times.

 

[sixminus1]

It just took my fan 45 minutes to kick on from a cold start, with a "face temp" of 300F. Since it's hard to measure that actual temp of this insert, I use an IR thermo right above the top door hinge and just work with relative temp (with the understanding that stove top temp is probably hotter).

How long does it take you to establish a small coal bed? I usually start with a 5 or 6 sticks of dry kindling (old spruce stockade fencing). The fan thermostat seems to be more sensitive in the front-right of the firebox, so that's my target area for "coal creation" when the first load goes in. Maybe start with a small load and rake the coals over to this area before reloading? If that doesn't work, you might want to fiddle with the snap switch as described above.

 

[Summertime]

My Rockland C550 is the same way and I usually run on manual mode, maybe I will search for the snap disc and bend it up higher as well.

 

[Rudyjr]

My C450 is exactly as Brent stated about 30 to 40 minutes from a cold start. If I load the firebox at about 9:30 pm the fan is usually still running at 7 to 7:30 am. and still putting out good heat By about 8 a.m it is shut off but the stove is still pretty warm and easy to get fired up again. I feel in my case that the stat is doing an excellent job of maximizing the useable heat.

 

[gpcollen1]

Not specific to this stove but the snap disk on my olympic needed to be placed just right and right up against the bottom of the stove to get the proper response. I think you should be able to get the fan on within an hour or so for sure. My fan essentially never even goes off - even overnight - on auto setting. I guess thebottom of the stove never cools enough.

 

[JimmyMood]

I have the C350, and would say it takes at least 30 minutes or so for the blower to kick on. As far as the switch location, I never put it on manual. I think it is meant to be an override should the snap stat fail, but not intended to be turned on and off in normal use.

What one of the other responders said is right, clear the ash off the floor above where the snap stat is. On the C350, the snap stat is on the right side of the stove, about in the middle front-to-back. This definitely will help the fan kick on sooner. Also, build a "log cabin" style fire to start, 3 rows high if you can fit it, the the roaring blaze will turn the fan on in no time.

 

[caseyr77]

I have run into this issue alot as I work on these units. First thing you can do is to move the snapdisc to a different location so it heats up quicker or replace the snapdisc ( I think there was a bad batch of snapdiscs). I have taken out the snapdisc out of the stoves and put another one next to it and heated both with a lighter and found that some of the snapdiscs in the stove take 15 seconds or so to snap when the new one will snap in about 3 seconds.
Some stoves have problems and others have no issues what so ever so thats why I think maybe some of the snapdiscs may be partially bad.
The other most important thing to make sure that the damper area has insulation around the liners so there is so extra air-filtration in the fireplace cavity.