Jotul Combifire Copy

[TooManyHobbies]

A friend gave me this stove. It appears to be a Taiwanese copy of a Jotul #4. All the parts are there and it came with a bunch of firebrick, but I haven't verified that it's all there and all good but it looks correct for this model. Now the questions. The door is spring loaded and not easy to open. I can't imagine trying to deal with this while the stove is hot. What a hassle to load, even if I wear my welding gloves. Were doors on the Jotuls this hard to operate? Any idea how the heat output will compare to my VC Vigilant?

Thanks!

 

[begreen]

The mechanism should be firm, but not hard to operate. It may be worn or just needing cleaning and perhaps lubrication with some graphite powder?

These units could heat pretty well, but then again so could the Defiant.

 

[TooManyHobbies]

Thanks for the reply. The day after I received this stove, I found a Vigilant complete with Dura Tech 8" chimney for next to nothing, so I'm just going to go with that setup. What a find that was! I look on Craigslist at least once a week, hoping to find a local, inexpensive Vigilant for my garage. The problem with the door on the Jotul copy is the amount of force needed to open it and keep it opened. Like the springs are too strong. I guess I won't be investigating since I found the stove I wanted.