Jotul F-500 vs F-400 – heating area?

[doros]

I am considering purchasing either a Jøtul F-500 Oslo or a Jøtul F-400 Castine for our upstairs fireplace hearth (full masonry chimney on outside wall) to supplement our heat pumps in northern VA. I have a few questions:

1) Does anyone have an Oslo or Castine & the dimensions of their fireboxes? I cannot find any information on the dimensions of the Jotul fireboxes – not listed on their website or in the manuals.

2) We plan to heat approximately 1,900 sq ft on one level, most of which (1,000 sq ft) is a large great room/kitchen approximately 27’ x 40’. The room has 12’ vaulted ceilings with ceiling fan, one wall with all windows, & the house was built in 1982. The remaining space is four bedrooms located on the other side of the house down a 35’ hallway. Is it realistic to expect “any” stove to heat the bedroom side of the house considering it is so far from the heat source – probably 60 feet away?

3) If answer to #2 is NO – then should I go with the Castine, which is rated for 1,600 sq ft – we don’t want to be run out of our great room when the stove is running.

4) Any other rear vent stoves we should be looking at?

I would appreciate any reviews & experiences (other than the ones posted on the Ratings page) of these two stoves – positive or negative. Thanks - Dan.

 

[polaris]

I have both. Either will heat the great room and the areas nearby. Neither will heat seperate bedrooms 60 feet away with out ceiling fans or some other way of moving warm air to thwe room and returning cold air to the stove. Good luck with your purchase. Either of these stove are top knotch quality and will with proper treatment last a lifetime or more.

 

[doros]

Thanks for the input. Can you give me an idea of the size of the fireboxes? I'm used to wood stove inserts with deep boxes - these seem shallow. Is that a problem? Also, is there any issue of hot ashes spilling out of the F-400 when loading? The side loading F-500 seems like a nice feature to have.

 

[deedub]

i have the castine. it is a great stove, well made and is a little messy at times with the ash coming out in front IF you aren't careful with removal. i am in the process of flipping the flue collar to pull the stove out of a firebox alcove. right now it's almost flush to face of masonry so it should heat better pulled out more. as some have said. using fans helps a lot, especially blowing air behind the stove and around the other side into the room. check the specs online for jotul stoves, they are very detailed.

 

[polaris]

I have not had any trouble with hot coals rolling out of the Castine. I supposse you could if you didn't use common sense. If you have a pre epa stove you will be pleasantly surprised at how much heat these smaller stoves generate and how much less wood you burn. In addition chimney maintanence is almost nill if burned correctly.

 

[eightpilot]

I had the same dilema this summer. The firebox on the Oslo is 2.0 cubic ft. The Castine is 1.5 cubic ft. I went with the Oslo and am happy I did. I too was worried about being overcome from the intense heat, but thats not the case. I usually run the stove between 3-400F most of the day and night. If I am trying to take the chill off after being gone I will run it up to 600 for awhile but then go back down to 3-400. I learned that you can always run a big stove a little cooler, but can only run a small stove so hot. Plus the side door loading is worth every penny, no mess and no chance of a hot ember or log rolling out. Get the Oslo, you won't regret it. When I bought mine the Oslo was only $100 more... 8

 

[dvellone]

Tough time of year to get the firebox dimensions... its a bit hot in there.
I've got 12 5/8" d x 20 5/8"w x 13 3/4" h at the front and tapering down to 10 1/2"h at the back. Someone with a cold stove, maybe in Jamaica, can give you a more accurate measurement.

I'm heating 820sq'; two floors on piers with an insulated skirt and 5 large salvaged 100 year old single pane double hung -very leaky- windows in upstate ny. A few nights ago we had 17 below, by far the coldest night for my first season with this stove, and burning hard maple my house was warm and comfortable. Loaded the stove at 11pm and the inside house temp was around 75. By 5am it was 67 and enough hot coals to reload.

I really hated the front load design when I was burning the jotul f100 - my first front load stove and too small for 24/7 full house heating. I'd only used side load before that stove. But now with the castine it's completely different because I'm not needing to fill every possible square inch of space with wood. By being able to load the stove and let it operate through a full burn cycle I'm not building up much coal and ash. When I reload there are plenty of coals to continue the burn but much has burned down to fine ash which, if it doesn't fall through the bottom grate I can stir around so it does fall through. I'm finding that I now like the design much more that I did.

For the short time I've been using this stove (although it's my primary heat source I'm not a multi-season expert) I think the problems folks might be having with buildup and spillage of coals and ash might very well be due to the stove being a bit undersized

 

[JBinKC]

I would also probably opt for the Oslo. It would do a better job in heating your entire house. The stove would give you longer burn times and the side door is a nice feature that will prevent ash spilling.

 

[begreen]

The Oslo would be my first choice in this situation, especially if the desire is for 24/7 burning. It won't drive you out of the room. In moderate weather just burn shorter fires and let them go out when it's warm enough.

To even out the temps and heat up the bedrooms, place a table or floor fan, on the floor in the BR hallway and point it -towards- the stove. The object is to push the dense, cool air, towards the stove. The cool air will be replaced with warm air from the stove room. On low speed it should get circulation going quite nicely. Also, if there is a ceiling fan in the main area, set it to winter mode (reversed, blowing upward) to help reduce heat stratification at the ceiling peak.

 

[jbrown56]

doros,

I heat 2100 sq. ft., 24/7, open concept home with vaulted ceilings and skylights on the second floor. The stove is centrally located and does a great job heating my home. Normal stovetop running temps for me are between 400F and 500F. I don't have the need to run it any hotter. For overnight, we load at 10p and at 6a there are plenty of coals and a stovetop temp of 200F. The glass stays clean if you burn dry wood and the secondary burn is a joy to watch. Your bedrooms will probably remain cool, but you don't want it too warm were you're sleeping. Monday morning, it was 6F outside and the thermometer on the windowsill 35' away from the stove read 66F. I burn about four cord of wood a year and the wood I burn is at least two years old. More heat with less wood. My stove likes dry wood.

Hope this helps,

Jim

 

[meathead]

What, no love for the F600 Firelight?

Short of having a very efficient floor plan designed specifically around a wood heat source, at 1900sqft I'd say go with the Oslo. A good friend of mine heats his 1500sqft (ish) with the castine - it does the trick but difficult to get a legit 8 hrs of heat out of. I have the firelight and it heats roughly 1700 sqft of basement and 1500+ sqft of house to about 75* in the basement 65* upstairs (very well buttoned up). Garage also has a basement under it seperated from main basement by a door, if I'm going to be working in the garage I'll open the door a day in advance and the whole place will be about 65*. Sounds like you don't need that much juice, so the middleground would be the Oslo.

Really though - 1900sqft is a chunk to heat if you don't have an open floorplan. A good floor fan at the far end of the hallway blowing towards the great room will be key to get the warm air from the great room ceiling rolling down the hall.

 

[doros]

Thanks to everyone for their advice. Looks like I’ll go with the Oslo based on the feedback. One additional question – I will be lining the chimney with SS flex. I will need to ovalize the end to get it through the 4 1/2” throat damper. How difficult is it to get the oval back to the 6” round needed for the T-connection once I get it through the throat damper?

Dan

MS 290 Farm Boss
JD877 with real mounted log splitter

 

[firefighterjake]

I am considering purchasing either a Jøtul F-500 Oslo or a Jøtul F-400 Castine for our upstairs fireplace hearth (full masonry chimney on outside wall) to supplement our heat pumps in northern VA. I have a few questions:

1) Does anyone have an Oslo or Castine & the dimensions of their fireboxes? I cannot find any information on the dimensions of the Jotul fireboxes – not listed on their website or in the manuals.

2) We plan to heat approximately 1,900 sq ft on one level, most of which (1,000 sq ft) is a large great room/kitchen approximately 27’ x 40’. The room has 12’ vaulted ceilings with ceiling fan, one wall with all windows, & the house was built in 1982. The remaining space is four bedrooms located on the other side of the house down a 35’ hallway. Is it realistic to expect “any” stove to heat the bedroom side of the house considering it is so far from the heat source – probably 60 feet away?

3) If answer to #2 is NO – then should I go with the Castine, which is rated for 1,600 sq ft – we don’t want to be run out of our great room when the stove is running.

4) Any other rear vent stoves we should be looking at?

I would appreciate any reviews & experiences (other than the ones posted on the Ratings page) of these two stoves – positive or negative. Thanks - Dan.

Weighing in here a bit late . . . but my opinion is either stove is a good one. I was aiming to heat about 1,800 square feet and opted to go bigger than smaller since some advice I ran across (and this was mentioned here as well) is that there is nothing to prevent you from building a small fire in a bigger firebox when less heat is needed) . . . this is the reason I went with the Oslo.

As for your other questions . . . I'm afraid I don't have the exact dimensions of the firebox . . . I do know it's quite a bit smaller than my 1980s vintage Shenandoah, but it still kicks out a lot of heat.

Moving the heat to the bedrooms may not be an easy feat. Some heat will naturally migrate to the distant areas . . . but you will most likely not end up with the same temp with the room where the stove is located and in the bedrooms (but then again most folks like it a bit cool and my experience -- stove being 25-30 feet away (not a straight shot) is that the bedroom is cooler, but still comfortable.)

Other rear venting stoves . . . I know there are a lot of other good brands . . . sounds like you did your homework though by checking out the various reviews listed here at hearth.com.

 

[tmaxjr]

Purchased and installed Jotul Castine 3 years ago to heat 900 sf family room that is open to kitchen area. Family room has cathedral ceiling with fan. The castine 400 has a heat shield on rear side due to 12" distance from combustables. Stove is situated 'kitty corner' of room. Stove draft is good, wood is seasoned, stove pipe - chase straight verticle, and operate stove between 350 - 500 degress. To date, I'm very unhappy with heat being generated by stove. When outside temps are in 30's and below, cannot get the room temp of family room, which is where stove is located, above 65 degrees. Yesterday, with outside temps of 38 degrees, and after 3 hours of burning, my family room temp was 61. This is unacceptable. The stove is cosmetically great, but functionally poor.

Appreciate advice.

 

[EDGE]

Yes, choose the bigger model. I just got my Jotul F 400 and know that my wood is damp (because I didn't decide to install a woodstove till late in the year), but nonetheless, I recommend that you go with the Oslo. You may even consider the largest model. My cottage is 884 square feet, measured inside, though with 9 &1;/2 foot ceilings, but well built (walls of poured concrete, 8" thick, then with 2" rigid foam on each side), but still I figure I could have used the Oslo. This building is very efficient. I have never paid more than $400 for heat, per year, off-peak electric. And I am up in northeastern North Dakota, where it never broke 0 today, and right now is 11-below 0.

Choose the larger. Sure, it might cost a bit more, but how many Btu's are there in a paper $1 bill?

That's my 2-cents worth.

 

[cgeiger]

Thanks to everyone for their advice. Looks like I’ll go with the Oslo based on the feedback. One additional question – I will be lining the chimney with SS flex. I will need to ovalize the end to get it through the 4 1/2” throat damper. How difficult is it to get the oval back to the 6” round needed for the T-connection once I get it through the throat damper?

Dan

MS 290 Farm Boss
JD877 with real mounted log splitter

Dan - I am also a Northern VA woodburner (out in the colder part of Northern VA) . I recently agonized over the choice between a 400 and a 500 for my 2300 square foot, 2 story colonial. I had done a previously good job with an old pre-EPA Vermont Castings Resolute but if it dropped below 20 it got chilly. In the end I decided on the 500 for two main reasons: 1. Side loading is handy - really handy (yes you can keep logs from rolling out if you're careful but if you don't have to worry about it why bother?...) and 2. I could always build a smaller fire if I got too warm. Oh and I suppose 3 - I wouldn't have to wake up as often to reload the firebox :D

While I just got my inspection final approved yesterday and started burning today and don't have temps for you yet, I suspect that it will be comfy and cozy when I get home and my heat pumps will once again be silent like they were last year. My floor plan is definitely NOT open and I use a couple box fans and a ceiling fan to move the air around. If you're lucky like me you will also have your heat pump returns (if you have a hp) in areas that can suck the warm air from the fire and reduce the cycle time on your HPs. It works very, very well for me.

As for your questions regarding ovalizing - why not just cut the damper out (I did after considering the same thing). It's relatively straightforward and you will mitigate a major cleaning issue when you potentially can't get your (or the sweep's) brush all the way down from the top. Others can correct me here but I would recommend not ovalizing and cutting. It sounds like our setups were very similar and aside from a needed hearth extension (DIY) and the chore of getting the stove in from the truck - installation was a breeze. The stove is gorgeous and my wife already pinged me to today to tell me how warm it was in the house.

 

[Frostbit]

Purchased and installed Jotul Castine 3 years ago to heat 900 sf family room that is open to kitchen area. Family room has cathedral ceiling with fan. The castine 400 has a heat shield on rear side due to 12" distance from combustables. Stove is situated 'kitty corner' of room. Stove draft is good, wood is seasoned, stove pipe - chase straight verticle, and operate stove between 350 - 500 degress. To date, I'm very unhappy with heat being generated by stove. When outside temps are in 30's and below, cannot get the room temp of family room, which is where stove is located, above 65 degrees. Yesterday, with outside temps of 38 degrees, and after 3 hours of burning, my family room temp was 61. This is unacceptable. The stove is cosmetically great, but functionally poor.

Appreciate advice.

Boy, something is amiss. My Castine sits in my living room adjoining kitchen, 700 square feet and 8'walls and I have no problem keeping the entire area at 78 degrees. It was 28 below zero yesterday. My ranch home was built in '84, its fairly well insulated, but certainly not up to what new standards have been the past 10 years or so. I am not directly bringing in outside air for combustion, and once a fresh load of wood is charred with 3/4 open primary air, I take it right to nearly closed. The secondaries do the rest. The stove top temp is nearly always in the same range as yours. My Castine also has the rear heat shield, as I went with double-walled pipe so I could get my stove rear and pipe install clearances to the sheetrocked wall down to the 7" minimum, and I am there. I'm burning a combination of dry hardwood pallet pieces and seasoned black spruce.

No doubt one or more of the guys here with vast experience will chime in with some recommendations. I just wanted you to see a comparison with mine, if its of any consequence. I have a new install, one month old.