I recently bought a Jotul and have been running it for several weeks. I am using drier wood the last few days and the fire is insane. When I load it up for the night I close the lower air flow controll and close the damper on the stove pipe. You can watch it instantly engulf in flames and it will burn at turbo speed half way thru the night. When I get up in the morning about 8 hours later there's barely any coals left. What is going on?
Jotul F 600 running issues
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Congrats on the stove! What part of Central MA are you in? Couple questions; what do you mean by dryer wood? How far are you closing the primary air? Do you have a stove top thermometer and or flue thermometer and if so what temps are they reading?
You want to, and will see, flames engulfing your fire box, thats what the stove is designed to do. Do a search here on secondary combustion or flames of hell to better understand whats going on inside of your new stove.
You want to, and will see, flames engulfing your fire box, thats what the stove is designed to do. Do a search here on secondary combustion or flames of hell to better understand whats going on inside of your new stove.
also take a look at this video about operating a modern epa stove
http://www.ec.gc.ca/cleanair-airpur/videosWoodstove_mgt-Eng.wmv
http://www.ec.gc.ca/cleanair-airpur/videosWoodstove_mgt-Eng.wmv
Litening1273 said:
I'm thinking you're doing everything right . . . you're getting the fire going and then closing down the air and the result is the wood catching on fire and then going at "turbo speed" which sounds a lot like the Bowels of Hell (aka Propane flames) fire you would get from secondary combustion.
Are you able to close the air control all the way shut or just part way? Being able to shut it all the way (if the wood is dry enough) will help extend the burn time a bit. Another factor is what you're burning for wood in terms of species and size and how much you load up the firebox. For maximum burn time (and coals) you will want to put in larger sized splits or rounds in the firebox for the overnight burn (vs. smaller splits), more of the denser wood species if you have them (i.e. oak, hickory, sugar maple, etc. vs. birch, silver maple, poplar, etc.) and fill up your firebox (the two times I really try to fit a lot of wood into the firebox is when I leave for work in the morning and when I do the overnight burn) . . . for me I generally stuff quite a bit of wood into the firebox, leaving 1-3 inches of space between the baffle tubes and top of the firewood.
Finally, if you're like me you might have had a different definition of "burn time." Of course the numbers thrown around by Jotul and other manufacturers really don't tell you exactly what they mean by burn time. Going in I pictured burn time to be the time when the woodstove started producing meaningful heat to the time when the fire began to die . . . of course burn time could also be the time the fire is lit to when the last coal is extinguished . . . or when meaningful heat is produced (at say Stove top temp X) to when the heat as measured by the stove top temp goes below temp Y . . . fact is, no one really seems to know.
I tell folks that they need to take the burn time estimate with a grain of salt . . . with the goal being of learning how to run your stove so you can load the stove for an overnight burn and then wake up the next morning with enough coals so that all you need to do is throw some kindling or small splits on them to restart the fire. Expecting to wake up after 8 hours to a roaring fire is unlikely . . . unless your house has somehow caught on fire.
I would really like to see a report of stove top temps and flue temps. Armed with that info it will be possible to lead you in the right direction (if there really is a problem).
So it's burning hot as he11 for half the night and you have coals left 8 hrs later when you get up in the morning...hmmmm....yes I see where that could be a problem.....
JK sounds like you are on the right track post back with some temps and what kind of wood you are using. If you want a longer fire...add more/denser wood
JK sounds like you are on the right track post back with some temps and what kind of wood you are using. If you want a longer fire...add more/denser wood
I would recommend checking all the gaskets. Especially making sure that the door is sealed. We burn a F-500 and we can get close to 11hrs of burn and then have hot coals to start it right back up
The wood I'm burning now was cut in March. I think it's a mix of oak and maple. I guess I'm used to an older stove that I couldn't really see what was going on inside of it. My issue is this stove seems to get more air and burn faster when it's totally closed up. I'm not used to geting my fire going really hot fast by closing the door! When I shut the doors I can hear it like there's a wind tunnel in there. There's a lever on the bottom that controls air flow. I put it on the minus side when I shut it down for the night. When I say coals in the morning I mean like 2 very small ones. I have to go through the whole relighting process. It also hasn't been wickedly cold outside yet (not that I'm complaining) so I guess I haven't packed it yet to maximum capacity. I think we would suffer from heat stroke if I did that now.
Sounds weird! In my Jotul I always close the air all the way before bed. A couple times I left it open a tad and it took off like you say. I think there is a certain point where the wood has no more moisture in it from burning and it takes off like crazy. I am like you, my wood was cut from last december till March. It is less than seasoned like yours, still lotsa moisture to burn off before it burns like crazy. All the rain we got this past summer didn't help!
Welcome llitening. How tall is the flue on the stove?
If you suspect an air leak, you'll want to check the ash pan door carefully to be sure it is closing tightly. There can be no air leaks there. Check behind the ash pan with a flashlight to see if there is ash build-up there. Use a poker to assert that there is only metal behind the ash pan.
Then do the dollar bill test on all 3 doors. Lay a dollar bill halfway over the point of the door gasket contact and close the door on it. The bill should pull out with some resistance. Test all around each door. Also examine the glass gasket to be sure it has good contact with it's gasket around the rim.
If you suspect an air leak, you'll want to check the ash pan door carefully to be sure it is closing tightly. There can be no air leaks there. Check behind the ash pan with a flashlight to see if there is ash build-up there. Use a poker to assert that there is only metal behind the ash pan.
Then do the dollar bill test on all 3 doors. Lay a dollar bill halfway over the point of the door gasket contact and close the door on it. The bill should pull out with some resistance. Test all around each door. Also examine the glass gasket to be sure it has good contact with it's gasket around the rim.
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