Jotul F400 Advice

[Stretch]

Good afternoon! I've burnt wood for about 15 years in a garage at another house,
and with an Old Mill and stainless chimney I never had any problems. The chimney
was always clean, with stack temps at 300 F or better.

I've moved into a new (to me!) house, which has a Jotul F400 single door stove. I've
cracked the code on how to get a fire going quickly, and can usually get the stove
up to temp within 30 mins or so. My record is 18 minutes from a cold stove to a 300 F stack
temp and a 400 F stove top temp.

When I start the stove, I ususally run the stack temp up to about 350F (magnetic thermometer
on single walled pipe), and get the stove top to about 600F-650F, and then back the air
down. At this point there are no visible emissions. The stove cruises around 600F with about a 300F stack temp. Chimney is about 20 - 24 feet of masonry with a stainless liner. I cannot get the stack temp over about 350 F without beginning to approach 700F on the stove top. Is my stack temp hi enough
for long enough with this setup? It runs for an hour or two at 300F before it begins to drop off
and the fire urns down to just coals. I see just light fluffy balck stuff in the chimney.

Thanks for your opinions.

-Stretch

 

[begreen]

If you are reading 300F on the surface of the pipe, it is about 500F inside. Sounds about right. How are you starting the fire and getting it going quickly?

 

[Stretch]

I had some initial difficulty starting fires with this stove. Ya know - just a slow, smoky mess that took forever to catch. Then I was on the Jotul
website looking at the manual for this stove, and a stumbled upon this video :

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How many wood fires have I started in the last 15 years?! LOTS!! Then I went exactly by the example in the video. What an
unbelievable difference! I've used that method before, but I was shocked at the difference it made with this stove. It takes a few
minutes up front to build a fire this way, but one's patience is rewarded with a quick start.

The masonry above the thimble in the chimney is barely warm. I'm taking this to mean that the heat is therefore staying in the exhaust
gas column, which I'm interpreting as a sign of a well-insulated chimney liner.

 

[brad wilton]

with that method I would use a month's worth of kindiling in one start up

 

[begreen]

I found the F400 very easy to start once I began laying down a couple N/S kindling pieces under some smaller splits. That gets air under the fire from the boost manifold quickly. That is essentially what is happening in the video. The pile of kindling on top is not needed if the wood is nice and dry. And only two sticks about 3-4" apart are needed on the bottom.

 

[Grisu]

It sounds like you are doing just fine. The interior flue temp should be above 250 F all the way to keep water from condensing which would lead to creosote buildup. Once you are in the coaling stage the flue temp can drop as very little particulate is generated during that time. Since you don't see smoke coming out from your chimney and no creosote in the flue I would just continue what your a doing.

My record is 18 minutes from a cold stove to a 300 F stack temp and a 400 F stove top temp.

That's a big temp swing in a very short time which puts a lot of stress on the stove and may lead to premature failing of parts. I would be a little more patient if you want to enjoy the stove for years to come. If you need to get the stove hot so quickly it may be an indication the F400 is not big enough for your home. How big of an area do you want to heat with it? What kind of burn times would you like to see?

 

[begreen]

No worries mate. It's a willing stove with dry wood and quite radiant. I would get similar startup times when we had the F400. Cast iron is pretty tough stuff. Cast iron car manifolds go through even quicker warmups. As long as one is not using the ashpan door to accelerate start up the stove should be fine.