I am looking at buying a Jotul f400, and saw some concerns in reviews that the stove had issues with excessive smoke in the fire box and getting out. Does anyone know if this is a stove issues or a poor chimney/draft issue? The stove I am looking at is a completely refurbished used unit that the seller has no experience having used.
Jotul f400 smoke issue?
- Thread starter JB Warman
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Usually smoke spilling back into the room is a draft issue. I've never heard of stove being specifically known for that. I haven't used this particular model but I've heard all good things for that stove. Jotul as a whole is a very good company that makes exceptional stoves. Aside from their F500 v3 model, I haven't heard of any issues with their stoves. I have their F45 model and it's been great last season.
EbS-P
Minister of Fire
Is has a shallow fire box. I have run two, one rear vent on 30’ and one top vent on 15’. Both straight runs no bends. The top vent spills less smoke. That said it was not a lot. I was trying to find a second. For my downstairs. Good stove. Recommend top vent at least 15’.
My VC Intrepid was setup to rear vent and I had some trouble setting up the draft on a cold start. Lighting at the back of the stove took a few tries before the flue warmed up and was a major pain sometimes. It had a top load feature which surprisingly kept most of the smoke in even when there was negative pressure. I had two 90* double wall pipe that went up about 4ft before going out to a two story class A triple wall SS outside the house. If the stove was out for longer than a day I had to reverse the negative pressure before starting it.
Our F400 was rear vented to an elbow and straight up through the roof with a 20’ flue. This was done to increase wall clearance. The stove did not spill smoke when the outside temperature was <45. Above that temp I had to open the door quite slowly to avoid smoke spillage.
As EbS noted the firebox is wide and shallow. With a top vented connection on a 16’ + flue it should be work ok.
As EbS noted the firebox is wide and shallow. With a top vented connection on a 16’ + flue it should be work ok.
16’ chimney with (2) 45s and ran one for 12 years; give it dry wood and all is good. When above 40 deg. f open door slowly.
we have a f400 open door slowly, and make sure you don't have a backdraft. backdraft mostly at warm outside temps or my furnace or dryer was just on, once burning, no real issue. Open window for a couple if needed to equalize pressure,
