Jotul F500 Rebuild- Actually not hard at all

[thehouseisonfire]

Hi there.

My journey with wood stoves began last year when I installed an old Buck Stove in my 1774 built home because I was tired of high propane prices.

I found a 2007 model F500 on craigslist mid season last year and decided to give it a go.

I was not impressed! My buck stove put off more heat so it seemed (although it did have a cat to be fair).

After the first week with the Jotul I noticed an air leak. Sure enough the right side panel was leaking. I resealed with with some stove cement and called it good since it was cold outside and was keeping a fire going constantly. Even after sealing it I was disappointed with the performance but it did just ok.

The last 2 weeks of the season I had air leaks again. Since the season was over I didn't think much of it. I had a deal lined up to buy a F600 but the guy on Facebook Marketplace ghosted me and then raised his price so I was back to square 1 with the F500.

I decided to start taking it apart this morning. To my surprise its actually really easy and can be done with a 10mm and 13mm ratchet. The amount of missing and/or cracked stove cement I found was astonishing. I'm really glad I didn't stop at pulling off the side panels because I would have only had another air leak sooner or later. "Do it right the first time" comes to mind, My stove does have the famous cracked along the bottom plate from using the ash door to get a fire going- it was there when I bought it but wasn't that bad although it has gotten much worse, see photos.

Anyways, here is inspiration for those that have a leaky F500.

I will order a new bottom plate and re-assemble. I'm also considering gettin the heat shield and blower kit. I also found a factory video of F500's being made, wish I had one of their pneumatic stove cement guns!

 

[thehouseisonfire]

Here is a factory F500 assembly video, it's amazing what you can find on the internet!

Can't believe the cost of a new F500 now is $4800! Go out and buy a cracked F500 used and rebuild it- will save you good bit.

Think I paid $600 or $800 for this one.

 

[Todd]

Nice work, keep us posted

 

[thehouseisonfire]

BTW- yes this is my man cave/den that only gets used during the cold months. The carpet was trashed before I took the stove apart on it! I have flooring to lay down and leveler to level out an old drain in the concrete floor. Fun times! I swear those collapsable rocking chairs are the most comfortable thing- as you can see I broke a shock on it last season rocking my newborn son to sleep every-night in front of the fire watching steam train videos.

 

[begreen]

Cool video. Thanks for posting. That is a serious base crack. The stove will be a different animal once all is fixed. You can get a good refractory cement in a caulking gun cartridge from a Hearthstone dealer or online.

Hearthstone Cement (20oz Tube) – McKenney Hearth & Home

McKenney Electrical Co & Stove Parts

mckenneyelectric.com

Hearthstone Furnace Cement

Hearthstone Furnace Cement, hearthstone parts, hearthstone stove parts

www.woodmanspartsplus.com

 

[thehouseisonfire]

Look what arrived yesterday! That didn't take long at all, I was expecting it to be another week or two.

The cost for the part was $420 shipped from Woodman's Parts Plus. I will say it was $100 cheaper from Rocky Mountain Stove, but Woodman's Parts Plus called me back first and I wanted to get this stove back together ASAP.

Question, I had a hard time finding what cement to use so I went ahead and purchased 3 tubes of this Rutlands "Stove and Gasket Cement." The people at Woodman's Parts Plus weren't sure what to use, they tried to sell me some soapstone stuff they stock but I didn't think that was right.

I do not see a "refractory cement" available in tubes, only buckets. Any ideas on what should be used? I don't want to do this job again anytime soon!

 

[begreen]

The "soapstone stuff" is good fiber-reinforced cement. It comes in tubes, cartridges, and buckets.

Hearthstone Cement (20oz Tube) – McKenney Hearth & Home

McKenney Electrical Co & Stove Parts

mckenneyelectric.com

6300-34080
Cartridge - Furnace Cement

Hearthstone Furnace Cement

Hearthstone Furnace Cement, hearthstone parts, hearthstone stove parts

www.woodmanspartsplus.com

 

[thehouseisonfire]

Have you used the Soapstone cement? I was a little confused since I do not have a soapstone stove etc. "for application with soapstone." Not sure what this means. I have a cast iron stove, not a soapstone stove.

 

[begreen]

No, I have not had to rebuild a Jotul except for our old 602. I used the Rutland for that. I have been told that this is the closest product to the factory Jotul cement available. It is not exclusively for soapstone. They use it for their cast iron stoves too. There was a thread on this many years back, but it's going to be hard to find now.

@D. Hermit have you used the Hearthstone cement for a rebuild?

 

[thehouseisonfire]

I ended up using Rutlands Furnace cement.

I got the stove back together last weekend. I had a small fire to get the stove cement set. Starting to use the stove now for real since we are getting some cooler weather here in NC.

As you can tell the standard (cheaper) black bottom piece is not really visible against my blue/black F500.

When I build Porsche motors less is more as far as sealant goes, however I do not think this is the case with these cast iron stoves. I noticed that the fitment is pretty good, but no where near what I'm used to with building motors. I used 2.50 tubes of sealant for the rebuild and I thought I was being very generous with it.

I also installed a damper in my stove pipe, should have done that a long time ago.

I think my next project will be extending the hearth to get the stove in the room all the way.

 

[begreen]

Glad it went smoothly. This looks like a black majolica enamel. The blue-black enamel is not glossy and greyer.

 

[thehouseisonfire]

Yes! That is the color I've been thinking it was but forgot they used to offer that. The exploded parts diagram I had did not have that color listed...

I did realize I made one mistake in my rebuild- the side door ash catcher is attached to the piece that cracks, I do not think it slides off like the front door ash catcher.. In a rush to clean things up this past week (before realizing it was missing) my old bottom plate made it to the dump

Oh well, I never use the side door.

Now I am laying down flooring in the room, my house was built in ~1774. The room I have this stove in was an add on around 1805 I'm told. The floor is concrete, and the walls are brick with no insulation inside or outside (yikes!). I choose to lay down a pergo underlayment with insulation in it and some luxury plank vinyl since the room gets pretty humid in the summer (that's another story, have a brick mason coming out to inspect some crumbling brick).

While I'm doing this I'm thinking of extending my hearth about 14" so I can get the stove out from under the massive fireplace and retain some more heat. I'm not sure if this is the way to go or not but it seems to make sense to me.

I would also like to make a legit block off plate (currently have a ton of insulation stuffed around my flue with the ancient flue doors shut as far as they will go.

 

[thehouseisonfire]

I am moving the stove out in front of the hearth to the floor.

I got a piece of 1/8" 3' x 3' steel today and will move the stove tomorrow morning (when the stove is cool and I can scoop it out) and re-connect. Hopefully I will get some more heat in the room than just warming up the brick mantel, we shall see. Worst case I can always move it back.

When I have time I will knock the concrete blocking plate off my most central chimney (I have 4 chimneys and 9 fire places) and put a stove in the hallway. The chimney in question does not have an opening so I will have to knock out a hole in it to run my stove pipe. Guess I'll need to get a scope to inspect that chimney to make sure there are no blocked off old openings with combustable material. The nice thing is this 2nd stove will be somewhat centrally located by the stairway. Also I will be able to use a reclaimer on that stove which is something I'm really looking forward to trying after reading reviews. Stay tuned!

 

[Todd]

Are you taking about a magic heat pipe reclaimer? Those this are creosote factories and reduce most of your draft. I think placing it in front will help greatly, I’d try that before the heat reclaimer.

Years ago I had a Woodstock Keystone in a modified fireplace and placed a small muffin fan underneath the stove, it pushed the warm air up and out behind the stove into the room.

 

[begreen]

Also I will be able to use a reclaimer on that stove which is something I'm really looking forward to trying after reading reviews. Stay tuned!

Don't do it. The stove is used to generate the heat. The flue is to generate draft and contain the fumes/smoke. A heat reclaimer aka stack robber, will cool down the flue gases which is a prescription for creosote. And the blower on them is noisy.

 

[thehouseisonfire]

Todd and Begreen thanks for the heads up. It makes sense they would produce tons of creosote.

Got the steel plate today and moved the stove down. Now that I can take the top plate off very easily I can lift half the stove myself. Wish I would have known that when I bought it last season.

I have a decent grade on my horizontal pipe, but it is about 28" long.. My flue liner is a 8" that I put in for a old Buck Stove insert I tried first before the Jotul. That is why you see the 6/8 reducer.

 

[begreen]

This stove is strongly radiant. Does the plate meet the manual's requirements for floor protection?

The hearth pad must be: 54.25” w x 50.5” d.
or 46" w x 50.5" deep if the side door is locked.

It looks like the elbow is upside down. The crimped end should go into the stove's flue collar. The horiz. section should be crimped on the elbow end so that it fits into the elbow. The point of this is so that any creosote formed will drip back into the stove and not leak out of the pipe joints.

 

[thehouseisonfire]

The pad is 3' x 3' so it is not within spec. The floor underneath it is concrete. I am currently laying luxury vinyl plank as you can see in the photos. I do not use the side door. At the back of the stove the original hearth (brick) is very deep. The only thing I am slightly concerned about is the side clearance, not so much the depth. I plan on putting a hearth pad in front of the stove mainly to protect the new floor etc however I assume a pad doesn't really count as the actual metal hearth.

The elbow is installed backwards, due to my lack of a correct fitting to do a test this evening. I mainly wanted to have a small fire to test the draft. It's always hard to remember what pipes/pieces I have when I'm standing in the stove pipe isle at the hardware store!

 

[begreen]

It certainly is putting more heat into the room.

 

[thehouseisonfire]

This stove is strongly radiant. Does the plate meet the manual's requirements for floor protection?

The hearth pad must be: 54.25” w x 50.5” d.
or 46" w x 50.5" deep if the side door is locked.

It looks like the elbow is upside down. The crimped end should go into the stove's flue collar. The horiz. section should be crimped on the elbow end so that it fits into the elbow. The point of this is so that any creosote formed will drip back into the stove and not leak out of the pipe joints.

would you be concerned about having the "enlarger" in a horizontal fashion? I was not sure if that was considered ok or not. I assume if creosote collected there it would drop into my cap on the t fitting.

 

[bigealta]

How has your rebuild been holding up?