Hello everyone, and thanks in advance for reading my post. I am not here to bash the Jotul F500, but I will say, it's a disappointment. Rather than get into a list of my gripes with the stove, I have a more immediate problem that needs to be remedied.
My father wanted to get a stove that could burn through the night, in which you could easily restart a fire the next morning from coals, rather than having to get up in the middle of the night to restock with wood. The existing stove was an enormous Glacier Bay (I think that was the name), double front door, no ash pan, fully brick lined cavity. Very easy to operate, and easy to clean, but quite smoky, no catalyst, no glass front. Enter F500....
You can see the new setup in the attached photo. The Jotul is on a fabricated pad in front of the fireplace hearth, with the various distances around the stove to meet code. The problem is, this stove is much lower than the previous one, and the ash pan handle is impossible to use for a person that is older and is used to sitting in front of the unit to operate it. Once sitting, the angle of your arm trying to turn the ash pan handle means you are bashing your hand into the ash lip in front. Not to mention, the handle is not easy to fully tighten (and I'm younger and quite strong.) So, when these handles arent tightened fully by my parents in their 80s, too much draft. Not good. I suggested just keeping the ash pan full, and never emptying it, keeping the ashpan door snugly closed. That didnt go over well. Even operating the front door is problematic, first because of the lower position, and secondly (sorry, getting into the grips) because the handle take enormous effort to fully close in order to not have a leak and overdraft situation. (It mostly closes, but then there is a second effort that requires much greater force for it to reach final full closure.)
So now there is a discussion about raising the stove. I suggested putting it on the hearth, but that idea was shot down, the complaint being that too much heat would go up the chimney, which I don't really think is accurate, especially as their is insulation around the piping where the damper was removed, but nevertheless, that seems to be a no go unless minds can be changed.
Anyway, the idea now is to raise it on the pad, but there are two major concerns: aesthetics and weight. I said we could put two 1.5" (or one 3") 31"x21 slabs under the unit (either cementing the two 1.5" together, or using the single 3.0" slab). That would be the least ugly, but unfortunately, the weight of those stones would be about 180 lbs, and he doesnt want that much extra weight on the floor given that the stove is 400lbs. Also, moving a 180lb slab is a bear. So the other idea was to simply cut rectangles and run them front to back, with a rectangular bluestone slab 4"x21" running front to back under two legs on each side. But frankly, I think that looks terrible (not that the single slab would look great.) Lastly, we could cut shapes to put under each leg, but there is a concern about the proper sizing, and whether this is more likely to create a stability and leveling issue. No issue with slabs, some issue with two small rectangles, but four squares (one under each leg) seems the most likely to end up unstable. On top of this issue, the chimney people that installed the stove want $1800 to lift it and put the stone down, and reinstall it (after we pay $150 or so for the stone slab, or less for the smaller pieces). That also did not go over well, as you might imagine.
At the moment, everyone is just unhappy and no decision has been made, and a lot of buyers' remorse is setting in, which I am trying to somehow prevent from hardening. Not a great situation, so I am wondering how best to salvage it. Would love to hear opinions about moving the stove onto the hearth, or how people typically raise a stove like this, given the look of the existing pad, which a lot of effort went into building initially, and extending out for the new stove when we realized the old pad wasnt to code and wouldnt pass an inspection that is coming up soon for the new Jotul install.
Thanks in advance for any advice. Crossing my fingers this situation improves somehow, as it is very distressing to my parents.
My father wanted to get a stove that could burn through the night, in which you could easily restart a fire the next morning from coals, rather than having to get up in the middle of the night to restock with wood. The existing stove was an enormous Glacier Bay (I think that was the name), double front door, no ash pan, fully brick lined cavity. Very easy to operate, and easy to clean, but quite smoky, no catalyst, no glass front. Enter F500....
You can see the new setup in the attached photo. The Jotul is on a fabricated pad in front of the fireplace hearth, with the various distances around the stove to meet code. The problem is, this stove is much lower than the previous one, and the ash pan handle is impossible to use for a person that is older and is used to sitting in front of the unit to operate it. Once sitting, the angle of your arm trying to turn the ash pan handle means you are bashing your hand into the ash lip in front. Not to mention, the handle is not easy to fully tighten (and I'm younger and quite strong.) So, when these handles arent tightened fully by my parents in their 80s, too much draft. Not good. I suggested just keeping the ash pan full, and never emptying it, keeping the ashpan door snugly closed. That didnt go over well. Even operating the front door is problematic, first because of the lower position, and secondly (sorry, getting into the grips) because the handle take enormous effort to fully close in order to not have a leak and overdraft situation. (It mostly closes, but then there is a second effort that requires much greater force for it to reach final full closure.)
So now there is a discussion about raising the stove. I suggested putting it on the hearth, but that idea was shot down, the complaint being that too much heat would go up the chimney, which I don't really think is accurate, especially as their is insulation around the piping where the damper was removed, but nevertheless, that seems to be a no go unless minds can be changed.
Anyway, the idea now is to raise it on the pad, but there are two major concerns: aesthetics and weight. I said we could put two 1.5" (or one 3") 31"x21 slabs under the unit (either cementing the two 1.5" together, or using the single 3.0" slab). That would be the least ugly, but unfortunately, the weight of those stones would be about 180 lbs, and he doesnt want that much extra weight on the floor given that the stove is 400lbs. Also, moving a 180lb slab is a bear. So the other idea was to simply cut rectangles and run them front to back, with a rectangular bluestone slab 4"x21" running front to back under two legs on each side. But frankly, I think that looks terrible (not that the single slab would look great.) Lastly, we could cut shapes to put under each leg, but there is a concern about the proper sizing, and whether this is more likely to create a stability and leveling issue. No issue with slabs, some issue with two small rectangles, but four squares (one under each leg) seems the most likely to end up unstable. On top of this issue, the chimney people that installed the stove want $1800 to lift it and put the stone down, and reinstall it (after we pay $150 or so for the stone slab, or less for the smaller pieces). That also did not go over well, as you might imagine.
At the moment, everyone is just unhappy and no decision has been made, and a lot of buyers' remorse is setting in, which I am trying to somehow prevent from hardening. Not a great situation, so I am wondering how best to salvage it. Would love to hear opinions about moving the stove onto the hearth, or how people typically raise a stove like this, given the look of the existing pad, which a lot of effort went into building initially, and extending out for the new stove when we realized the old pad wasnt to code and wouldnt pass an inspection that is coming up soon for the new Jotul install.
Thanks in advance for any advice. Crossing my fingers this situation improves somehow, as it is very distressing to my parents.
![[Hearth.com] Jotul F500 v3 sits too low - what's the best way to raise?](/talk/data/attachments/346/346937-1263a748b0d1210e5b640b42d83807a7.jpg?hash=J5V5Bu-vur)
