Jotul Oslo - Smoke from Stack

[Burner]

Hi. I just got a Jotul Oslo and have been learning how to use it. I think I got the hang of it, understanding the concept of the secondary burn and high temps. The problem I am having is smoke is still coming out of the stack even though I have incredible secondaries and temps around 600. I am not sure if the wood is too dry since it's kiln dried. Is there a chance that the wood smokes too much for the secondaries to burn it all away? I have great draft (20' stack). No problem starting up with the door closed. Here's a video of the secondaries in action with the air control closed.

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[aaron1]

Burner,

What is the temperature outside there today? I have been burning my Oslo all day today and have had it up to 600F on every burn. I have fantastic secondaries, though I am using some new wood I haven't used before. However, it is 1 yr old maple from a dead tree. I need to measure the MC, but I would bet it is definitely 20% or a bit below. I have been seeing some white "smoke" coming from my '30ish foot chimney (uninsulated, 6" SS round liner in exterior masonry chimney) all day. I didn't see this at all when I was burning some other 20% MC wood when the temps were around mid 30s outside. I don't really smell any smoke smell if I go up and open my dormer window and look at the chimney, but there is white "smoke" coming out. It disappears w/in 10-15' of the chimney, so I think it is condensing water vapor. The secondaries have been blazing for over 30 minutes now, and it's holding at 600F, so I am almost certain there is nothing wrong. My draft is dampered all the way down and flames are just blowing out of the middle and back burn tubes. I was very concerned today as well though. Maybe it's the cold temps? Try the same wood when the temps increase sometime in the next few weeks and see if you see any "smoke."

 

[tahoostas]

When it's very cold here (-25C) I see some white stuff that goes 10-15' as well until the coals stage. Even when everything inside is groovy.

 

[aaron1]

When it's very cold here (-25C) I see some white stuff that goes 10-15' as well until the coals stage. Even when everything inside is groovy.

Do you ever see that at closer to -10 C?

 

[firefighterjake]

Steam perhaps?

 

[tahoostas]

Aaron1, normally at -10C I wouldn't be seeing anything except at startup. Not sure the exact temp i start seeing it. Prob around -18Cish. Only second year burning though.

 

[begreen]

If the "smoke" is white and dissipates quickly it is probably steam, not smoke.

 

[firefighterjake]

If the "smoke" is white and dissipates quickly it is probably steam, not smoke.

And it may mean that a new Pope has been elected.

 

[Burner]

Thanks for the replies. I think it's case closed. After some tweaking this morning, I finally found a sweet spot. It appears as if, even though I had great secondary action yesterday with the damper all the way closed, it wasn't enough to burn all of the gasses from the freshly placed splits. So what I did today was to open the damper in increments until no smoke in the stack. It worked. I had to open the damper to about 1/16 open. This allowed some of the splits to ignite slightly which I assume helped the secondaries burn all of the gasses. Also, I noticed that the secondaries became less uniform but covered more area above the splits. The secondaries were more rolling along the top instead of spitting out of the tubes. Also, after a while the flames from the splits died down and I was left with just broad secondary action. The stack was still perfectly clear. During all this the temperature ranged from 450 - 500. So in the end it took some experimentation. Lessons learned. The answer was operator error. I'm happy now. Love the stove. Getting good 9 hour burns from the medium sized beast. I am including two video's. The first is right after a fresh load and with the damper opened 1/16 of the way. The second video is of the secondaries after about 30 minutes.

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[Swedishchef]

I am glad to hear that you got it working the way it should! There's nothing more frustrating than spending thousands of dollars on a wood burning setup and it not operating the way it should...been there and done that.

FWIW, personally,I can't close the damper 100% on my stove. It makes the fire smoulder. Mine is always open 1/16 or 1/8th. And I can still get nice coals after 9-11 hours.

Once again, congrats on figuring things out. I remember my "Eureka" moment after I figured out how to use the stove properly.

Andrew

 

[begreen]

I couldn't close the air control all the way on our Castine. More than around 3/4's closed would usually start to smolder the fire.

 

[oldspark]

If the "smoke" is white and dissipates quickly it is probably steam, not smoke.

Yep once it gets cold here I see some steam, other wise most of the time you see nothing out of the stack, even after a cold start I only see smoke for a short period of time.

 

[aaron1]

It does seem to be tricky knowing when and how far to turn down the draft. The flame pattern and stove top temperature on front right corner don't always result in my knowing if there will be smoke coming from the stack. If I damper it down and the stove temp starts dropping fairly quickly there is a very good likelihood I will have smoke. Maybe I need to measure the temp on a different corner, the top middle, or my flue pipe. It's kind of a mystery still!

 

[begreen]

This is where Jotul recommends the thermometer be located on the F500.