Jotul Oslo

[LeeWoodward]

Hello all I have been using a brand new Jotul Oslo and have it pretty well figured out. I was hoping someone can answer a few questions for me. I have been babying the stove and keep it running between 450-550 on stove top thermometer in front right and back left after backing the air control off to about 1/4 open. This has been giving me decent heat and burn times.

My daughter after being told not to mess with the stove decided to throw some wood in and just left the air control fully open and went to bed. I know she needs to know what to do, and I have already given her multiple tutorials and she basically just cannot follow instructions so please don't scold me about having people in the house who cannot operate the stove by the way she is 18 and just a new age child. I have no experience with EPA stoves just older stoves that would run away from you unless dampered down mainly due to air leaks. The stove was definitely not stuffed to the gills she probably threw in 2 20in 4x4 or 3x3chunks

Are these Jotul stoves designed to handle decent size hardwood splits with the air wide open? I am assuming there is no damage because the stove can be run with the front screen. I assume it is just wasted heat up the chimney. I did wake up this morning to a faint familiar smell the smell of a new high temp being reached, and when I seen the air control open I got a little worried. I haven't really tested the stove out as I always start to move the air control at about 275, or 300 then just increment it back to about 1/4 open and let it do what it should do and I get about 2-3 hours in the 450-550 range followed by 1 hour 400 1 hour 350 then about 2 hours of 200-150. So I don't know how the stove behaves with the air control wide open. Just looking for either reassurance, or someone to give me a good reason to have a child move out of the house haha.

 

[begreen]

The stove may be ok. Look for signs of greyed paint and warping around the baffle. If everything looks good then it could be fine. The smaller wood load helped. With a full load of wood an overfire could have occurred. You are correct that most of the heat went up the chimney which brings up another potentially serious issue if the stove pipe was run continuously at a temp over its rating.

 

[LeeWoodward]

The stove may be ok. Look for signs of greyed paint and warping around the baffle. If everything looks good then it could be fine. The smaller wood load helped. With a full load of wood an overfire could have occurred. You are correct that most of the heat went up the chimney which brings up another potentially serious issue if the stove pipe was run continuously at a temp over its rating.

The stove appears to have no issues on the outside or inside. The firebrick baffle is intact and the wool blanket appears to have no issues. The collar has no warping or discoloring. I have single wall stove pipe to masonry chimney. Pipe looks fine no discoloring there. No seen issues on visual inspection of chimney, but I cannot inspect with a camera the full length. I am just a little worried as you mentioned about unseen damage. I am not a crazy fanatic about worrying as I have seen many family members with pre epa stoves with almost clogged chimneys not burn their houses down yet.

My first reaction was just like yours that there could be potential damage to stove or chimney, and there might have been a potential overfire of both chimney or stove. But when I remembered that they sell a screen to run it for open viewing I started to feel more comfortable with her error, but I don't understand how an open screen doesn't cause an overfire but the air control open could possibly cause one.

 

[RSNovi]

There are variables to answer your question. How strong of draft, how dry your wood is, and how much wood was loaded.

With my setup, 30’ chimney and well seasoned wood. If I packed the stove with wood and left the air control wide open I would come back to a puddle of molten metal.

 

[begreen]

My first reaction was just like yours that there could be potential damage to stove or chimney, and there might have been a potential overfire of both chimney or stove. But when I remembered that they sell a screen to run it for open viewing I started to feel more comfortable with her error, but I don't understand how an open screen doesn't cause an overfire but the air control open could possibly cause one.

The fire actually runs much cooler when run as a fireplace due to the large volume of air. This would be much more air than with the door closed and the air control open.

 

[Ashful]

It’s been a few years since I’ve read a Jotul manual, but they used to specify that you only load 2 - 3 splits at a time, when running with the screen. Good news is that your daughter says she only loaded 2 splits, so probably not an issue.

Running your stove with the doors closed and air wide open creates a forge effect, due to increased inlet air velocity, a little diferent than running with the screen. But due to the small amount of wood loaded, like you, I suspect there’s no damage.

 

[LeeWoodward]

Thank you all for the replies. To answer some of the variables my wood is about 20% moisture. 22' chimney from back of stove to the top. It is rear exit configuration so I think that hampers the draft in my setup draft is not super strong. For example of how I think draft is not strong putting splits on coals and just closing the door results in slow flames for about 10-30mins before it takes off depending on how the wood is stacked in tight or loose. This is just what I have realized in my trial and errors so far. No puffbacks, or anything like that though. load oriented east west.

Since you 3 have jotuls in your signatures I have a sidebar question. Almost all of my seasoned wood is all over the place in length 16-22in I'm loading east west. Are you guys packing the stove full north south, or east west? east west I cannot seem to really pack it in.

 

[xman23]

I always load from the side door. My splits are 18", but I can get 25" in there. North south works fine when you have small pieces. I try to keep the butt ends away from the glass, as I adds to black glass.

Mine with a full load and full air won't over fire, just burn it up a bit quicker.

 

[Ashful]

Since you 3 have jotuls in your signatures I have a sidebar question. Almost all of my seasoned wood is all over the place in length 16-22in I'm loading east west. Are you guys packing the stove full north south, or east west? east west I cannot seem to really pack it in.

My Jotuls were those big Firelights, but the older model that had a top-load door. I'd cut all my wood to 21" lengths, and load east/west. The old firelights were too shallow for north/west loading.

I'd open those big double front doors, and fill it up to the lintel. Then I'd close the front doors, step on a pedal to actuate the top-load door, and slip a few more splits in from above. The stove would be filled up to within an inch of the top casting, by doing this.

One of the neat things about the Firelight is that, between the andirons below and the arched doorway above, those splits rarely ever rolled up against the glass. This is better than most east/west stoves, in that regard.

 

[EG GREV NED MIN ELD]

I use a little piece of tin foil folded into the shape of decending goose. (A "V")
Slip it into the notch above the thermometer so the needle pushes it up. When it gets to max temp, it will leave the indicator behind at the top of the burn.
I use this as tool during my overnight burns as a check that I'm doing things correctly. It gives me piece of mind that I didn't do any damage while I was sleeping. Just don't forget to reset it durring reload.
Not sure who I got this trick from, but I'm sure it was from a hearth.com member.
Enjoy the stove, I work mine very hard and it has yet to let me down.

 

[stovelark]

Hi Lee- Probably nothing happened at all. A couple of pieces of wood added to a cooled off Oslo probably only got it up to 400 or 500 degrees at the most. That is a lot of mass to get heated up too remember. When you throttle down the air control as temp rises actually brings temp higher normally due to slowing down the air flow through the stove and into the chimney. Like BG said above, with the screen in place unrestricted amounts of air enter and flow through the stove before the heat can be absorbed by the stove body. Like all have said, enjoy your new stove, prob nothing happened at all. At least your daughter didn't open the ash door to "goose up" the fire, that can cause (and often does as people find out too late) a hot spot in the bottom plate and crack it. Good luck with your new Oslo.

 

[firefighterjake]

While I wouldn't make a habit of running the stove wide open . . . I suspect most of us at one time or another (especially early on in our burning "careers") have loaded the stove and forgot to shut down the air and headed off to bed, work, etc. You're probably fine . . . or rather the stove is probably fine.

 

[heavy hammer]

As others have stated I think u shoul be fine. I ran my Oslo hard in the cold months they are tough. Like anything just watch it. A very nice stove a great heater. Show your daughter the ins and outs of operation it will help you out in the future and another helper to keep the stove going. I showed my mother in law how to use ours when she baby sat our daughter. It worked out great she loved the heat the house was always warm and it's pretty easy for her to operate.