Jotul overfire...have you seen this before?

[KarynAnne]

We need some experienced feedback. We have a Jotul Oslo and it's been running non stop for the last 2 days. We loaded it tonight and (thought) we had shut the air down completely. The air slider was all the way to the left. Went to check the fire right before bed and there was flames like crazy in the stove and it was up to 700 degrees and climbing. The doors were shut tight, the door to the ash pan was shut tight. The air intake leaver was all the way to the left. There was a LOT of air contributing to that fire from somewhere. This stove is brand new. It's almost got to be that although the air intake "looked" closed, it wasn't. There isn't any other reason we can come up with. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Marty]

Did the flames increase after you shut down or maintain?
What was the temp when you shut it down?
It's normal for it to climb up 100 degrees when you restrict the air as it holds more heat in the firebox rather than up the chimney. it should settle down over the course of an hour or two.

 

[KarynAnne]

It was around 350 when we shut it down. We had been out most of the evening and it had died down a lot so we reloaded the stove let a pretty good burn get going in there to bring it from about 200 to around 350 and then we shut the slider all the way to the left for the rest of the night because the coal bed was good. The weird thing is...there was NOTHING else open on it. But when I went to eyeball the stove right before heading upstairs (about an hour after we shut it down) I found it burning like crazy and a really high temp and climbing. It's almost like the air regulator slider went to the left, but didn't actually close the air regulator. The only way that fire could have been going nuts like that is if it was getting a great deal of air from somewhere. We actually did what you hear not to do. We got the burning logs out of the stove, out of the house and doused them with water in the back yard. With the air regulator not responding and the stove aproaching 800, what else could we do? We then fiddled around with the air regulator slider after we made dead sure that there was not any other source of air opened, and it almost seemed as if the slider was not working correctly. It felt like it was opening and closing, but for a while it seemed like the air flow didn't change. Then after playing with it for a while, the coals did seem to respond the right way to opening and closing that air vent. I'm baffled. Any suggestions?
Thanks.

 

[Mike Wilson]

It sounds to me like you were burning very dry wood, with a lot of surface area that started off-gassing all at once... almost like construction lumber will do. Add that a good draft, and the stove took over. The air supply was coming from the secondary tubes, which is not controlled by the damper... even though the primary supply was closed down, air was still coming in on top...most all stoves work this way. 700 degrees is nothing to worry about... the stove can run at 900 for some time, with no damage. Unless your stove was glowing, you weren't overfiring her at 700, or 800 for that matter.

To quote someone who I spoke to at Jotul US after I installed mine, he said that I could load the stove up before I went to bed, and if I woke up at 2 in the morning it would look like a roaring inferno in there... and it does. He said not to worry, the stove is designed to handle this. Its part of the burn cycle.

-- Mike

 

[tutu_sue]

That happened in our Jotul F3 stove once. We had put in maple logs that were drying for more than two years and were very dry, almost like dry-rotted, started to powder even. We had damped it down all the way and half an hour or so later the stove was 700F and climbing really fast. Needless to say, after that we only put one of those logs in with other logs we had that weren't so dry and it never happened again. Scary I know.

 

[begreen]

This is why one pays healthy respect to the rules governing installation clearances and honors clearance to combustibles while the stove is in operation.

Also saw that in our 602 and 3CB if I was burning doug fir. Some of it had pitch pockets that were really potent. It seems most Jotuls cruise around 600-650, but are not out of their range at 750. When it gets to 900 I start thinking of shutdown plans, and keep a close eye on it, but that only happened a couple times with the 602.

 

[KarynAnne]

Thanks so much for the replys. You've nailed what was going on. Lots of burn at the top and we WERE using only very, very dry locust. From now on we'll be mixing that with other (not as potent) wood. As for the combustible surfaces nearby...I hadn't thought about it at the time, but I'm very glad that our clearances are more than enough and the stove sits on tall legs on a concrete floor. You guys have taken a load off of our minds with the explanations. We were afraid we had just bought a stove with a twisted mind of its own. Whew.

 

[begreen]

Lucky you. I'd love to have some locust to burn. Save that wood for the really cold nights or if you have a lot of it, mix it in with a lesser wood.

Can you describe the size, insulation and style of the house you are heating with the Oslo? What are your outside temps and how warm is it inside with the Jotul burning?

 

[KarynAnne]

Our house was built in 1948 and is a small Cape Cod in New Hampshire. It's about 1400 sq ft. as it's plenty for us. Smaller means less to take care of, right? We're not really sure about the insulation yet. This will be our first winter here, we're from Maryland. The locust is some that we brought up from Maryland that was from a downed tree in a hurricane about 7 years ago. Yeah, the wood's pretty dry by now.
We have the woodstove in the basement and we're cutting in one floor vent/grate at a time. It hasn't been really cold yet, but it's looking like the stove will keep the house cozy. We're trying to learn how to use the stove now, before it gets really cold. I think it'll be a lot to get used to, but the feeling of not using oil is pretty nice.
We've been really please to have found this forum to get some experienced info about our woodstove. Thanks for your help!

 

[BrotherBart]

That is a buncha stove for that house size. It should keep ya warm all winter. Buy some local wood to mix with that gasoline ya brought with ya.

I will check back later on whether you lost your mind moving North instead of South. It gets cold up there girl!

That is a big move just to get away from Bob Ehrlich.

 

[GVA]

Welcome to New England.....
Nah it doesn't get that cold around here.... :lol: ...... ;-) ........ :lol:
Well maybe