New Jotul Castine Owner!

[Soadrocks]

My wife and I finally just got our FIRST Wood burning stove. We had to go with Jotul, and we decided on the Jotul F400 Castine. What a beaut.

Anywho, we placed it in our basement, right in front of our staircase. We took off the entrance door to the basement to let the heat up easily (I know, a huge fire hazard). The piping goes straight through the first floor of our ranch, through the attic, through the roof. A straight shot. Is this beneficial for draft problems I have been reading about the castine?

I, too cannot get a great overnight burn. Rarely, I get lucky. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the morning, and place two small logs in and I'm good. We use good hardwood with low moisture content. Gotta love wood moisture meters. Someone said to use a big log in the back of the stove then a bunch of small ones and then close the air control lever around 80%. I'm lucky to get 6 or 7 hours of burn. We set our furnace to 50, but we want this stove to be our primary heater and we're hoping this will be sufficient for our 1100 sq feet ranch house.

This board has been so much help and I want to thank everyone for their comments. My wife and I live in the Rochester, NY area.

My main question is this. We're spray painting our entire ceiling with a flat hunter green like color (ducts, electric cords, cable lines, beams, etc). We like to install floor grates in different areas. Anyone have ideas for ideal places? We're thinking one in the hallway, one in the bedroom and one in our living room which is directly above the room where we have the stove. Any ideas would be helpful. Is it also stupid to put to wall grates on where we boxed in the piping on the first floor (one on top, one on bottom)? I have attached a floor plan of the basement and indicated where our bedroom and living room is. I dont know if that helps. Any recommendations on where to place the floor grates would be helpful. I think since we're not doing a typical ceiling, we'll be able to add a lot of extra heat to the upstairs.

Second question. Luckily, living where we do, there is excellent seasoned hardwood. We bought 12 face cords. We stacked some on the side of our house between a fence and our wall to the garage (maybe a 3 feet gap). We placed the wood on top of 2 x 4's. Since it is seasoned, do we need to bother to cover it? The other cords of wood we stacked in a covered shed where we can feed the wood through our basement slider window. The rest is also on our covered patio. We got wood everywhere. Is this kosher? We didn't really know what 12 face cords was until we saw a dump truck come not once, but twice filled to the rim and dumped it on our driveway. We were a little overwhelmed. It took us 7 hours straight to stack it all. Wow, I never want to do that again. I think we'll be save if we buy two cords a season now, and just replenish the current supply every season.

Third question. We love the look of our apple red john wright steamer on the stove, but do they really do anything? We tried poutporri, some liquid stuff, but we never really get a scent unless you put your noise right to it. Do these steamers really do anything?

4th. Prolly stupid question, but is it okay to mount a flat screen TV about 4 feet from the stove. TV won't be in jeopardy of getting damaged right?

Thanks again guys! This board has been extremely enjoyable.

I can't wait for the winter to come!

 

[Frostbit]

Congrats on the new stove. I have a Castine, installed a year ago. In your shopping for the new stove, if someone told you to expect an overnight burn with the Castine, they were in error. If you thought it would on your own, you were in error.

The F400 firebox just is not big enough to afford an 8-10 hour burn. Ain't gonna happen, regardless of your wood species.

One thing I do see in your post, however, that may help, is you mention shutting down your air supply to 80% once the stove is up to temp. You need to know the air is never shut off. So, even if the lever is to its stop to the left (off), the secondary burn is still getting air. You have only closed the air off to the primary feed point.

I shut my lever completely once my stove top temps are over 450. The stove continues to burn fine at the secondaries, with just the coals glowing. This position no doubt maximizes wood load burn time. This is the position you want to be in. It gives you the least amount of visible smoke, extracts the most heat from your wood, and burns the cleanest.

 

[begreen]

My wife and I finally just got our FIRST Wood burning stove. We had to go with Jotul, and we decided on the Jotul F400 Castine. What a beaut.

Congratulations. It is a beatiful stove.
A straight shot. Is this beneficial for draft problems I have been reading about the castine?

Yep. Sounds like she's working fine.

I, too cannot get a great overnight burn. I'm lucky to get 6 or 7 hours of burn.

That's about right. Sounds like you are doing pretty well for a 1.5 cu ft firebox.
This board has been so much help and I want to thank everyone for their comments. My wife and I live in the Rochester, NY area.

Any recommendations on where to place the floor grates would be helpful. I think since we're not doing a typical ceiling, we'll be able to add a lot of extra heat to the upstairs.

Pass on this one, this is an area heater. If the primary heat is wanted upstairs, that is where the stove belongs.

Second question. Luckily, living where we do, there is excellent seasoned hardwood. We bought 12 face cords. We stacked some on the side of our house between a fence and our wall to the garage (maybe a 3 feet gap). We placed the wood on top of 2 x 4's. Since it is seasoned, do we need to bother to cover it?

Yes, cover the top with a tarp, roofing felt or something. Leave the sides open unless the snow is going to bury it

I think we'll be save if we buy two cords a season now, and just replenish the current supply every season.

Don't be surprised if you use it all. You will be going through a lot of wood per day when it gets cold. 3-4 full cords is what I would expect if it is a normal winter.

Third question. We love the look of our apple red john wright steamer on the stove, but do they really do anything? We tried poutporri, some liquid stuff, but we never really get a scent unless you put your noise right to it. Do these steamers really do anything?

Prolly depends on the surface contact with the stove. What stove top temps are you running the Castine at?

4th. Prolly stupid question, but is it okay to mount a flat screen TV about 4 feet from the stove. TV won't be in jeopardy of getting damaged right?

Should be ok at 4 feet, if not move it over a bit more.

Thanks again guys! This board has been extremely enjoyable.

I can't wait for the winter to come!

I can...

 

[Ticmxman]

Nice! I'm looking at the same stove. What size is your hearth is that a 3' or a 4'?

 

[Soadrocks]

Nice! I'm looking at the same stove. What size is your hearth is that a 3' or a 4'?

It is a 4 foot hearth.

I love this stove. Yeah, we were never told that it would burn overnight, just wishful thinking. Oslo was too big for our needs. We're very happy with the Castine. I don't know how people live without a wood stove. It boggles my mind!

 

[11 Bravo]

I just got our new Castine installed last week. Our flatscreen tv is just under 4' away and its not a problem. Love the stove and the burn I get with it, but glass seems to dirty up. Especially when it's loaded at bedtime and I shut the air supply down, you can watch the glass blacken...

 

[Frostbit]

Agreed on the black glass. The airwash system on the Castine leaves a lot to be desired. I try not to shut the air lever to minimum until my stove top temp is above 400 degrees. Helps, but not much you can do as the wood load diminishes.

And, there is a wildly varying degree of blackness/frequency with different woods.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

I came this close [] to buying a brown enamel Castine.

While I'm sure it'd have been great but I do not regret my PE Spectrum Classic.

 

[Skier76]

I'm surprised a few of you are having issues with the glass. I find that once you get to 400+, the glass really cleans up. If you hit 500 or so, it'll really look clear. The only times ours blackens is when we start to let the fire die down a bit.

Congrats on the new stove! We've been really happy with ours. If you have dry wood, that's about 80% of the battle right there.

 

[polaris]

I have a rear exit on my castine and I only shut the air control down to 80% or so and the glass does not darken much overnight but it does burn a bit more wood. I have programed my self to wake up between 2:00-4:00 and add some wood thenI crackthe door for about 5 min. and go back to bed. You don't have to crack the door but it cuts down on any smoldering that might cause build up on the chimney.

 

[eightpilot]

I'm lucky to get a 7 hour burn out of my Oslo and that has a 2 cu ft firebox. The Castine should be good for 4-5 hours I would think at the most. Great stove though... 8

 

[polaris]

I'm lucky to get a 7 hour burn out of my Oslo and that has a 2 cu ft firebox. The Castine should be good for 4-5 hours I would think at the most. Great stove though... 8

Agreed I get about 6-8 out out of the Oslo and 5-6 out of the castine.(With enough hot coals to start a new fire by just adding a couple of splits).

 

[11 Bravo]

Soadrocks, just took a measurement, and the distance from the closest edge of my flatscreen to the closest edge of my Castine is 38", and there is not a bit of a problem........and to the others and Skier on PM, once the stove is fired up, the blackening of the glass disapears quite a bit, burns off, or simply wipes off with a towel when it cools....I seem to be getting 6 hrs or so of burn time with oak, elm, and cherry.....................Paul

 

[gpcollen1]

I'm lucky to get a 7 hour burn out of my Oslo and that has a 2 cu ft firebox. The Castine should be good for 4-5 hours I would think at the most. Great stove though... 8

Seven with the Oslo sounds like you are using soft wood or not filling the fire box all the way. With the Castine, you can 7 hours with hardwood to a point where getting her ripping in the AM is easy enough.

 

[meathead]

Great stove glad you are enjoying it.

Like some others have said, don't rely on it as a primary heat source, particularly in that location. Keep in mind you aren't just heating 1100 sqft with that stove in the basement - you are heating the basement too (double the sqft?). Make sure basement walls are insulated and you're gtting the most you can out of it - but I wouldn't expect to be able to leave the heat off all year. Since it sounds like you are going to be using the room the stove is in to watch TV etc - it is probably best you didn't go with the 500 or 600 - but for heating purposes, that's what you would have needed to take a legit chunk out of your heating needs with the basement stove location.

You're doing just fine with your burn times. Enjoy!

 

[firefighterjake]

My wife and I finally just got our FIRST Wood burning stove. We had to go with Jotul, and we decided on the Jotul F400 Castine. What a beaut.

I agree . . . but then again I'm a bit biased towards Jotuls.

Anywho, we placed it in our basement, right in front of our staircase. We took off the entrance door to the basement to let the heat up easily (I know, a huge fire hazard). The piping goes straight through the first floor of our ranch, through the attic, through the roof. A straight shot. Is this beneficial for draft problems I have been reading about the castine?

Straight shot is good . . . I wouldn't worry too much about the hazard of removing a door. Basement installs as you may or may not know are however not the best for getting the heat to where it's wanted . . . i.e. in the living space . . . but sometimes you have to deal with the cards you're dealed and sometimes that means a less than optimal install location.

I, too cannot get a great overnight burn. Rarely, I get lucky. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the morning, and place two small logs in and I'm good. We use good hardwood with low moisture content. Gotta love wood moisture meters. Someone said to use a big log in the back of the stove then a bunch of small ones and then close the air control lever around 80%. I'm lucky to get 6 or 7 hours of burn. We set our furnace to 50, but we want this stove to be our primary heater and we're hoping this will be sufficient for our 1100 sq feet ranch house.

As others have mentioned the limiting factor here is the size of the firebox . . . it sounds like you're pretty much doing everything else right in terms of controlling the air and the fuel (seasoned, size, etc.)

This board has been so much help and I want to thank everyone for their comments. My wife and I live in the Rochester, NY area.

No problem . . . but now you owe us . . . we want to see more pictures . . . pictures of the stacks of wood, more pictures of the stove, etc. We are very visually oriented here.

My main question is this. We're spray painting our entire ceiling with a flat hunter green like color (ducts, electric cords, cable lines, beams, etc). We like to install floor grates in different areas. Anyone have ideas for ideal places? We're thinking one in the hallway, one in the bedroom and one in our living room which is directly above the room where we have the stove. Any ideas would be helpful. Is it also stupid to put to wall grates on where we boxed in the piping on the first floor (one on top, one on bottom)? I have attached a floor plan of the basement and indicated where our bedroom and living room is. I dont know if that helps. Any recommendations on where to place the floor grates would be helpful. I think since we're not doing a typical ceiling, we'll be able to add a lot of extra heat to the upstairs.

You can try it . . . have you tried blowing a fan down the basement stairs or blowing a fan towards the stove while positioned at the bottom of the stairs? You might want to try this first before you start cutting holes in your house.

Second question. Luckily, living where we do, there is excellent seasoned hardwood. We bought 12 face cords. We stacked some on the side of our house between a fence and our wall to the garage (maybe a 3 feet gap). We placed the wood on top of 2 x 4's. Since it is seasoned, do we need to bother to cover it? The other cords of wood we stacked in a covered shed where we can feed the wood through our basement slider window. The rest is also on our covered patio. We got wood everywhere. Is this kosher? We didn't really know what 12 face cords was until we saw a dump truck come not once, but twice filled to the rim and dumped it on our driveway. We were a little overwhelmed. It took us 7 hours straight to stack it all. Wow, I never want to do that again. I think we'll be save if we buy two cords a season now, and just replenish the current supply every season.

Yeah, if you're using the wood this season it's a good idea to cover it . . . it helps keep the snow and rain off it which makes it easier to catch on fire and you don't end up all wet and messy.

Third question. We love the look of our apple red john wright steamer on the stove, but do they really do anything? We tried poutporri, some liquid stuff, but we never really get a scent unless you put your noise right to it. Do these steamers really do anything?

I think they put a little bit of moisture in the air. I sometimes catch a wisp of scent when I use liquid potpourri, but mostly I just use the steamer (on a trivet) as a way of getting a little bit of moisture in the home.

4th. Prolly stupid question, but is it okay to mount a flat screen TV about 4 feet from the stove. TV won't be in jeopardy of getting damaged right?

Four feet away . . . probably not a problem . . . moving it a few more feet away wouldn't hurt things though.

Thanks again guys! This board has been extremely enjoyable.

I can't wait for the winter to come!