New Jotul F500 V3 Owner

[nunyabinis]

I finally retired my trusty VC Encore 2190 that I purchased in 1994 and plan to install it in the barn after I rebuild it.

My new Jotul was installed a couple weeks ago. Installation was painless since I took careful measurements and ordered the short leg kit with the stove. Everything mated up perfectly.

I completed the break in fires per the manual. I've now burned three normal fires. These are the results:

Fire One:

Stove puts out WAY more heat than my old VC. I'm stunned at how much more radiant heat comes out the front glass. Uncomfortably hot. My hounds used to lay in front of the VC all night. Now they jump up panting within thirty minutes and head to the back of the house. Stove top temperature is 575 degrees. Stove pipe is 550 degrees. Cat temp is 1400 degrees. I can't calm the fire down even on the lowest primary setting. Burns wood like it's free. I make sure that all doors are closed properly (especially the ash pan door) Wife complains that it's too hot in the kitchen. It's 41 degrees, cloudy and windy outside. Temperature hits 74 degrees in the living room. It never went over 68 degrees in the living room with the VC during similar conditions. I turn every fan in the house on to try to distribute the heat in our 2100 sq/ft house. End up opening an outside door to cool off.

Fire Two:

Same as fire one. Holy Smokes this thing gets hot Wondering if I have enough wood. I cut, split and stacked enough wood for about five years last winter. Wondering how long it'll last with this monster. Questioning my decision. Stayed up darn near all night reading everything I can find on Hearth.com and elsewhere to try to figure out what's going on. Watched many YouTube videos. Found nothing conclusive..

Fire Three:

Before starting the fire I cleaned everything really well looking for problems. While cleaning out the ash pan area I notice two 1/4 inch holes in each side of what the manual calls the Ash House Assembly. One on the left side and one on the right side. I shine a flashlight through the holes. Yep, they go all the way through. I start the fire and when it's once again burning hotter than the fires of Hell I put a magnet over each hole to cut off the air flow. Well, what do you know. The stove top is now sitting at 450 degrees. The stove pipe is 425 degrees. The Cat temp is now 1100 degrees. The cat is glowing a dull red instead of almost white hot. The fire is burning lazily just like my old VC and the stove isn't eating wood like it's candy.

Any thoughts you folks have on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bigealta]

wow good find, looking forward to other 500 owners chiming in.

Nice "break in fires" Hopefully everything is still kosher with the stove.

 

[moresnow]

Keep posting your progress for others with V3 interest. Interesting..

 

[Dave_in_ABQ]

How much wood did you load? How is your chimney configured?

 

[Todd]

Glad you found the culprit, primary boost air holes tend to do that with a strong draft. I wonder if this is the cause of the premature cat warping that has been reported on this stove? I covered mine on my F45 and have much more control and longer burn times.

 

[nunyabinis]

Update 1:

I put two large half splits in the stove at 7:30 pm last evening. This morning at 6 am the surface temp was 200 degrees and there was still a nice bed of coals. I raked the coals together into the middle of the fire grate then put two pieces of kindling and one quarter split on the coals. I put the primary draft on full and opened the ash pan door. It took about a minute for the wood to start burning vigorously. I shut the ash pan door. After ten minutes I put two quarter splits on the fire. After about thirty minutes the stove top is at 450 degrees and the Cat is at 1100 degrees. I have now turned the primary draft to minimum. Everything is proceeding nicely.

Before I covered the Ash House holes with magnetics there would be no coals in the fire box when I got up in the morning so I would have to start the fire from scratch. Now the stove is operating just about like my old VC did.

My stove sits out on the hearth. The stove pipe comes out the back and turns 90 degrees upward and runs through the chimney flue.

 

[Todd]

Careful using the ash pan door for start ups. If you happen to get distracted you could cause some damage if left open too long.

 

[EbS-P]

FWIW I consider 4-450 temp on my outlet connector my minimum burn rate temp on my F400. And I have a fully insulated liner. Glad it’s working

Evan

 

[bigealta]

Update 1:

I put two large half splits in the stove at 7:30 pm last evening. This morning at 6 am the surface temp was 200 degrees and there was still a nice bed of coals. I raked the coals together into the middle of the fire grate then put two pieces of kindling and one quarter split on the coals. I put the primary draft on full and opened the ash pan door. It took about a minute for the wood to start burning vigorously. I shut the ash pan door. After ten minutes I put two quarter splits on the fire. After about thirty minutes the stove top is at 450 degrees and the Cat is at 1100 degrees. I have now turned the primary draft to minimum. Everything is proceeding nicely.

Before I covered the Ash House holes with magnetics there would be no coals in the fire box when I got up in the morning so I would have to start the fire from scratch. Now the stove is operating just about like my old VC did.

My stove sits out on the hearth. The stove pipe comes out the back and turns 90 degrees upward and runs through the chimney flue.

Is this 1 of the ports?

 

[nunyabinis]

Is this 1 of the ports?

View attachment 288331

Yes. And you can see the other port on the other side in that diagram as well.

 

[CSJ_PA]

Nice find. I had the same experience with my new F500v3. I have a 29ft chimney and ended up installing a key damper to get a handle on my fire. Total control now. I'll add a magnet to those two holes now as well.

 

[nunyabinis]

Update 2:

I put four quarter splits in the stove. This is the most wood I've put in at one time. I would consider this a full load. Draft at minimum. After about thirty minutes the stove top was at 550 degrees, the outlet was at 500 degrees and the Cat was up to 1550 degrees. The Cat was bright red. The fire was burning much lazier than before I put the magnets over the Ash House holes but it's still pretty darn hot. I'm sweating. I turned all fans on and opened an outside door.

Thirty minutes later and the stove top is at 450 degrees, outlet is 425 degrees and the Cat is 1100 degrees. The Cat is dull red. The stove is now operating at what I would consider "normal".

The Cat probe is herky jerky. It was stuck on 1550 degrees for some time even though the Cat was glowing dull red then it instantly went down to 1100 degrees. I'll be ordering an electronic Cat probe today.

It is my opinion that in order to pass current EPA emissions this stove is set from the factory to run on what I would consider "maximum" at all times. Sort of how I used to run my VC when it was less than 20 degrees outside. I understand that, but if anything goes wrong....a leaky gasket, a cracked stove cement joint, Operator Error, etc... it can quickly lead to an over fire situation.

Thoughts?

 

[Todd]

That sounds normal and the way it should operate. You will see a short spike in temps at first then it should settle down and cruise for a couple hours before falling off. Cat temps maybe a little high since it’s new and a little hyperactive til broke in. Nothing wrong with opening a window or two til you get things figured out lol.

 

[nunyabinis]

Update 3:

Under the heading of "It's always something"...... I ordered a Condar Watchman Cat temperature monitor but the probe won't fit into the hole. The shaft of the probe that came with the stove is 5mm in diameter. The probe that came with the Watchman is 6.5mm in diameter. AARGH

I knew that there are different probe lengths but I wrongly assumed that all probe diameters would be the same since I haven't seen probe diameter listed in any specs. I REALLY don't want to drill out the hole in the cast iron in a brand new stove.

Thoughts? Options?

 

[EbS-P]

Send it back, sell it on. Maybe an Auber? I really like my two. One is the the wireless version.

Thermometer for Stove Pipe,Chimney,Outdoor Wood Boiler,w/ Alarm Thermometer for monitoring temperature on stove, chimney, or outdoor wood boiler [AT200CHIM] - $74.99 : Auber Instruments, Inc., Temperature control solutions for home and industry

Thanksgiving sale ends on 12/1/2024! This thermometer kit can be used for monitoring the temperature in stove pipes, chimneys, and outdoor wood boilers. This thermometer reads a thermocouple probe, shows the temperature on its red LED display, and makes a buzzing sound when temperature rises...

www.auberins.com

 

[nunyabinis]

Send it back, sell it on. Maybe an Auber? I really like my two. One is the the wireless version.

Thermometer for Stove Pipe,Chimney,Outdoor Wood Boiler,w/ Alarm Thermometer for monitoring temperature on stove, chimney, or outdoor wood boiler [AT200CHIM] - $74.99 : Auber Instruments, Inc., Temperature control solutions for home and industry

Thanksgiving sale ends on 12/1/2024! This thermometer kit can be used for monitoring the temperature in stove pipes, chimneys, and outdoor wood boilers. This thermometer reads a thermocouple probe, shows the temperature on its red LED display, and makes a buzzing sound when temperature rises...

www.auberins.com

Thanks for the link.

Would it be correct to assume that an Auber K type thermocouple with two lug mini connector will work with a Condar Watchman?

 

[EbS-P]

Thanks for the link.

Would it be correct to assume that an Auber K type thermocouple with two lug mini connector will work with a Condar Watchman?

Watchman manual.

http://www.condar.com/images/Digital-Gallery/watchman_operating_instructions.pdf

It’s seems they would. No guarantees.

 

[nunyabinis]

Watchman manual.

http://www.condar.com/images/Digital-Gallery/watchman_operating_instructions.pdf

It’s seems they would. No guarantees.

View attachment 288681

Confirmed: The Auber TC-K-BR probe does indeed work with the Condar base unit. I tested both the Condar probe and the Auber probe in a 400 degree oven and they both register the same temperature.

I slid the probe into the hole in the Jotul and placed a magnet on top of each side of the probe mounting bracket to hold it in place. It's supposed to get cold here tomorrow so I'll fire up the Jotul and test it.

 

[deslpwr]

Hey there. New to this forum and new owner of a F500 V3 Oslo as well. I'm running into similar issues as you. What type of magnets are you using and where'd you get them? Thanks!

 

[nunyabinis]

Hey there. New to this forum and new owner of a F500 V3 Oslo as well. I'm running into similar issues as you. What type of magnets are you using and where'd you get them? Thanks!

Cheap 3/4 inch ceramic magnets from Lowes. Magnets are handy for all kinds of things so I had them on hand.

Ceramic Magnets

I couldn't be happier with the Jotul after covering those unregulated air holes. I'm sitting next to it as I type this. It puts out WAY more radiant heat than my old VC did so I had to fabricobble together an aluminum heat shield that I put between my Man Chair and the stove.

 

[deslpwr]

Thanks for the reply. I'll run out and grab those magnets tomorrow. I've been running mine straight since Wednesday night. When it's fully clean and all the ash is empty, it runs too hot, too fast for my liking. I'll need to start exploring the other issues I've read about.

 

[xman23]

Interesting, those holes. They must have needed more air during testing. There not on my F500 V1. It's a well known to never start up or run with the ash door open. Supposedly it can get the floor hot enough to crack the stove.

FYI, when you pull out the ash pan you can get ash and chunks on the floor of the pan box. When you put the pan back in the debris gets pushed to the back. Now the pan prevents the ash door from fully closing. My wife did that, and couldn't control the stove. She had all the towns fire trucks to the cabin.

 

[nunyabinis]

Interesting, those holes. They must have needed more air during testing. There not on my F500 V1. It's a well known to never start up or run with the ash door open. Supposedly it can get the floor hot enough to crack the stove.

FYI, when you pull out the ash pan you can get ash and chunks on the floor of the pan box. When you put the pan back in the debris gets pushed to the back. Now the pan prevents the ash door from fully closing. My wife did that, and couldn't control the stove. She had all the towns fire trucks to the cabin.

Indeed, The first time I cleaned out the ashes I noticed some of the ashes in the pan getting scraped off the top as I slid out the ash pan. I was on my hands and knees cleaning out the Ash House when I noticed the holes. I thought "You sneaky little devils". The engineers could have certainly hidden those holes in a spot that would have been much harder to notice and/or cover up. Now the stove is easy to control. With a full load of wood and the primary draft on minimum the stove runs at 475 degrees on top and 1100 degrees at the Cat.

I put two large splits in at 9pm last night. At 6am there were plenty of coals to get her fired up again within a few minutes. It was 28 degrees outside and 72 degrees inside. I'm liking it.

 

[rwh63]

Careful using the ash pan door for start ups. If you happen to get distracted you could cause some damage if left open too long.

i don't totally disagree with this statement; however, i commonly use my ash door to get a new fire going, or to goose an old fire with new logs. bigger thing to be concerned about is cracking that door with any damper/bypass gate closed. that with overfire the stove into very hot temps.

 

[xman23]

i don't totally disagree with this statement; however, i commonly use my ash door to get a new fire going, or to goose an old fire with new logs. bigger thing to be concerned about is cracking that door with any damper/bypass gate closed. that with overfire the stove into very hot temps.

The Oslo is well know as a work horse, rugged stove. My V1 is 22 years old and perfect. Over the years, the Oslo base crack at the front corners is about the only failure in this stove. If your buying a used one look for it. I believe it can be caused by running the stove long term, with lots of air flow through the ash door, below the base. Some how I guess it gets the base to hot. Can it be done by other overfire, maybe. I don't need to run mine anywhere near the maximum stove top temperature. When my wife didn't get the ash door latched the stove went nuclear in the startup load. In that short time the water pot went to a violent boil. Then the fire dept. arrived. We got lucky, it didn't crack the base. But with the V1 and V2 non cat, it's no problem running with the front door or side door open. It's made to do that. I do that to startup the stove. I have the Jotul screen that replaces the front door.

I don't have a cat, so I can't comment on the V3. Do they still sell the front door screen for the V3? How would you use it with the cat?