New, with some help needed.

[Nickthegrip]

Hi - my first post here after looking around for a few days - great site.

This is our stove, I know its a Jotul...cause its stamped right on the front I don't know what model it is.

We live in a somewhat large farmer's cape with an open lower floor plan. The room the stove is in is located on the first floor, which is open (cathedral ceiling/loft) to the second floor where our kid's rooms are.

Once I get the stove going, I close it down as much as I can. My problem is that this thing BLAZES - the first floor house thermometer normally reads 85, and the second floor is above that. Obviously that makes things really uncomfortable for everyone. The rooms off of the main room - our living room, bedroom, playroom, don't get anywhere near as warm.

We have ceiling fans in the large room (from the second floor ceiling), as well as three other rooms on the first floor, and fans in both second floor rooms, of that helps distribute heat.

A friend of mine says I can put a damper/"flapper" (yeah I'm new) in the pipe, which may help with burning too hot - but I don't know if that's true?

Please let me know what you think about this thing not burning so hot, and how to get better air flow into other rooms. If you need more pictures or a better description of our floor plan let me know...

Thanks for any help you can give me!

 

[yanksforever]

First thing you need to do is check you door and glass gaskets. If there is air getting in, the stove will "run away" very easily. Use a dollar bill
and insert it half way in the stove and close the door on it. Then see if you can pull it out. If you can, you need to replace the door gasket. If you have an ask pan door or side door...do the same with them too. Get back to us and let us know what you find!

 

[begreen]

That is a Jotul F500 Oslo, a great stove. When checking gaskets, also, be absolutely sure that the ash pan door is closed and sealing tightly against its gasket. Ash can accumulate and get packed in behind the ash pan. Take a flashlight, poker and a vacuum to clean the area out. How tall is the chimney on this stove?

It could be that the stove is running just fine. We would need some more info on what is hot and how the stove is being run. Do you have a thermometer on the stove top? If so, what temperature is it running at? If not, stop at the hardware store and pick up a stove top thermometer. How much wood are you loading in the stove and how soon are you closing down the air control?

The stove will get hot with a full load of wood, so at this time of year, only burn a few splits at a time for less heat. To move the heat, try this trick, it really works. Take a regular table fan or a box fan and set it in the hallway or in the adjacent room, on the floor. Point the fan towards the stove room and turn it on low. That will help cool the stove room while greatly assisting convective airflow. The cool air will be replaced by the warm air from the stove room and will help even out temps in the rest of the house. If you can post a sketch of the floor plan we can assist with more precise placement of this fan.

 

[Nickthegrip]

Thank you both for your replies, they are most appreciated.

I did the dollar test, the gaskets seem fine. I do not have a thermometer, but I will get one. The stove seems to burn at this temperature at all times of year/weather, FYI. The chimney for this stove is a seemingly large one in width, it is almost two stories tall, just below the roof peak line.

For loading, I load it heavy, and then cycle it. I have to load it heavy if I want to get it through the night. Even at that point I have to get up at 3 AM to re-load it to make it through, which I certainly don't want to. i burn mostly red oak, dried well.

I have a pick of the stove with the opening up to the second floor. The doors you see are to the lower and one of the upper bedrooms. a floorplan is attached, the dotted red lines represent the second level and stairs, the large red dot is the woodstove.

 

[begreen]

It's been rainy and cold today, but not enough for a full fire. So I started up a few splits and let them burn down to a good coal bed. Then, instead of loading up the stove, I've been adding just a split or two. Just enough to keep a steady fire going. This has kept the house comfortable without too much heat. If I loaded the stove up, we'd have to have the windows open. That would be a waste. Instead the stove is running at half temp and doing fine.

You need to tailor the feeding of the stove according to the heating need. Feed it less wood for less heat. Also, try the fan trick mentioned. It really works.

 

[Nickthegrip]

Ok, will do. Any advice on the overnights for the upcoming winter? It can get to the single digits here overnight.

 

[Todd]

Which way do you have your ceiling fans set, blowing down or up? I think most people find they work best in reverse sucking the heat up and outward. Maybe just try them the opposite of what they are set at now?

 

[begreen]

Ok, will do. Any advice on the overnights for the upcoming winter? It can get to the single digits here overnight.

There are a lot of New England F500 owners here that can help you out with this. It's a first rate stove. Over time you will get better and better and running it to your satisfaction. When it gets cold, you will be burning full loads of wood. The high stove temps you are seeing now will be a blessing. Guess where the family will be congregating when it gets that cold.

 

[krex1010]

Use less wood, heat comes from the wood not the stove. Just because you can get 5 or 6 splits into the stove doesn't mean you have to put that many in. Try building a fire with like 3 smaller splits and let it burn to coals and only add a log or two when reloading, and let it burn down to coals before reloading. You may find that a 2 inch bed of coals is all you need to keep your house warm. Also there is nothing wrong with cracking a window or 2.
Also at this time of year is it really cold enough to need a fire all night? Right now you probably would be fine with lighting a fire in the evening and getting half a load in there cut the air back once the fire is established and let it go out during the night. Once it gets cold enough to really need overnight burns there are ways to get an extended burn without packing it to the hilt. Honestly I think it sounds like you are just feeding that stove too much wood

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum Nickthegrip.

You have been given some great advice. The trick with the fans is the best advice I received from this forum! Ceiling fans should be blowing up in winter and down in summer (sounds backwards to me but it works). A small fan set on the floor in a hallway or adjacent room blowing the cool air into the warm room does amazing things. We have a long hallway and a small fan set there warms the rear rooms quite rapidly and much warmer than we had ever gotten them before. This is appreciated too because one of the rooms is a bathroom. I hate showering when the room is cold....

 

[firefighterjake]

Hi - my first post here after looking around for a few days - great site.

This is our stove, I know its a Jotul...cause its stamped right on the front I don't know what model it is. F-500 Oslo . . . a fantastic stove . . . a real work-horse and a looker to boot.

We live in a somewhat large farmer's cape with an open lower floor plan. The room the stove is in is located on the first floor, which is open (cathedral ceiling/loft) to the second floor where our kid's rooms are.

Once I get the stove going, I close it down as much as I can. My problem is that this thing BLAZES - the first floor house thermometer normally reads 85, and the second floor is above that. Obviously that makes things really uncomfortable for everyone. The rooms off of the main room - our living room, bedroom, playroom, don't get anywhere near as warm.

We have ceiling fans in the large room (from the second floor ceiling), as well as three other rooms on the first floor, and fans in both second floor rooms, of that helps distribute heat. You probably already know . . . but are you running the ceiling fans in the "Winter" mode . . . this may help move the heat better.

A friend of mine says I can put a damper/"flapper" (yeah I'm new) in the pipe, which may help with burning too hot - but I don't know if that's true? You can . . . but I'm not so sure the problem is with the stove (at least without knowing the size of your home . . . knowing how your burn, etc.) or the chimney or in moving out the heat.

Please let me know what you think about this thing not burning so hot, and how to get better air flow into other rooms. If you need more pictures or a better description of our floor plan let me know...

Thanks for any help you can give me!

 

[firefighterjake]

Thank you both for your replies, they are most appreciated.

I did the dollar test, the gaskets seem fine. I do not have a thermometer, but I will get one. The stove seems to burn at this temperature at all times of year/weather, FYI. The chimney for this stove is a seemingly large one in width, it is almost two stories tall, just below the roof peak line.

For loading, I load it heavy, and then cycle it. I have to load it heavy if I want to get it through the night. Even at that point I have to get up at 3 AM to re-load it to make it through, which I certainly don't want to. i burn mostly red oak, dried well. Hmmm . . . this time of year you may not want to put your primo well seasoned oak and load the stove to the gills . . . and if things are working correctly you should be able to get a pretty decent burn . . . for example last night here in Maine I loaded the stove up with some chunks from my chunks, punks and uglies pile (mostly maple along with some birch and elm) . . . woke up this morning to a house 70 degrees and with enough coals to get the fire going after tossing on some kindling and some cardboard. If you could let us know how you run the stove it might help . . . i.e. do you cut back the air control to get a secondary burn?

I have a pick of the stove with the opening up to the second floor. The doors you see are to the lower and one of the upper bedrooms. a floorplan is attached, the dotted red lines represent the second level and stairs, the large red dot is the woodstove.

 

[firefighterjake]

It's been rainy and cold today, but not enough for a full fire. So I started up a few splits and let them burn down to a good coal bed. Then, instead of loading up the stove, I've been adding just a split or two. Just enough to keep a steady fire going. This has kept the house comfortable without too much heat. If I loaded the stove up, we'd have to have the windows open. That would be a waste. Instead the stove is running at half temp and doing fine.

You need to tailor the feeding of the stove according to the heating need. Feed it less wood for less heat. Also, try the fan trick mentioned. It really works.

+1 . . . sometimes during the shoulder season I'll just have one starter fire and a re-load . . . the heat from the heated stove will keep the house warm and keep the chill out of the air for all day . . . and when it starts to get chilly you can light a second fire.

Conversely sometimes I'll get a fire going and then just add one or two splits during the course of the day . . . keeping the air control open . . . faster burns which means more wasted wood . . . but the temp is decent and since I'm burning from my chunks, punks and uglies pile I don't mind being a bit wasteful.

Oh yeah . . . the fan trick works really well at moving the heat.

 

[logger]

Yah, probably not cold enough this time of year to be loading that sucker full. We just had our first fire of the year the other day and man did the house heat up quick. Its tough to get things right in the shoulder season, but once you do its easy sailing w the Oslo. Id take the advice of cracking some windows if its 85 in there.. that, or start a nudist colony.

 

[Nickthegrip]

Wow - thanks for all of the replies, i really appreciate you all taking a couple minutes for me.

Some answers for you - I normally start the fire out, get it going well, get a bed of coals, and load it to the gills and close off everything i can- it still burns like crazy. I now understand that's wrong, but i also don't want to be loading a couple of pieces every 30 minutes, this thing burns through wood like crazy.

I run the ceiling fan in the room with the stove with it blowing up, I knew that trick. What do I do with the fans in the other rooms, will running them help draw the heat in somehow? I will absolutely do the floor fan rick, that's pretty interesting.

I don't yet have a thermomoeter, I have a crummy short term memory and have to remember to get one.

Obviously I'm doing something wrong, and appreciate any comments.

 

[krex1010]

Another thing I do to help balance the house out it I turn on the fan on my central ac/heat system. How well this works depends alot on the location of your returns for the system but it works pretty well in my house.
Also I don't know if you mentioned it but what kind of wood are you burning? I can't understand why you would have to be adding wood so often. I know these EPA stoves always let some air in no matter how much you close your control, but maybe you do have a gasket or other air leakage issue.
Try making a fire with 3-4 medium splits, let in burn to coals, then add two medium splits. Now see how long it takes for those two splits to burn down to coals about the size of golf balls. If you have hardwood fuel I would think you should get at least two hours and likely more out of those two splits.

 

[partybob99]

That is a Jotul F500 Oslo, a great stove. When checking gaskets, also, be absolutely sure that the ash pan door is closed and sealing tightly against its gasket. Ash can accumulate and get packed in behind the ash pan. Take a flashlight, poker and a vacuum to clean the area out. How tall is the chimney on this stove?

It could be that the stove is running just fine. We would need some more info on what is hot and how the stove is being run. Do you have a thermometer on the stove top? If so, what temperature is it running at? If not, stop at the hardware store and pick up a stove top thermometer. How much wood are you loading in the stove and how soon are you closing down the air control?

The stove will get hot with a full load of wood, so at this time of year, only burn a few splits at a time for less heat. To move the heat, try this trick, it really works. Take a regular table fan or a box fan and set it in the hallway or in the adjacent room, on the floor. Point the fan towards the stove room and turn it on low. That will help cool the stove room while greatly assisting convective airflow. The cool air will be replaced by the warm air from the stove room and will help even out temps in the rest of the house. If you can post a sketch of the floor plan we can assist with more precise placement of this fan.

I agree with BeGreen wholeheartedly about the fan. Pointing the output of the fan TOWARD the stove room has done wonders. Before I read the post here, I was pointing the output away from the stove room and into the cold room and nothing was happening.

Also, about the ceiling fans. Counterclockwise for summer and clockwise for winter. However, in my home both seem to work about the same when it comes to moving air around, except when I have the fan set for "summer" i can feel the air on my skin but on "winter" I feel nothing.

 

[firefighterjake]

Wow - thanks for all of the replies, i really appreciate you all taking a couple minutes for me.

Some answers for you - I normally start the fire out, get it going well, get a bed of coals, and load it to the gills and close off everything i can- it still burns like crazy. I now understand that's wrong, but i also don't want to be loading a couple of pieces every 30 minutes, this thing burns through wood like crazy. OK, not so sure what is wrong about this . . . you're reloading the stove on a bed of coals, bringing the stove up to temp and then cutting back on the air to achieve secondary burns . . . assuming here you are getting secondary burns . . . this is a good thing and desired. Now if you are not able to get good secondary burns or you are getting short burn times I might think you have a leak somewhere . . .

I run the ceiling fan in the room with the stove with it blowing up, I knew that trick. What do I do with the fans in the other rooms, will running them help draw the heat in somehow? I will absolutely do the floor fan rick, that's pretty interesting. What happens is that you establish an air current . . . the fan is blowing cool air near the floor (since hot air rises and cool air falls) towards the woodstove . . . where the air is heated and it rises and flows out to fill the void the cool air has left behind as it has dropped . . . what you end up with is the air current of cooler air moving towards the stove and heated air moving outwards.

I don't yet have a thermomoeter, I have a crummy short term memory and have to remember to get one. Time to make a list . . . thermometers are useful . . . very useful.
Obviously I'm doing something wrong, and appreciate any comments.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Wow - thanks for all of the replies, i really appreciate you all taking a couple minutes for me.

Some answers for you - I normally start the fire out, get it going well, get a bed of coals, and load it to the gills and close off everything i can- it still burns like crazy. I now understand that's wrong, but i also don't want to be loading a couple of pieces every 30 minutes, this thing burns through wood like crazy.

I run the ceiling fan in the room with the stove with it blowing up, I knew that trick. What do I do with the fans in the other rooms, will running them help draw the heat in somehow? I will absolutely do the floor fan rick, that's pretty interesting.

I don't yet have a thermomoeter, I have a crummy short term memory and have to remember to get one.

Obviously I'm doing something wrong, and appreciate any comments.

Nick, you state that after you get a bed of coals you load it to the gills and close of everything. I hope you do not close off everything immediately upon reloading the stove. You need to leave that draft open long enough to get a fire established and the moisture evaporated. That could take from 10 to 30 minutes depending on your fuel and stove. The back the draft off and it should be good. Remember, the wood should at least be charred before dialing down the draft.

 

[vvvv]

i think i see a blockplate @ the bottom of the chimni? damper will cut down draft, extend life of coals

 

[begreen]

The stove is being run like it is mid-winter. During this mild weather, after the initial coal bed is established, just feed it a large split or round every few hours. By large I mean 7-10". As the weather cools, try loading the stove just half-way but only after the coals have burned down sufficiently. If you put a fresh load of wood on a very hot coal bed, it is going to ignite dramatically and burn quickly. This is a waste of wood.

Even in mid-winter, let the coal bed die down more before refueling. Then, rake the coals to the front center of the stove. Next, pack it almost full with large splits, filling in the gaps with medium splits. When the wood starts burning well, close the air down enough so that the flames start to get lazy and waft. The fire will start to pick up again to a good blaze in 5-10 minutes. At that point close down the air all the way.

 

[krex1010]

The stove is being run like it is mid-winter. During this mild weather, after the initial coal bed is established, just feed it a large split or round every few hours. By large I mean 7-10". As the weather cools, try loading the stove just half-way but only after the coals have burned down sufficiently. If you put a fresh load of wood on a very hot coal bed, it is going to ignite dramatically and burn quickly. This is a waste of wood.

Even in mid-winter, let the coal bed die down more before refueling. Then, rake the coals to the front center of the stove. Next, pack it almost full with large splits, filling in the gaps with medium splits. When the wood starts burning well, close the air down enough so that the flames start to get lazy and waft. The fire will start to pick up again to a good blaze in 5-10 minutes. At that point close down the air all the way.

^ what he said!
Remember the point is to heat the house not keep the stove full. There is no way I am waking up in the middle of the night to feed my stove unless my house is so cold that it wakes me up. There is nothing wrong with leaving your coals burning for a few hours. If my house is warm I don't add wood until the coals have burned down to the point that if I lose much more I will have trouble getting the fire going. At this time of year we build a fire in the evening, by the time we go to bed the place is like 75 degrees, I will fill the stove up half way again around 11 and go to bed. When i get up around 7 the house is usually still around 72 degrees and I have some coals left depending on my mood I may throw a small split or two on to get a quick burst of heat to enjoy with my coffee or I may just let it go out, but the house will have enough heat to stay warm all day without adding more wood. I will start using more wood in a month or so but for days with like 50ish degree highs and 30-40 degree lows this works well for us.

 

[Nickthegrip]

Ok, I got a floor fan, ensured that my ceiling fans are reversed, got a thermometer, and have been using less splits in the fire. Prior to this I was putting pieces on absolutely red hot coals, I thought thats what I had to do. I had a fire two nights ago, and realize I have to get a better coal bed I think...I had them shoveled towards the center but it didn't seem to be enough - I'm going to try to start out with 4 splits to get a better bed.

I was running this thing incorrectly, definitely too hot - I didn't realize that I should be letting it die down more than I was.

What should my correct operating temperature be at startup, and then leveling it off - or is that a house by house comfort thing?

 

[begreen]

The stove top temp when it is cruising is going to depend on the house, the installation location and the outdoor temps. For some, in the shoulder seasons it may be 350 °F, for others during the dead of winter it may be 650 °F.

 

[Nickthegrip]

Ok, got it - I'll find my own comfort zone. One more question - where on the stove should I place the thermometer? Right now it is on the opposit side of the side door.