Oslo "Leaking" (Cracked?)

[ontherise]

I keep posting here with questions and getting great feedback from all of you with much more experience. Well tonight we did a small fire just to take the edge off the night, doors/windows were open for much of the day.

We barely hit 500 tonight, hit 600/650 for the first time last night and didn't experience any problems yesterday. We did the break in slow burns on the Oslo for the required 3 and even did a couple 400ish fires to feel comfortable with the stove, the chimney, etc.

Well tonight, I happened to look over to the hearth and noticed 2 creosote puddles (presume to be creosote, it is liquid and it is brown and it smells like structure fire smells like - dirty smoke) under the stove. I am trying to get pictures uploaded but in the meantime - I was able to see where the creosote is coming from. It isn't the chimney connector and it isn't the air intake hole at the bottom. All along the outside of the stove where the stove appears to be seamed there is some white cement like material. In a couple spots (right above the leaks) that white cement area is brown, suggesting to me that something is leaking past there somehow...

Don't see anything about this on the forum so I don't know what is going on here. The stove hasn't gone above the 670 or so (as measured on the stove top front left corner, as Jotul suggests) that we reached last night. No deformities/cracks anywhere except that little leakage at those seams.

Will get pictures once the iPhone is done sending them and I am done resizing...

 

[BrotherBart]

It sounds like the moisture is cooking out of the furnace cement that they put between the panels of the stove body. Should have been taken care of with the break in burns. If you are burning at six hundred there isn't any creosote in that firebox to be leaking out.

 

[ontherise]

Here are some pictures -

Photo6 shows a bolt on the left hand side looking up. Almost looks like that bolt has some creosote on it? You can see the seem in the background of what I am talking about.

Photo7 shows the brand new creosote(?) puddles that were not there the night before

Photo8 shows that seam I am talking about. Cast Iron meeting Stainless or Enamel outer cover? Whatever it is, there are spots of discoloring above the leaks. I think this is from the left hand side as I can't get a good shot from the right right now with the stove still running. The leak on the left is not as bad and the blackish/brownish discoloring of the white cement (?) isn't as bad

Photo9 is the same picture but I think you can see the leak a bit more defined in that corner around the air intake.

Brand new stove so I'll be calling the stove shop without a doubt but just trying to better understand the what/why here. This definitely explains the smell. The first few fires I could smell that I was lighting a fire but it wasn't super strong, just figured it was from opening and shutting the loading door to load/tend. Tonight, I noticed the smell enough to triple check the CO detector batteries. Smelled like a "dirty fire" (Firefighterjake should know what i mean when I say, it reminded me of a "structure fire smell" different than a camp fire smell.) Chimney is fine, draft is still good, just those puddles that seemed to come around 520 or perhaps after I lowered air control a bit more and temp started descending from 520.

 

[ontherise]

It sounds like the moisture is cooking out of the furnace cement that they put between the panels of the stove body. Should have been taken care of with the break in burns. If you are burning at six hundred there isn't any creosote in that firebox to be leaking out.

I noticed that the cement powder was dustable when I was looking up there to take the pictures. Last night's fire went to about 650/670 and I had a hard time with the secondaries so when we went to bed I let the air control stay at about half and let the fire just go overnight. Woke up this morning and there were a few orange embers still going, glass was mostly clean, maybe a little smudgey from the dying down of the overnight fire (I imagine that is normal as you won't get flames all night?) so there would have been a bit of creosote in there from overnight but tonight's got to about 520 and that is when that brown, smokey smelling liquid started leaking out. No more has leaked out other than what those puddles show.

 

[ontherise]

just cleaned the larger of the spills up. Smells just like the turnout gear lockers after a fire. Definitely brownish. Threw it out - should have saved it for liquid smoke for hot sauce...

 

[Lucy]

Happened with our new Oslo last year also, It happened after a few fires. We were lucky we had heard of it happening with other new stoves, plus I remember reading about it in an old hearth post. Never happened again and the stove works wonderfully. No worries

 

[BrotherBart]

It isn't creosote leaking out of that stove. At those temps number one any creo is burning inside it and two if the panels were leaking air would be being sucked in through the leak. Not letting something drip out. It is moisture from the furnace cement I betcha.

But give the dealer a call. Let he/she/it earn that markup they got on that puppy.

(Ducking under the desk before a dealer reads this thread)

 

[ontherise]

It isn't creosote leaking out of that stove. At those temps number one any creo is burning inside it and two if the panels were leaking air would be being sucked in through the leak. Not letting something drip out. It is moisture from the furnace cement I betcha.

But give the dealer a call. Let he/she/it earn that markup they got on that puppy.

(Ducking under the desk before a dealer reads this thread)

Haha. Definitely planning on doing that no matter what folks say but just want to have the info first. Everything you say makes sense, the smoke like smell (brought the rag I used to clean the floor to my wife and asked if that was what I smell like when coming back from a fire - was a volly firefighter/emt-i until recently and she said definitely) throws me off a bit, though.

 

[ontherise]

Happened with our new Oslo last year also, It happened after a few fires. We were lucky we had heard of it happening with other new stoves, plus I remember reading about it in an old hearth post. Never happened again and the stove works wonderfully. No worries

Thanks I'm going to give the dealer a quick shout too and ignore this issue and move on with my life Appreciate the feedback, nice to know I'm not alone.

 

[cycloxer]

It's normal. It's just moisture coming out of the stove cement Jotul uses and any condensation inside of the stove. It should go away completely in a fire or two. The stove might smell for a week or so as the paint fully cures, but it will get progressively better with each burn. The smell is pertty strong the first couple of days.

 

[ontherise]

Called the stove shop and he hadn't heard of it at all (he is also an Oslo owner as are one of the other guys there) so he was going to call Jotul and ask. I am leaning towards cement drying/condensation. The smell and color throw me but enough of you have answered and seen the picture that I am feeling better about it. Surprised it didn't happen on the night of the 650 degree fire but happened on the night of the 500 and as it backed down a bit. But that would make more sense for condensation as well.

 

[cycloxer]

The only other way you could get that much water would be if your flue is leaking. Even if you had really wet wood, it would either not burn or evaporate the condensation. I lit up the Jotul for the first time this season and there was a fair amount of condensation that burnt out within the firebox. I had also touched up a few of the joints with stove cement. No worries.

 

[ontherise]

The only other way you could get that much water would be if your flue is leaking. Even if you had really wet wood, it would either not burn or evaporate the condensation. I lit up the Jotul for the first time this season and there was a fair amount of condensation that burnt out within the firebox. I had also touched up a few of the joints with stove cement. No worries.

thanks. The cap on the new chimney is good and snug and the night before we had a hotter fire going overnight and we've had a couple really dry fall days. I am chalking it up to cement on new stove (picked it up in May new out of box, just delivered by Jotul that week to the store) until I hear otherwise from the dealer/Jotul.

 

[ontherise]

Stove shop called Jotul and let me know that they said they see this every once in awhile with "really wet wood" and that it should self seal after a couple good, hot fires. To just keep an eye on it.

The break in burns were with wood that was seasoned for about 6 months (not a lot, I realize that, mixture of Ash, Maple, Cherry, Hickory and some white oak) but the past two nights were with the 2 year old wood. We'll see.

 

[colebrookman]

Also keep in mind the optimum burn is between 400/600 so there is little need to burn much higher. Be safe. According to the Oslo manual.
Ed

 

[ontherise]

I was told 450-650 and that is where I was trying to aim for

 

[ontherise]

I was told 450-650 and that is where I was trying to aim for, definitely not looking to go higher. Guy at stove shop who has one said he goes up to 700 without issue.

 

[ansehnlich1]

If it's like what I went through with mine it'll be all done and over with after 2 or 3 hot fires. I had some flux sizzling out of my oslo when new, the first couple hot fires. I put some aluminum down on the hearth where it was dripping. Went away and ain't been a problem since.

 

[webbie]

I've seen that happen with various new cast iron stoves - furnace cement is not watertight, and as we all know even dry wood is 20% moisture, so 50 lbs of wood is 10lbs of water.

In my experience, all such pinholes have filled themselves up and never been heard from again after using the stove for a couple days........

 

[ontherise]

I've seen that happen with various new cast iron stoves - furnace cement is not watertight, and as we all know even dry wood is 20% moisture, so 50 lbs of wood is 10lbs of water.

In my experience, all such pinholes have filled themselves up and never been heard from again after using the stove for a couple days........

Really, Really great point about the water and the weight. The past couple fires were the ones where I actually loaded the sucker up with a hefty amount of wood. Makes perfect sense and when you think about how small the two drip "puddles" were with how much wood there was, it did pretty good - A.) The chimney is doing its job since most went up up up and away and B.) The hole couldn't have been that bad for such small drips (and they dripped and stopped.. seem to be sealed now)..

Thanks for all the comments. Thanks for this site. Great resource.

 

[begreen]

Had this happen with our Castine as well. After a few days of good fires it went away and never came back.

 

[schortie]

Yep, happened a couple times on our new F 600. I thought it was just some condensation from lighting a cold stove. Hasn't happened since we've been lighting more fires.

 

[clr8ter]

None of you guys has had a warping problem when burning the Oslo above 600? I got mine to 550 last night, and now it rocks on the floor. (See my other post in "Trying to get the hang of it.)

 

[firefighterjake]

None of you guys has had a warping problem when burning the Oslo above 600? I got mine to 550 last night, and now it rocks on the floor. (See my other post in "Trying to get the hang of it.)

Nope . . . easily solved though . . . wedge a washer or penny underneath one or more legs and it should fix the issue.

 

[RSNovi]

Mine wobbled when it was first installed before any fires. They wedged two washers under one leg and that thing is sturdy now. They told me that almost every stove they install with legs needs to be shimmed. My floor could have been a little out of level, but I don't think ti was that bad.