Polished The Air Control Lever on the Jotul 500

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oldogy

Member
Oct 28, 2012
61
SE TN
This the second year for my Jotul 500. My chimney sweep and I installed it as the selling dealer thought it was a bit too far for his guys to travel. From day one the air control valve was much harder to operate than I thought it should be. Selling dealer said, "normal." I figured BS on that but thought it may get easier when broken in. Didn't get any easier so this year I disassembled the valve and lever. I found the lever had not been smoothed, in fact had areas on the camming surfaces that were rough. I took the most of the rough surface off with a file and then polished with 600 wet or dry paper. Results are in, a very easily operating air control. Should have done this last year.
 

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That's cool! Most people just use some graphite power. It's nice to fix it right though.
 
This the second year for my Jotul 500. My chimney sweep and I installed it as the selling dealer thought it was a bit too far for his guys to travel. From day one the air control valve was much harder to operate than I thought it should be. Selling dealer said, "normal." I figured BS on that but thought it may get easier when broken in. Didn't get any easier so this year I disassembled the valve and lever. I found the lever had not been smoothed, in fact had areas on the camming surfaces that were rough. I took the most of the rough surface off with a file and then polished with 600 wet or dry paper. Results are in, a very easily operating air control. Should have done this last year.
If you were too far to install, you're probably too far to service. This is far from the first example of crummy dealer service. I wonder if Jotul is good to work with outside the dealer. Some are, some aren't. From the looks of things, you might be able to handle most problems yourself anyway. Good job. And welcome. And thanks for sharing. It will probably help someone else with the same problem.
 
I'm glad you posted this. Our Castine's air control was very smooth so I didn't have to address this issue, but a few Jotul owners have reported it here. I wondered about the roughness of the castings under the slider valve on these stoves.
 
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