Walk me through building a fire in new Jotul F3 CB

[laneysprout]

We installed a new Jotul F3 CB a few weeks ago, tempered it, and are now having a heck of a time developing and maintaining a fire. We are complete newbies and purchased the stove new, on a whim, to heat our 900 sq. foot, two-story house because the tax credit was so appealing and it seemed more efficient and sustainable.

We can barely get the kindling to stay lit and while the logs seem to be burning, per se, there aren't any nice, full, billowy flames.

It's not heating the house (which it should be able to do easily, it seems).

The glass door keeps getting black.

We have no idea which vent (bottom or top or ash pan or door) to open when or for how long.

We are trying to burn seasoned oak, but we've tried all the methods we can find online and nothing seems to be working.

Can someone please just walk me, literally step by step, through getting a fire going? My husband won't ask for help, but I will .

Thanks in advance!
Alana

 

[jotulguy]

The easiest way to find out if you truly have good wood is to buy a bag of wood at your local mini-mart. That stuff is dry for sure. Also many folks on here love the super cedars as a starter. The trick is getting a hot fire fast with little smoke to get your draft started. If you want to try with wood and news paper here is what I recommend. First make your kindling as small as you can and have lots of it. I like the Nantucket knot myself. to do this take the news paper and roll it corner to corner in a tube like shape. Then loosely tie a knot in the middle of it. This does 2 things, lights fast on the ends and gives you some density in the centers. For that little stove I would use at least 8 of those. Set them on the base of the stove. On top loosely set on your kindling. Dont be shy with it. That is what is going to give you your coals to maintain a fire. Light the paper in several spots. Make sure your air control is wide open(on the top right of the stove) and your start up air( on the face of the stove in the circle opens to the right also.

 

[southbalto]

That thing should do nicely heating a 900 sqft house assuming it's reasonably well insulated.

Is the stove centrally located in the house?
Does the stove vent to the back or straight up?
How tall is the chimney?
Where did you get the wood?

 

[southbalto]

Never never never have the ash pan door open when operating the stove

lots of kindling, few small splits, primary air and secondary/startup air wide open until the stovetop hits 450. Then close the start up air and start backing the primary air down.

 

[laneysprout]

Thanks for the tips, jotulguy. I will give it a try tonight with the newspaper and kindling. do need to leave the door open when burning the kindling & newspaper? how long should i let it burn before adding the logs? is there a specific way we should stack them? is it the same for overnight? at which point do we close the air control and start up air - and how much?

southbalto - It is located towards the front of the house, but close to the stairwell that heads upstairs. It vents up for maybe two feet and then back (it is in a corner) at and angle to outside and then straight up outside. I'm sure how tall the chimney is - 12 ft. is ringing a bell? i'd have to check with my husband. we got the wood off of craigslist, at the recommendation of a friend who had gotten wood from this person in the past.

 

[laneysprout]

southbalto - just saw your follow-up post, thanks. we don't have a thermometer (!)...i'll get one tomorrow. honestly, my husband was basically guessing at the temperature when he was tempering it.

 

[jotulguy]

12 ft is below the manufactures recommendations. The minimum is 15 ft. Can you extend it if that is the case? The chimney height will make a huge difference in your satisfaction.

 

[laneysprout]

how long should we burn the kindling before adding logs? how many?

 

[southbalto]

Dry wood (splits) should engage/catch fire if sitting on top of kindling.

I would just start small. Get two or three small splits going and let the stove roll up to 500 degrees or so. You really need to pick up a stove top thermo.

 

[southbalto]

An inexpensive way to rule out the wood would be to pick up some at the grocery store. They usually have small bundles for sale that are kiln dried.

 

[laneysprout]

jotulguy, your suggestion for kindling worked great we used the nantucket knot and covered it loosely with small kindling. MUCH less smoke than we have been getting. We let that burn for about 15 minutes or so and my husband just added a few split logs.

the starter air valve is now closed. is this correct?

at what point do i close the top valve, and at what rate?

thank you both so much for your help!

 

[jotulguy]

I would recommend letting that first load almost burn through. Since you have mentioned draft issues before. Then go a head and load it up again. once that load catches you can set the primary air (top right) at half. If you see fire at the top of the firebox coming from the tubes, you have it! Then you can turn it down to about 25% open and let it it heat your home up.

 

[laneysprout]

Yay!! Semi-success! We re-loaded, the wood caught, and we turned the primary air down to half way...BUT, we don't see fire at the top of the firebox. The flames seemed to die down a little once we closed the valve half way. Should we keep it at half-way for awhile to wait for fire at the top of the firebox, or do we need to go back to keeping it closed a bit longer?

 

[jotulguy]

I would open it back up. And try shutting it down again in a few minutes.

 

[gizmos]

Be careful with leaving that bottom starter air open too long. If you forget to close that bottom air the fire can run away from you, even when you close the primary air. I only leave that open until the fire gets going and draft is good. Then I close it, maybe 200 plus degrees. I dont leave the stove until its closed, that's just my routine so I don't forget that.
Everyone gave good advise. I lay a 1x2 in the front and one in the back. I place a lightnin bug in the middle and crisscross my kindling, like building a log cabin and lay two very small splits on top. The kindling gets the top splits and the two bottom 1x2's allow for air until they get going. Everyone figures out a good way to start up that works for them.
Second load when fire dies down. Usually better when there is no active flame. Then i run it to 500-550 and shut the primary air down to about 75 percent closed. 10 mins or so later closed all the way. (this all depends on a lot of things) the kind of wood, how dry, your chimney set up, how hot you want to run the stove,etc.
After that, rake coals to the front and load it up full.
Good luck, tons of good information here on the boards.

 

[gizmos]

Going to be hard for you to gauge what's going on with out a stove top thermometer. Around 400 degrees is where you will get some good secondary burn from the top. And if you close your air down and loose your burn, you probably closed it too soon, open air back up. (or your wood is not dry enough)

 

[laneysprout]

Update: we got a good, rolling fire going last night and let it burn, turning the primary vent down to 50%. Around a half hour later, around midnight , there were no longer flames, but you could see that the wood was burning and was red hot. My husband added a medium sized log and shut the primary air vent before heading to bed.

This morning at 7am, the fire was out and the door was black again. Should we have waited even longer to close the primary air vent? Left it 25% open throughout the night? Is temperature going to be the best way to gauge when to start closing that valve? We are going to get a thermometer today.

Thanks so much for all the help.

 

[southbalto]

You really should be operating that stove in cycles. Get a roaring fire going, close down the air slowly, let it coal and wait for the stove top to cool to 250-350. Repeat.

If you just throw a split on top of coals with the air shut down you're going to end up with black glass.

 

[gizmos]

Oh yes, that will give you black glass every time. As stated above, must run the stove in cycles. You added fresh wood to hot coal base and starved fire from oxygen by closing air a 100 percent. When you add wood, you must run the temps up and get the wood burning good before closing the air down. Between 500-600 degrees turn your air down until stove settles. Then you can leave it.
Before bed I load it full, then keep checking it.
Example, last night loaded 4 large splits, it was 600 when I turned it down 100 percent. And even at 600 it was choking my fire. I'm burning walnut and ash this year, I had to open the air a bit and Watch it for another 10 mins. Then I was able to close it 100 percent with good secondary burn.
Last year I burned madrone, 500-600 degrees I could close air 100 percent and not have to mess with it and the fire would still rage. This year i have to close the air down in two phases. Just depends on the type of wood and his dry it is.
Had a large coal base this morning.

 

[begreen]

Do need to leave the door open when burning the kindling & newspaper?
Yes, definitely. You may also need to keep the door slightly opened to get the first load of splits burning as well. The little start up air vent on the stove is a joke. It is much too stiff and provides too little start up air to be useful. If you want to have an easy start, get some SuperCedars. Break one puck into quarters and use two quarters under your kindling. That should light off quite well and quickly.


how long should i let it burn before adding the logs?
That depends on the kindling dryness and quantity. It should be fully aflame and able to ignite a couple skinny (~2") splits laid crosswise on top of the burning kindling.
is there a specific way we should stack them? is it the same for overnight? at which point do we close the air control and start up air - and how much?
Crisscross the first layer of splits. You want it to be easy for air and flame to envelop the new wood. I gave up using the dinky start up air and just left the door slightly open instead.

Until proven otherwise, suspect that your wood is less than ideally seasoned. This is very common with unknown wood coming from an unknown seller. To assert good dry wood from a seller, get references from several buyers and check them out. Then buy the wood now or in early spring at the latest and stack it covered on top for the summer.

 

[JohnJay]

Wow - so glad I found this site! I just had my F3 installed this week. It will be a while before the first break-in fires, etc., but this was great reading on how to do it correctly - I've learned a lot already!

Assuming this isn't considered cheating.... I also purchased 2 pallets of 'logs', so I'm looking forward to a relatively easier time of it this winter

I'll follow all this great advice and let you know how it goes... wish me luck!

John

(to be continued!!)

 

[Loco Gringo]

Try starting your fire this way. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/65261/

Following advice from BrotherBart, I never fully close air supply. Not unless I had 20+ feet of chimmney supplying my fire with more than adequate draft. Youll get it and once you do it will be like riding that first bike.

 

[fishingpol]

Welcome to the forum John. It is good to see another F3 owner here. I have a new to me one that I will be running this winter. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm in no rush to do it.

This is an older post, so you may not get the views and answers you need to your questions. It is the tail end of the slow summer season, and more members will be on here in a few weeks. Feel free to open a new post and introduce yourself and set up. We all like to see pictutes of installs if you can get some up here.

If you have not tried yet, try the search feature for "Jotul F3" or "F3" and you will get a handful of good older posts. There was one in particular that had a good detailed write-up on the sweet spot for cruising temps and how low the primary air was set. You will see reminders to shut the start-up air down after a few minutes or risk a runaway overfire. I will be letting the ashpan fill up to reduce the chance of air leaks at the ash pan door and where the ash pan is attached to the bottom of the stove. I have also read my manual at least a dozen times. Many people said this is an easy stove to run. The secondary burns go for over an hour at least according to one post, so I am looking forward to that. Good luck and hope to see you post up your experiences here.