Wanting to improve draft

[Ctwoodtick]

Trying to improve draft on my Jotul wood insert. . Guessing that the split level nature of house doesn’t help draft. Looks like chimney would have to be raised about 6 feet to be level with other roof. Do you think getting it higher than other roof is needed or would just raising a few feet likely help a good bit? Trying to not add any more height than needed for aesthetic and finances.

 

[begreen]

Extending should help. Maybe try adding a temporary 3 or 4' section of 6" warm air duct to the liner to see how much.

 

[stovelark]

Lots of people have this install in CT. In theory, extending the chimney should help, but will not help symmetry with how chimney looks in comparison to the house. My situation I found was my stove ran a little better when extending my chimney about 2 feet (my raised ranch chimney is on end of house) and the liner inside it, but my best solution was getting a stove that was an easy breather (I went from an Oslo F500 which I loved, great heater pretty enamel color stove, long pieces of wood...) Enviro steel stove. The Enviro just wasn't as finicky about draft with temp differences. My prior stove (Quad 3100 FS steel stove was easy to run too) The Oslo below 35 degrees was much easier burning than at 45-50 degrees. The Enviro would burn fine at 70 degrees if I wanted to. Also installing many stove brands and burning them, the PNW stoves (Pacific North West) just typically drafted easier and were easy to run. Brands like PE, Enviro, Quadrafire, Lopi and Napoleon I found were easy to run, great heaters. Its the steel frame vs cast iron thing, steel heats up quicker than cast, but the cast is more aesthetic pleasing to most) I guess we all adapt to what is required for it to work. The Rockland is a nice insert, very decorative, but you can see the chimney is fairly short, Jotul would tell you they want a minimum 14-15 feet of chimney.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Lots of people have this install in CT. In theory, extending the chimney should help, but will not help symmetry with how chimney looks in comparison to the house. My situation I found was my stove ran a little better when extending my chimney about 2 feet (my raised ranch chimney is on end of house) and the liner inside it, but my best solution was getting a stove that was an easy breather (I went from an Oslo F500 which I loved, great heater pretty enamel color stove, long pieces of wood...) Enviro steel stove. The Enviro just wasn't as finicky about draft with temp differences. My prior stove (Quad 3100 FS steel stove was easy to run too) The Oslo below 35 degrees was much easier burning than at 45-50 degrees. The Enviro would burn fine at 70 degrees if I wanted to. Also installing many stove brands and burning them, the PNW stoves (Pacific North West) just typically drafted easier and were easy to run. Brands like PE, Enviro, Quadrafire, Lopi and Napoleon I found were easy to run, great heaters. Its the steel frame vs cast iron thing, steel heats up quicker than cast, but the cast is more aesthetic pleasing to most) I guess we all adapt to what is required for it to work. The Rockland is a nice insert, very decorative, but you can see the chimney is fairly short, Jotul would tell you they want a minimum 14-15 feet of chimney.

Lots of people have this install in CT. In theory, extending the chimney should help, but will not help symmetry with how chimney looks in comparison to the house. My situation I found was my stove ran a little better when extending my chimney about 2 feet (my raised ranch chimney is on end of house) and the liner inside it, but my best solution was getting a stove that was an easy breather (I went from an Oslo F500 which I loved, great heater pretty enamel color stove, long pieces of wood...) Enviro steel stove. The Enviro just wasn't as finicky about draft with temp differences. My prior stove (Quad 3100 FS steel stove was easy to run too) The Oslo below 35 degrees was much easier burning than at 45-50 degrees. The Enviro would burn fine at 70 degrees if I wanted to. Also installing many stove brands and burning them, the PNW stoves (Pacific North West) just typically drafted easier and were easy to run. Brands like PE, Enviro, Quadrafire, Lopi and Napoleon I found were easy to run, great heaters. It’s the steel frame vs cast iron thing, steel heats up quicker than cast, but the cast is more aesthetic pleasing to most) I guess we all adapt to what is required for it to work. The Rockland is a nice insert, very decorative, but you can see the chimney is fairly short, Jotul would tell you they want a minimum 14-15 feet of chimney.

Thanks for the input. I think adding 3 feet should bring me up to about 16 feet, so hopefully that works. Reason I ask about the the split level nature of house is because I thought I read at some point that the draft on the lower end if that’s where the chimneys can be impacted. I wanted to ask that upfront to see if anyone on the forum thought that the positioning of the chimney in general would likely be bad, unless it was extended something crazy like 10+ feet or something. I think what I will do is add the few feet of cheap vent as a test, as mentioned above, and see how that impacts the draft.
I hear you on the symmetry issue. I’m guessing that adding 3 feet might look OK, but more than that would look a little strange. Fingers crossed, I suppose.
My only comparison with draft is that I have a regency 2450 stove I bought in 2020 up in Maine. I only have maybe like 10 feet of straight through the roof chimney on that install and the draft is fine I think, and I don’t have any issues with smoke spillage ever except during a cold start up once in a while. Hasn’t been here experienced at the Rockland isn’t the easiest breathing stove?
Thanks again

 

[begreen]

Reason I ask about the the split level nature of house is because I thought I read at some point that the draft on the lower end if that’s where the chimneys can be impacted.

It's a valid concern and may be one of multiple factors. Stovelark is right, the C550 is designed for a 15' minimum flue height. There are others that work well on shorter flues if that's the best solution. This is why l like rigging a temporary test setup before committing big bucks on a strong visual change. Hopefully the results with a 3' stub added will make a nice improvement and the Jotul can stay, but if it still is unable to support a robust secondary burn, then a different insert may be a better solution.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

It's a valid concern and may be one of multiple factors. Stovelark is right, the C550 is designed for a 15' minimum flue height. There are others that work well on shorter flues if that's the best solution. This is why l like rigging a temporary test setup before committing big bucks on a strong visual change. Hopefully the results with a 3' stub added will make a nice improvement and the Jotul can stay, but if it still is unable to support a robust secondary burn, then a different insert may be a better solution.

Thanks for that. The thing is, the secondary burn seems to work fine and I have no issues with the heat production overall. The smoke spillage has become a bother though and I want to correct that. The wood that I burn is always dry and seasoned 20% or under on a fresh split . If that spillage went away, I’d be a happy guy. I try to limit any opening of the stove while there is still visible flame, but I don’t like the idea of anything escaping into room, if I can all help it. I will have to double check the measurement of the masonry chimney. I I know when I measured initially I figured it was about 1 foot under the required minimum per the manual.
I will definitely do the 3 foot stub as a test, but that will have to wait for fall time at this point. Thanks again everyone for the help.

 

[stovelark]

Glad to see too that you are taking an open look at it. The Rockland is a great heater, we always asked Jotul to make a bigger firebox, but with the flush design, its hard to fit in some fireplaces as it is, but aside from the smallish firebox (its actually about the same as the Kennebec was), I sold a lot of them. When you mentioned spillage, was it more noticeable in the 35-40 degree range whereas in cold cold temps, it was less prevalent? If so, extending your chimney should actually help. 3 feet extension shouldn't affect looks of the chimney I'm thinking. One thing though, was it more prevalent towards the end of season? I ask because as you probably know already sometimes our chimney caps start collecting crud, or stuff builds up on top of the secondary baffle, impacting draft sometimes. Anyway, good discussion and let us know what you do and more importantly, if it helps.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Thanks again, that’s a great question. To be honest, I didn’t notice any big differences with shoulder season versus dead of winter cold as far as smoke spillage. That said, I’m guessing that there was some minor variation, but I do know that I get it pretty regularly..
As I’m thinking about it, that leads to an other question, I just thought of. With the minimum height requirements outlined by the manual, is that for the finish product after install or the existing masonry chimney prior to install? I ask because once the insert install happens, the liner Connection is roughly 2+ feet above the floor of the fire box of the masonry chimney. The measurements of my masonry chimney itself from firebox floor to flu termination is 14 feet give or take 6 inches or so, because of in accessibility of making exact measurement (at least with the tape measure).
Thanks again

 

[bholler]

Trying to improve draft on my Jotul wood insert. . Guessing that the split level nature of house doesn’t help draft. Looks like chimney would have to be raised about 6 feet to be level with other roof. Do you think getting it higher than other roof is needed or would just raising a few feet likely help a good bit? Trying to not add any more height than needed for aesthetic and finances.

I would do a temporary extension as an experiment before just adding masonry

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Glad to see too that you are taking an open look at it. The Rockland is a great heater, we always asked Jotul to make a bigger firebox, but with the flush design, its hard to fit in some fireplaces as it is, but aside from the smallish firebox (its actually about the same as the Kennebec was), I sold a lot of them. When you mentioned spillage, was it more noticeable in the 35-40 degree range whereas in cold cold temps, it was less prevalent? If so, extending your chimney should actually help. 3 feet extension shouldn't affect looks of the chimney I'm thinking. One thing though, was it more prevalent towards the end of season? I ask because as you probably know already sometimes our chimney caps start collecting crud, or stuff builds up on top of the secondary baffle, impacting draft sometimes. Anyway, good discussion and let us know what you do and more importantly, if it helps.

In addition to the info I mentioned above, my cap is pretty open double flue cap and it doesn’t ever get too blocked up. It only gets minor buidup .

 

[begreen]

The big single door on the C550 and on the F400 plus the shallow firebox made them prone to a bit of smoke spillage. Our F400 was ok up to about 45º outside. Warmer than than and the spillage was notable and this was on a 20' flue. It's best to not open the door once the fire is going until it is well into the late coaling stage.