weak blower fans on Jotul Winterport 350?

[margaret37]

Hi all,
Looked around for threads about this issue but didn't see any so apologies if this has already been discussed elsewhere.
We bought a used Jotul Winterport 350 a few months ago. No problem getting a fire started and keeping it going, the problem is the blowers seem really weak, even on full blast. The air that comes out is hot, but there's just not much of it. It's not even heating the 240 sq ft room it's in, and we're in VA, where the winters aren't even that cold. We have tried pulling the fans out and cleaning them, didn't seem to make a difference.
At our old house we had one of those big ugly monster inserts with a separate fan, and that thing blew so strong we could heat the whole house. This time we wanted something that was more aesthetically pleasing so we went with the Jotul.
I guess my main question is, since we are new to this type of insert: is this normal? Are the Jotul blower fans just pretty weak? Or could it be something else, like the stove just isn't getting hot enough?
Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[webby3650]

Their blowers are pretty weak. They are just 2 pancake blowers, like a computer has. They start very slow, use very little power, but unfortunately deliver very little volume.

 

[margaret37]

Their blowers are pretty weak. They are just 2 pancake blowers, like a computer has. They start very slow, use very little power, but unfortunately deliver very little volume.

That's what I was afraid of. Very frustrating - how do they heat houses in Norway with these? I talked to a couple places that sell them when we were deciding what kind of insert to get and everyone said 'oh they're the best, top of the line, they use them to heat warehouses in Vermont', etc. And the guy we bought it from claimed it heated his living room so well he had to put a fan in to blow the heat to the rest of the house. Our living room was warmer when we just had an open fire; all the heat from this stove seems to go right up the chimney.

 

[webby3650]

The heat isn't going up the chimney, If it's installed properly. How is your firewood supply? How long has it been split and stacked for? Species of wood?

 

[margaret37]

The heat isn't going up the chimney, If it's installed properly. How is your firewood supply? How long has it been split and stacked for? Species of wood?

Oak. Cut up maybe year and a half, fall of 2015; most has been split and stacked since Sept, some since previous spring, did not notice a difference between two stacks when burning. do you think that's not long enough? Fire does burn fine, and hot, no trouble starting or keeping it going.

The heat isn't going up the chimney, If it's installed properly. How is your firewood supply? How long has it been split and stacked for? Species of wood?

 

[webby3650]

No, that's not long enough for oak to season.
This is a small stove, that's flush. By design it will be harder to heat with and rely heavily on the blowers to deliver the heat. I don't know where your salesman got his info, but I seriously doubt there's any warehouses being heated with small Jotul inserts. Or any Jotuls for that matter. On this site, the Jotul inserts haven't been noted as serious heaters that I've seen anyway. The stoves are good, solid heaters, but the inserts seem to struggle. I also think the inserts are sold only in the American market. The Castings are made in Norway, then assembled at the facility in Maine.

 

[capri_auto]

You should be able to get the room hot. Buy some kiln dry hardwood from the store and get a good coal base going, then load it full with kiln dry. I have a jotul 450, the next size up, and it heats my 1600 sf easily even when temps are in the teens. My smoke shelf is stuffed with roxul, and its also insulated at the top which helps keep the heat inside.

 

[RSNovi]

Fully seasoned wood is very important in these small stoves. Much more important than my Jotul Oslo wood stove.

Also you need to fill every square inch of the firebox with wood. With all that you can get about 2 hours of solid heat out of the stove.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sen166]

I am a previous owner of this insert and had some success with it heating the room where it was installed. I found the insert heated best with the blowers on a medium to medium-low setting with the addition of a large box fan, or any fan for that matter, on the opposite end of the desired heating area blowing toward the stove rather than having the insert fans set on high.

Also, in the time period I ran this insert, I quickly learned it was quite helpful to turn the fans off when reloading as it kept ash out of the intake. It also helped turning those fans off when removing ash from the insert as well.

 

[bears12th]

So, just realized my 350 wasn't blowing out heat like it used to just in the past day. I'm thinking that my left blower is out but my right blower is going strong. I do a little online search and found this thread. Did you ever discover the issue. I've had great success with my little 350. She's heated my house for close to 10 years now, no problems whatsoever.

Anyways, hard to really tell as my stove is going hard right now as we are supposed to be quite cold for the next week or so. Hope you figured out the problem, and if so, what was the cause?

 

[capri_auto]

The fan on my C450 was feeling weak. Vacumed out the fan and oiled the motor up and shes good as new. There was a ton of cobb webs, dust and ash clogging the fan up.

 

[Telescott]

Hi all,
Looked around for threads about this issue but didn't see any so apologies if this has already been discussed elsewhere.
We bought a used Jotul Winterport 350 a few months ago. No problem getting a fire started and keeping it going, the problem is the blowers seem really weak, even on full blast. The air that comes out is hot, but there's just not much of it. It's not even heating the 240 sq ft room it's in, and we're in VA, where the winters aren't even that cold. We have tried pulling the fans out and cleaning them, didn't seem to make a difference.
At our old house we had one of those big ugly monster inserts with a separate fan, and that thing blew so strong we could heat the whole house. This time we wanted something that was more aesthetically pleasing so we went with the Jotul.
I guess my main question is, since we are new to this type of insert: is this normal? Are the Jotul blower fans just pretty weak? Or could it be something else, like the stove just isn't getting hot enough?
Thanks in advance for any advice!

My fans are the problem with this stove. I burn a lot of wood here in Tahoe. I gave up my old school stove for this piece of chit. The fans do not blow enough air. I just pulled them out and am looking at a modification for more efficient blowers at Grainger. Very limited space. Considering higher speed fans. Such a lame design from a reputable company. My dealer told me to source the fans from Grainger. No tech support from Jotul. I'm kind of pissed off. I got rid of my non compliant stove that ran us out of the house at 90 degrees with only an arm load of wood. We tried to do the right thing with a compliant stove. Now we burn the same (6-8 cords) and can't keep our house warm. My blower fans have melted from the heat. I run this POS 24-7. So disappointed with Jotul. No support from the company. I am directed to my retailer who tells me to buy replacement parts from Grainger. I will modify this POS myself. More air exchange is the answer. I wish some designer/engineer from Jotul would help out. I miss my house being 90 degrees in minutes. My cat hates Jotul more than I do.