Great Jotul F500 Oslo review
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Ctwoodtick
Minister of Fire
Great video! This is the stove I have picked for my downstairs when I upgrade the old federal airtight. Need a rear vent. Can’t wait to someday hopefully have one. Oslo downstairs, PE summit upstairs.
Nice fire shots! There are some good tips and some beginner mistakes including not having enough wood. The first thing he needed to do was insulate the basement. FWIW, that is the messiest ash cleanout I have ever seen, but I guess being in the basement is not too fussy. I found out that the F400 burned better with a bed of ash and stopped using the ashpan about mid-season. The video quality is very good overall and I'm sure he will improve his game this season. The insulated liner in the chimney is good and he is obviously getting a lot of pleasure from that nice stove. Hopefully he didn't leave the ash pail on the bunch of splitter scraps in the yard. Always put it on a completely non-combustible surface.
A really good video overall.
I like how he was very upfront about the good and the bad and he seemed to touch on a lot of the "issues" that the Jotul has (i.e. the build up of ash in the ash pan box for example -- and while he did not mention it you can see the ash spill out from using the front door.)
I particularly liked the "lesson learned" about needing good, seasoned wood.
I would make a few suggestions:
-- He should learn how to make a top-down fire. The Oslo does particularly well with a top down fire vs. the teepee stack design he used.
-- Smaller splits or rounds may hit the "glass", but they will most likely not smash the glass as it is pretty rugged.
-- They make fireplace shovels which are flat and are perhaps easier to use than an ash vac to get the ash in the ash pan box.
-- I am not a huge fan of placing combustible wood right on or against the woodstove. I am sure he was probably monitoring it the entire time, but it's still a dangerous practice.
-- Placing the ash pail on combustibles outside can be a recipe for trouble.
-- Clouding of the glass may not require replacing the glass . . . I would recommend trying vinegar or lemon juice first to see if the haziness can be cleaned.
Again, though . . . one of the best hands-on videos I have seen.
I like how he was very upfront about the good and the bad and he seemed to touch on a lot of the "issues" that the Jotul has (i.e. the build up of ash in the ash pan box for example -- and while he did not mention it you can see the ash spill out from using the front door.)
I particularly liked the "lesson learned" about needing good, seasoned wood.
I would make a few suggestions:
-- He should learn how to make a top-down fire. The Oslo does particularly well with a top down fire vs. the teepee stack design he used.
-- Smaller splits or rounds may hit the "glass", but they will most likely not smash the glass as it is pretty rugged.
-- They make fireplace shovels which are flat and are perhaps easier to use than an ash vac to get the ash in the ash pan box.
-- I am not a huge fan of placing combustible wood right on or against the woodstove. I am sure he was probably monitoring it the entire time, but it's still a dangerous practice.
-- Placing the ash pail on combustibles outside can be a recipe for trouble.
-- Clouding of the glass may not require replacing the glass . . . I would recommend trying vinegar or lemon juice first to see if the haziness can be cleaned.
Again, though . . . one of the best hands-on videos I have seen.
XmasTreefarmer
Feeling the Heat
I'll echo some of firefighterjake's comments here.
- I would never buy a Jotul if I was going to load from the front - that pile of ash on the front ash lip and his hearth shows why. It's a nice clean stove to burn if you use the side load door for loading and ash removal.
- I would try to clean that glass with something - vinegar, wood ash paste, a commercial cleaner ... something. I think it would clean up, but maybe not.
- Top down fire starting is awesome! I put off trying it when I first got the stove. I started it the same way that I started my old VC Defiant for 30 year ... well, I didn't love how it started, so finally made myself "do it backwards". OMG - I never went back - it's like a miracle.
- Some folks love the ash pan - some don't. I thought I would love it - an old stove that I burned back in the 70's had one and I used it. I shoveled ash for 30 years with the Defiant. I used the Oslo ash pan in the beginning, but don't use it anymore. I felt is was not saving me any time and it was messy. I shovel from the side door every so often and that works for me. I find it to be cleaner and easier and it allows me to more easily maintain a 1" bed of ash in the firebox.
- And you DO need dry wood. LOL - ever heard that before here on Hearth?
Last year was my first full year burning the Oslo and my wood was between around 20% - 23% ... I made it work. It was not the best. A little hard to start, a little hard to get up to temp. This year I'm at between 17% and 19% and it's just so much better. You wouldn't think that a 3 or 4% difference in moisture would make that big a difference, but it does. My moisture meter is my friend. And so is having ALL of my wood top covered. In the last few years it's been so wet here in Southern WI that you simply have to have it covered.
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