Jotul F400 Problem (Maybe)

[axeman628]

New to the forum, and new to wood stoves in general. Here comes my really long first post, bear with me.

Recently acquired a new (to me) Jotul F400. Just finished installation, brand new chimney. Finally got everything buttoned up and went to fire it up for the first time last night. A lot of smoke started to come from the bottom of the stove, specifically the round hole right behind the ash pan. Had a buddy over that has a lot more experience with wood stoves and he was surprised at the amount of smoke.

From what I can figure a couple things were probably working against us and all signs point to a draft problem. Wasn't all that cold out, around 50 degrees F. House is fairly new construction and is sealed very tight, probably couldn't hurt to crack a window next time. It is configured for a rear exit, which could exacerbate the above conditions.

That being said, since the stove is used (2 seasons, talked to them and they never had problems) is there anything I should look for? From what I can tell everything is installed correctly, the air control operates, chimney is a straight run up the side of the house (confirmed wide open), no dampers. Could something in the stove have been dislodged buy moving it?

Thanks!

Install looks very similar to this: (stole the picture from this thread: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/castine-install-loads-of-pictures.45247/)

 

[claydogg84]

How tall is the chimney? It does indeed sound like a poor draft issue.

 

[axeman628]

How tall is the chimney? It does indeed sound like a poor draft issue.

About 20' from the Tee to the cap.

 

[begreen]

That horizontal run plus warm temps are what is affecting draft. It should work better once temps get colder. In the meantime start the fire with totally dry kindling and leave the door ajar until the fire has started burning vigorously. Dont use the ashcan door for extra air. Top down starting may help.

 

[FionaD]

When temps are mild here and I'm too lazy to light a top down fire, I sometimes get smoke coming out the secondary intake in the back of my F3, which is set up very similar to your Castine.. Quite an amazing twisting journey for the smoke to take.. You'd think it would be easier to go up the flue... Just shows you what mild temps will do. Never an issue as soon as the weather gets even slightly chilly - sure and it'll be the same with your beautiful Castine!

 

[axeman628]

All good now.

Wound up basically rebuilding the stove. Had a friend over to help me out, noticed some of cement was chipped where the side panels met the back panel. Best we can tell is moving it to my house flexed it enough to break most of the joints free. Most of it just fell off as we removed panels. Pretty sure none of it was airtight anymore and air was just flowing wherever it wanted to. Re-Cemented anything that was supposed to be cemented, I had already replaced all the gaskets so the stove got a complete overhaul.

Lit it up to cure the cement and fired it up for real yesterday afternoon. What a difference!! It drafted almost instantly, burned great and I've got complete control with the damper. It's a great stove, amazing the difference when you get the air moving how it should. Built the fire top down as it makes sense based on how the stove is built and will continue to do so. Looking forward to when it's really cold out to really get her working for me.

Thanks for all the tips. I'll be sticking around because I'm sure there is a lot more to learn.

 

[begreen]

Good to hear that you got the problem worked out. Thanks for the update. The stove must have had quite a jostling. Jotul's joint cement is tough stuff.