Jotul F45 Greenville Experiences

[Crab]

I keep the gauge here but I do have an IR gun to shoot the middle/middle where it is somewhat hotter. That was a record burn you had..

 

[Todd]

Yeah ok when I move my IR gun from center to the side like your pic I see anywhere from a 50-100 degree difference.

 

[Todd]

I’ve had about 10 days now of 24/7 burning with a 12 hour reload schedule so I’ve had plenty of time to play around with blocking the secondary air with magnets in all kinds of weather. I found blocking it about 45% or more was a bit too much and tended to leave some unburnt chunks in the back of the firebox and a little smoke out the chimney.

One magnet or about 20% coverage seems about right so far. There’s no slow down of start ups or reloads. Nice lazy flames with good control, no smoke and consistent burns with a good coal bed.

I’m still surprised that I can go 12+ hours on a full load of Quaking Aspen or Jack Pine! We’ve had some cold days with highs in the lower 30’s and even a 8 degree morning low so draft has been pretty strong at times. Internal flue temps have been running 400-500 with stove top temps on the center 500-600. This burning schedule keeps the cabin in the 70’s all day and night.

 

[Todd]

Been having some colder weather here, below zero wind chills today.

You can really see a difference in this weather playing around with blocking the secondary air. No magnets the secondary flames are more robust and flue temps are higher. Block the air 20-40% and those flames and flue temps come down a bit.

Too bad there is no secondary air control on this stove, it could really help fine tune the burn for a little better efficiency.

 

[bigealta]

Been having some colder weather here, below zero wind chills today.

You can really see a difference in this weather playing around with blocking the secondary air. No magnets the secondary flames are more robust and flue temps are higher. Block the air 20-40% and those flames and flue temps come down a bit.

Too bad there is no secondary air control on this stove, it could really help fine tune the burn for a little better efficiency.

Can you maybe fab a metal slider?

 

[bigealta]

Hey Todd what chimney height are you running? Thinking about getting this f45 but my chimney for that house is short maybe like 10 ft?

 

[Todd]

Can you maybe fab a metal slider?

Yeah I’ve been looking at that or if I could get my hands on a Pacific Energy EBT to play with.

 

[Todd]

Hey Todd what chimney height are you running? Thinking about getting this f45 but my chimney for that house is short maybe like 10 ft?

That sounds pretty short for any stove. Can you add 4-5’? Mine is on a straight 22’ chimney so it’s a pretty strong draft.

 

[bigealta]

That sounds pretty short for any stove. Can you add 4-5’? Mine is on a straight 22’ chimney so it’s a pretty strong draft.

Yeah it is short. But my 118 clone runs fine on it. Maybe i'm stuck with the 118. Weather is to sketchy for me to add height to the chimney. And really i just don't use that enough to justify switching the stove and chimney set up. If i move there permanently then that's a different story.

 

[Crab]

Just before burning this season I removed the doghouse cover on my F45 to replace the gasket Here are pics of the air valve position open and closed. The last pic is looking down at the boost air holes. (Looks like a nose
OPEN


CLOSED

 

[Todd]

Hmm, I see what you’re saying now. I don’t think mine has a cover but I never really noticed it. I know for a fact that the boost air holes on mine go straight though to the bottom of the stove and are unregulated. I ran a wire down through them to see if that was the case.

 

[Crab]

You are right they are totally unregulated, there is no connection between the doghouse inside and those boost holes. It's like they welded a mass of steel then drilled a couple holes. My holes are not even symmetrical. I posted the pics to show that with the air control closed there is still some air flow to the air wash + there is the boost air.

 

[bigealta]

Interesting. My jotul f400 slider does close fully.

 

[Louboozu]

We have the stove and it is so noisy. I have to close the bedroom door at night because it keeps awake with the popping in the clicking. Anyone else had this problem?

 

[Todd]

Mine pops and pings for about the first hour after reloading as it comes up to temp. Once cruising it settles down.

 

[Todd]

Had something strange happen last night. Had a cold stove Saturday afternoon since we were gone the night before. I fired up the stove with 2 splits each of Aspen and Jack Pine to get the place warmed up. Once going I set the air at half and just let her cruise at the 600+ range. After four hours she was down to a hot coal bed and a 400 STT so I filled her back up full with another mix of the same wood. She took off fast and had the air shut off in 10 min. After about 20 min I could hear that secondary roar but I just had some lazy slow flames going on in front nothing in the back. I got down and looked up near the turbulators and they were red with some major secondaries ripping. Never seen it like this before. Flue temps climbed up to 1000 with STT at 800! The sides were relatively cool at only 275. This lasted maybe 40 min before she settled down to a normal burn.

I probably should have waited another hour before reloading since the stove was still pretty hot and probably had too large a coal bed for a full load. Also think the Pine contributed to this.

No damage to the stove I can see and she’s burning just fine this morning on a full load of the same wood.

This kind a reminds me of the times when my Woodstock stoves cat would gorge themselves on smoke in a fireless box and run the temps way up on me.

 

[bigealta]

Had to have been the pine super off gassing.

 

[Crab]

1000 Flue temp. 800 STT. I don't have enough xanax around for that. Good Grief!
No way can I load the stove with my dry oak...I have continued burning my way too dry oak 4 split loads, always reloading around 250 STT or even lower. My heat requirement is much less then most and I will live with what I get. On reloads I still get a scary bloom with overly active ghost flames every so often and have had one minor backpuffing event this year. 4 split startups with kindling mixed in have been 98% flawless and very consistent over different temperature ranges.

 

[Todd]

Major cold snap here, never got above zero yesterday with nasty wind chills. Same forecast for today. Mostly been burning 3-4 loads in these colder temps to keep the cabin in the mid 70’s.

I think the extra thermal mass I installed around the stove has helped even out the heat and keep the cabin temps up longer. It definitely makes the radiant heat more pronounced.

Had a real treat last night loading her up with 6 splits of super dry Red Oak. Plenty of coals with cabin still at 67 with an outside temp of -12. Nice break from Aspen and Jack Pine. I only have about 1/3 cord of Oak ready for this year. Next year and following years I’ll have plenty of Oak to burn.

 

[Todd]

Here’s a picture of my typical evening load of Oak before bedtime. 15-17% moisture Red Oak on top of a mix of Aspen and Jack Pine coal bed

 

[Todd]

An hour in she was still climbing but it’s bedtime. Air was set just a smidge above the lowest setting.

 

[Todd]

10 hours later Oak coal bed and a load of Aspen and Pine.

 

[bigealta]

Todd, what's the time to coal bed for your aspen / jack pine loads vs your oak loads?

 

[Todd]

An hour latter. Air set medium low. Temps still climbing. Need to get cabin back up to temp.

 

[Todd]

Todd, what's the time to coal bed for your aspen / jack pine loads vs your oak loads?

The Oak is a little better on burn times. Last night Oak load could have went 12 hours easy. With this cold weather I’m only using the Oak for overnight burns and during the day I’m burning the Aspen/pine hotter and more frequent loads. When the weather warms up I can get 12 hour reloads with the Aspen/Pine, this cold weather more like 9-10 hrs at lowest air setting.