Jotul Oslo F500 primary air

[Rob From Wisconsin]

I was corressponding with another Olso 500 owner who had the same
problem that you and also I had w/ our Jotul 500's. Having a bit of
engineering in him, he decided he was suffering from a lack of combustion
air. He took off the air manifold and drilled several more holes to increase
the amount of combustion air, and he claimed it fixed his problem. Said it
wasn't too difficult to remove & modify. I didn't have chance to try it, because
I sold my unit.

Rob

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

freebtus, thats great. Glad you got it working better. Do not take apart your stove and drill it, it will void the warrenty on the stove, and it will become a unlisted installation, and therfore a illeagle installation. If you overfire the stove and burn your house down for any reason they will blame the stove. (ie no insurance money)

Aside from manufacture defects, what makes a stove work well in some places and not other places? why would my neighbors oslo kick but on a 20' chimney here at 9000' and not Karyanne's at sealevel? Whats the diffferece? you guys all have the same stove, its usually one of three things that makes a stove not perform as expected.

Manufacturing defect (furnace cememnt in the primary air control, leaky stove, etc)
User Error (lots go here, wet wood, improper start up, etc)
Chimney (the number one cause of customer disatisfaction, usually translated by customer as bad stove)

karynannes problem is most likely a basement install, it might apear to have good draft but once the stove starts requiring more air then the basement will give it, it becomes a problem.

 

[begreen]

re KarynAnne's Jotul ...and maybe that popsicle cold external chimney isn't helping matters?

 

[KarynAnne]

Good analysis Corie. The chimney system is half the stove. I can easily revive the fire if there is a bed of glowing coals as long as I don't put too large a split on it at first. If the fire has died down, the trick is to put a bed of kindling or small splits down first, then the bigger splits. In about 30-45 minutes the fire will be raging again and then I can think about dampering down for the night.

Hearth.com is like going through a shopping mall for ideas - except they're free.

Ok - I'll take one of these...

 

[KarynAnne]

Front air port should not be blocked with wood. You need to make a "cave" of wood around your airport.

It was too cold tonight (5deg above, 20mph winds) to shut it down to check the primary air port, but I tried the above and WOW.

Dug a "trench" in the coals from air port to the firebrick, put in 2 pieces of oak and the top corner temp went from 300 to 600 in less than 15 minutes. Secondary combustion started in a few minutes.

Jotul ought to have something in the manual about this. I used to just clear a small area around the port, now I know better.

And one of these...

 

[begreen]

Free?? No one mentioned about the soon-to-be-annual get together at your place this summer?

 

[KarynAnne]

re KarynAnne's Jotul ...and maybe that popsicle cold external chimney isn't helping matters?

Quite likely - but I think I just don't know the mechanics of the whole thing. I know that w/ the side door open (cracked) I've got a blast furnace instantly. I've learned to not fiddle with the ash door for additional air. So I assumed that it's the stove itself that needs a bit of help with additional air.

 

[KarynAnne]

freebtus, thats great. Glad you got it working better. Do not take apart your stove and drill it, it will void the warrenty on the stove, and it will become a unlisted installation, and therfore a illeagle installation. If you overfire the stove and burn your house down for any reason they will blame the stove. (ie no insurance money)

Aside from manufacture defects, what makes a stove work well in some places and not other places? why would my neighbors oslo kick but on a 20' chimney here at 9000' and not Karyanne's at sealevel? Whats the diffferece? you guys all have the same stove, its usually one of three things that makes a stove not perform as expected.

Manufacturing defect (furnace cememnt in the primary air control, leaky stove, etc)
User Error (lots go here, wet wood, improper start up, etc)
Chimney (the number one cause of customer disatisfaction, usually translated by customer as bad stove)

karynannes problem is most likely a basement install, it might apear to have good draft but once the stove starts requiring more air then the basement will give it, it becomes a problem.

And I'll take all of these...

When we put another stove on the next floor up for next year, I'll bet we don't see the same issues. We'd only burn the basement stove when we're down there at that point.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

or your primary air port could be plugged with cement underneeth the "doghouse"
or your wood is laying across the air port and blocking flow
or your air port in the front is buried with ash or carbon

the stove, by design, has plenty of air supply, something else is going on.

 

[MoparManLI]

I've learned to not fiddle with the ash door for additional air.

Makes the stove do a damm good jet afterburner impression, eh?

(I'm guilty as charged, same verdict as you)