Jotul 550, beautiful stove. Looks great, and burns great assuming your wood supply is near perfect.
I am a long time "fire" fan, most of my past experience is with fireplaces and older stoves which are WAY more forgiving than this new more efficient model. If the wood is not perfect - and I mean PERFECT - its almost like the stove is unusable. Temps plummet, lots of smoke, glass clouded, cant keep a good flame (even wide open) - having to babysit an open door, etc. I am finding myself messing with the stove more than enjoying it, and that not why I bought it. I have built up a good supply of what I would call "decent" wood, but decent does not cut it.
This is just some advice for anyone looking to burn their first year (at least with this stove), if you dont have a good supply, of REALLY dry wood the aggravation factor just might outweigh the benefit. If I had to do it again - I would not buy a stove without buying wood first, at least a year in advance. Worst case scenario you can sell the nicely seasoned cord wood to a real wood burner for a good price. I am just trying to help anyone with their expectations. By the time I factor the high price of what was supposed to be dry wood, dealing with all of the crooked wood vendors, the cost of the stove and the labor surrounding fueling the fire (i.e. stack wood, move wood, etc), trying to keep it going when I run into bad pieces and keeping the thing clean I am finding myself just upping the t-stat and raising the white flag. For the times when I have run into a batch of good wood the experience has been awesome. I have about 2-3 cords of wood that will be a good start for next year..thinking of just cleaning it out and calling it an early Spring.
Sorry for the rant - Just trying to share my experience with anyone who is researching a new stove.
There...I feel better already.
I am a long time "fire" fan, most of my past experience is with fireplaces and older stoves which are WAY more forgiving than this new more efficient model. If the wood is not perfect - and I mean PERFECT - its almost like the stove is unusable. Temps plummet, lots of smoke, glass clouded, cant keep a good flame (even wide open) - having to babysit an open door, etc. I am finding myself messing with the stove more than enjoying it, and that not why I bought it. I have built up a good supply of what I would call "decent" wood, but decent does not cut it.
This is just some advice for anyone looking to burn their first year (at least with this stove), if you dont have a good supply, of REALLY dry wood the aggravation factor just might outweigh the benefit. If I had to do it again - I would not buy a stove without buying wood first, at least a year in advance. Worst case scenario you can sell the nicely seasoned cord wood to a real wood burner for a good price. I am just trying to help anyone with their expectations. By the time I factor the high price of what was supposed to be dry wood, dealing with all of the crooked wood vendors, the cost of the stove and the labor surrounding fueling the fire (i.e. stack wood, move wood, etc), trying to keep it going when I run into bad pieces and keeping the thing clean I am finding myself just upping the t-stat and raising the white flag. For the times when I have run into a batch of good wood the experience has been awesome. I have about 2-3 cords of wood that will be a good start for next year..thinking of just cleaning it out and calling it an early Spring.
Sorry for the rant - Just trying to share my experience with anyone who is researching a new stove.
There...I feel better already.