A2Woodburner
Member
- Feb 24, 2013
- 71
Here is the pic of the 3" gap on the right side of the insert. The left side is the same.
You are missing the bottom trim piece. See page 13 of the manual.
I took the bottom trim piece off so that I could show where the 3" gap is, on both sides of the insert. The bottom trim piece would just lay on the hearth if I didn't put little blocks underneath it in order to make it flush up against the unit. This is yet another one of those installation things that added to the schlock job and handling of this unit by the recommended installer and local company that sold it to me.
Looks like your hearth is not flush with the firebox? If so, you will have a gap below the trim. I believe that gap you are referring to is normal, trim piece covers it. There are 2 bolts that hold the trim piece in place, you should not have to use blocks.
OK. Thanks! I'll look into it.
My 2 cents on this... I have the same approximate 3" gap. It should not affect operation of the insert in any way. The insert is self contained. I will say that installer did a hack job if they just propped that lower trim piece up with blocks. There should be 2 cast pieces that make up the trim piece. They are held together by a 20"-24" piece of stamped metal. There are 2 slots\gates that line up with 2 studs with bolts on either side of the switch housing.
I chock it as full as I can for the night and dampen it down to about 1/4 or so shut, and at times, all the way shut. When I wake up about 5 AM, there is a nice bed of coals, and I start it back up for the day since I leave around 6 AM for work. It should be noted that even though my brick and the unit is warm to the touch when I wake up and check it out in the morning, my house is usually in the high 50s, from being in the mid to high 60s before going to bed. It heats the house fairly quickly to a couple or four degrees warmer within an hour, but to get any type of real heat out of it, there is no way. I am not retired and don't have another to check out the fire throughout the day while I am at work.
On a cold night, I don't think you can expect your house temp to maintain all night. You are going to lose at least 5 or 6 degrees. I'm assuming you have another heat source? Why don't you try getting the house up to 73 before going to bed. If you lose 10 degrees overnight at least you are still in the 60s.
The installer just left the lower trim piece off and laying underneath without even attempting to put it in the right way. I found the only way to get it up and to stay where it is supposed too is to prop it up with little wood blocks. I will try to set it up right when I get a chance later this week. Thanks for the info.
Your dealer should be taking care of this for you. If they don't, call Jotul directly. When was it installed? Did you pay with a credit card? Get them involved if your dealer refuses to help.
This "pile of junk" has heated my 2K square foot home for the last 2 winters. Probably just about paid for itself, with heating oil prices where they are. I am not trying to minimize what you are going through, but it sounds like they are mostly dealer issues, not stove issues. There is a reason the 550 is an extremely popular unit.
I have the Jotul C550 and it has heated my home well. I have an outside chimney and I can heat a 1200 sq ft. area up to 80 degrees in no time. The one problem I have is the reostat does not last more than two years. Th blower just stopped this last time(3rd reostat), I changed it and still nothing. I have it set to manual since the auto has never worked. I can bring it up to 650 degrees and it will not click on. Any idea on what would cause the blower to stop? Remember, I just put in a new reostat.
Cold exterior fireplaces can really suck the heat of of an insert. I would put up a full damper-seal blockoff plate. It is not that much work and will do a better job of tightly sealing the flue liner and holding the Roxul in place.You might also consider lining the firebox with some kaowool blanket material.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Why_damper_seal_is_needed/
I really hope that this works, but in my opinion, I just think your expectations are more than the stove can handle. Please let me know your findings, I'm having the same issues as you are.Been a while but here is the update after meeting with the Jotul area rep this afternoon. I am losing too much heat up my chimney, even though at the top where the cap is, it is sealed off by a flat plate the last inches of the stove pipe run through and cap sits on. Plus, being an old outside chimney, the old ash clean out door needs to be sealed up, even though the ash dump door in the firebox has been sealed for years. When I started converting over to solely wood heat about 6 years ago, I had to cut out the damper/flue in the chimney to get the stove pipe through. With this unit, I have to shut all that excess space off so that the heat from this unit is not mixing so much with the cold air in the chimney and I am not wasting so much heat up the column of the chimney and more will be kept where it is supposed to be...heating my house. Sealing this opening off with Rock Wool or Stone Wool insulation should do the trick, and is what the Jotul rep recommended. Once I take care of those two items, all should be good to go since the unit itself is firing just fine and everything on it is working just fine. The wood I am using is more than seasoned, and moisture meter testing indicates 15% or less, and probably on average 9% of what we checked today. Why this couldn't have been solved earlier in the burn season, misunderstanding and miscommunication happen on the other end. The confidence is high that taking care of and making these adjustments will produce the expected results and all the issues will be gone. Why the meaurer/installer guy never caught any of this is beyond all three of our comprehension, but at least I know where to start from to get this thing right from now on.
Thanks again everyone!...
Stay tuned til next burning season, unless I can get things sealed up in the next week or so and do some decent burning. Winter is hanging on tough this month and maybe into the first week of April.
I really hope that this works, but in my opinion, I just think your expectations are more than the stove can handle. Please let me know your findings, I'm having the same issues as you are.
Everything described points to less than ideally seasoned wood. There is no way one should need to run this insert with the door cracked open for an hour and then the air wide open for another hour. I'm pretty convinced the stove is not the issue here, it's the wood. Get next year's wood split, stacked and top-covered now.
Question, are the basement walls insulated?
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