We moved into a new house during the pandemic, only to discover that the existing woodstove - an old Jotul F-500 - was cracked. We replaced it with a new F-500, partly because that's what the house already had and partly because that's the only one we could get due to supply chain issues.
Fast forward to this week. While the stove's side door was cracked to get a fire going, I noticed smoke venting not from the open door but from the upper right corner that I hadn't seen before. See the attached picture and circle. The smoke stopped as soon as the door was shut, but I hadn't seen this behavior before.
I don't need to know why it was smoking - the stove has drafting and venting issues, as it turns out that the chimney is 3-4 feet shorter than recommended (we're hopefully getting that taken care of in spring). We get regular backdrafts and so on, but I've learned to finesse it enough that it's not usually an issue, though that varies - sometimes it's just fine when it's up and running, other times it smokes while loading the fire even when the fire's going.
I am wondering, however, if the smoke coming out of that particular location indicates there's a manufacturing defect with the stove. If so, I'll want to get that looked at ASAP before the warranty runs out.
Any thoughts/advice appreciated.
![[Hearth.com] Smoke from Upper Right Corner of Jotul F-500](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/309/309477-4c53e48e7b6f6e4bb61d63e33ab4b728.jpg?hash=OM_BIHw6VI "[Hearth.com] Smoke from Upper Right Corner of Jotul F-500")
Fast forward to this week. While the stove's side door was cracked to get a fire going, I noticed smoke venting not from the open door but from the upper right corner that I hadn't seen before. See the attached picture and circle. The smoke stopped as soon as the door was shut, but I hadn't seen this behavior before.
I don't need to know why it was smoking - the stove has drafting and venting issues, as it turns out that the chimney is 3-4 feet shorter than recommended (we're hopefully getting that taken care of in spring). We get regular backdrafts and so on, but I've learned to finesse it enough that it's not usually an issue, though that varies - sometimes it's just fine when it's up and running, other times it smokes while loading the fire even when the fire's going.
I am wondering, however, if the smoke coming out of that particular location indicates there's a manufacturing defect with the stove. If so, I'll want to get that looked at ASAP before the warranty runs out.
Any thoughts/advice appreciated.
