Breaking in new Jotul Castine

[802climber]

About to have a Jotul Castine stove installed in our house. What do I need to know as far as breaking it in?

Heated with wood before but never broke in a new stove.

Have seasoned oak, hickory, cherry and green black locust.

Wondering about proper break-in method and any other tips from all you Jotul owners.

Thanks!

 

[Wife'nHubby]

Breakin procedure, page 7, here http://www.jotul.com/FileArchive/Technical%20Documentation/Wood%20Stoves/Jøtul%20F%20400%20Castine/Manual_F_400_USA_P04_101210.pdf

Shari

 

[Lumberzack]

Good luck!

 

[gandrimp]

I did as the instructions read. I also had it in the shop setting on a forklift instead of the house. It will smoke pretty good and stink. Do it outside if you can. One other thing it dont take much wood to achieve the degrees you need. My first load I had to remove wood or it would have gotten very hot.

Oh incase you havent been told, never ever burn with the ash door open for more than a few seconds. You'll notice what we're saying the first time you do it.

 

[802climber]

Thanks all

Very impressed with the stove, very nice stove.

Wish the lip in front would hold the ashes and wood in the stove, often when we open the door ashes and wood come pouring out and we try to empty ashes every day but it's hard when the fires going 24/7. Also wish the firebox was bigger, it's hard to fit enough wood in there the way its shaped and with the reburner things on top... I've been cutting my wood to 16" and splitting it down more for this little stove and it's been working good enough..

We are used to a small easy to heat house and with a leaky plate steel pos we were keeping the whole house at 75-80+

Now we live in a big leaky farmhouse. About 1600 sq ft. We were looking at the blackbear or oslo, but the stove dealer/installer swore this was the right size Jotul and if we went any bigger we'd just be heating our back yard. The living room would be too hot to stand and the rest of the house would still be cold, was his claim. And I see the logic but while this stove does really cook for it's size I can't help but wonder if another size or two bigger would have heated this house better. This stove does make a difference but it is far from heating the whole house. We cut a vent in our bedroom floor so it's toasty up there but I was hoping for a stove that would cook the place.

As it starts to stay below zero here I sometimes think about next year tinkering with a outdoor wood boiler or indoor wood furnace in addition to our new little pig.

Kind of expensive to just tinker with I guess..

 

[CrappieKeith]

Looks like you should have went to a furnace hooked to ducting if the layout of the house does not allow for good heat distribution from gravity.

 

[802climber]

yeah pretty much. we wanted a stove or fireplace in the living room either way. so now i am looking at supplemental option$.

are you talking about indoor wood furnace or outdoor wood boiler I barely know the basics with these options.

thanks

also should be taken into account we already have a lp gas furnace system

i am especially interested in the outdoor boilers because then i could also heat our greenhouse and/or shop.

 

[logbutcher]

yeah pretty much. we wanted a stove or fireplace in the living room either way. so now i am looking at supplemental option$.
are you talking about indoor wood furnace or outdoor wood boiler I barely know the basics with these options.
thanks
also should be taken into account we already have a lp gas furnace system
i am especially interested in the outdoor boilers because then i could also heat our greenhouse and/or shop.

If you're just going "up from" the LP furnace to room temp, then the Castine seems to do the job. But, the next size up, Oslo, would give you more options for heating: smaller fires with more loads for less BTUs, or full loads for not using LP.

Read up here and hearthnet on the pros and cons of OWBs; they have their problems if not used correctly. The installation and maintenance can be a $$$$ and hassle. They need power all the time. OWB users have often made their own "neighbor" difficulties by burning slow and low.

We like stand alone wood stoves for shops and house (2) since the technology is simple, no complex pumping issues, and you load when needed. No big deal.

 

[sunfish]

This stove does make a difference but it is far from heating the whole house. We cut a vent in our bedroom floor so it's toasty up there but I was hoping for a stove that would cook the place.

If you want to "cook the place", you need a larger stove. But Why?

There's a pretty good learning curve heating with a wood stove. It will never be like central heat, with duct work to every room. But I like radiant heat better than forced air heat, just feels better to me. I also like a cooler bed room. You have a very good stove, just need to learn to make it work for you.

 

[802climber]

Right. What I'm saying is it is a great stove but it would work better for me if it was larger. This size stove doesn't seem to offer the options that Logbutcher is talking about for heating this particular house. It would be great for a smaller or more efficient space.

I cant seem to get it to burn hot enough for long enough I feel that if I could fit more wood in there I could achieve this.

However like I said before if we had just gotten a bigger stove it seems that the extra heat would likely go into the yard instead of through the house which is what the stove dealer said as well. And that's why I am interested in some kind of wood powered way of using the heat ducts. Or a big wood furnace in the basement... or something...

We used to heat completely with wood in our previous little house but now we moved into this place which was added on to twice when the way of thinking here was to crank the fuel oil furnace all the way up and go on. So not surprising that a small wood stove however good it is would not put much of a dent in heating the whole place.