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Jotul F400 Castine Questions?

Discussion in 'Modern EPA Stoves and Fireplaces' started by mike bayerl, Jan 9, 2015.

  1. mike bayerl

    mike bayerl

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    1) Anybody know the MSRP of these, matte black with front and bottom heat shields?
    2) What size is the firebox (compared to Hearthstone Castleton and/or Blaze King Ashford 20.1)?
    3) Anyone want to share experiences with this stove?

    FWIW, I finally got the wife to a showroom today. She was leaning to soapstone before, but she really liked the Jotuls once she saw them in person.
     
  2. My IS heats my home

    My IS heats my home

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    I had an Oslo for 6 years. They (Jotuls) are very attractive cast iron stoves to look at. I believe they have heat shilds for the bottom and back only. The Castine is the mini-me of the Oslo. How many square ft are you heating?
     
  3. mike bayerl

    mike bayerl

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    1500, one floor, open
     
  4. My IS heats my home

    My IS heats my home

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    The castine would be a perfect fit for that type of setup. Is the jotul stove an appearance over function thought? I believe the jotul stoves are a secondary burn only type of stove. Have you considered any other stoves?
     
  5. Well Seasoned

    Well Seasoned Administrator

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  6. Well Seasoned

    Well Seasoned Administrator

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  7. mike bayerl

    mike bayerl

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    Great, thanks for the info.
    Yes, we are looking at several. Top contenders right now are: Jotul F400 Castine, Hearthstone Castlleton and BK Ashford 20.1, based on what local dealers carry. Not really interested in a non-cat plate steel. Looked into Woodstocks, mostly based on feedback from FHC, seems like a good concept, but, wife absolutely hates how they look and we really need to minimize footprint/distance from wall.
     
  8. Well Seasoned

    Well Seasoned Administrator

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    Prices (above) based on my purchase 3 years ago. Firebox is 1.5 I believe. It will hold a 20"log max (E/W) and only 6" (N/S)

    My personal opinion on the castine.

    1. It heats our 1500sqft rancher. Open concept LR,DR,KITCH. We use a fan to move cool air from the back of the house (far bedroom) to be replaced with the warm air. When single digits, this gets harder to do.

    2. Burn times aka burn cycle per jotul & stove shop- 8hrs. Yes, usable heat for 8 hours, but that's pushing any actual heat that is warming the room at this point. With the right wood setup in the stove and ash amount, I HAVE restarted a new load using leftover coals at far as 12 hours later. For this, an actual round in the rear of stove, topped off with splits to accomplish this. This thing is a heating beast. It really pumps heat when the secondaries are kicking.

    3. It NEEDS good draft. The stove is finicky. You will spend weeks figuring out the learning curve if this thing.

    * I love this stove, but if I were to do it over, I'd purchase one with more firebox space. Jotul has a reputation for making world class stoves. They are beautiful and do the job. I would buy another, just bigger. Remember, you can build a smaller fire when it's just cool out, but can only go so big when it's freezing out.
     
  9. Well Seasoned

    Well Seasoned Administrator

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    fishingpol recently set his castine up. Perhaps he can give some input.
     
  10. fishingpol

    fishingpol

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    I'm glad that Well Seasoned was able to help you on the specs and this stove. I have mine partially in a brick fireplace. I've had the opportunity to run three Jotuls in my set up. The Castine is the biggest of the three. First, the castings on the stove are excellent. I am partial to the styles of Jotuls as they fit our décor very well. The have a timeless, classic look. I also like the door handles and latches on the stoves.

    The primary air lever is located under the door, just above the ash lip, and it does not get too hot. It is a nice feature being located there. We have the Blue/Black enamel, and I can't say enough of it. It is easy to clean, but if you are into stovetop cooking, matte may be the way to go.

    Now the negatives:
    The Castine needs a strong draft as Well Seasoned said. I am running about 23 ft of interior chimney with an insulated flex liner. I get a little smoke spillage on a day where the temp is in the 40's. Above the secondary combustion chamber, there is a plate for a baffle, I would assume to slow the exhaust path down to get more heat out of the stove. Here is a pic.

    IMG_0011-001.JPG

    So the vertical plate is in the path of the exhaust, which seems to explain why there are drafting complaints.


    Glass clarity in the burn cycle could be better. I can't get the stove glass to clear on a hot burn. I have observed my door glass and pictures of Well Seasoned's glass and we both get darkening in the lower corners. We also both have an issue that the door glass is barely big enough to be held in place by the clips. I believe his glass shifted and caused air leakage. He can elaborate on that I'm sure.

    I find that the stove like to run hot. Over 500 degrees and this thing hums along. Shoulder season fires are ok, but she shows off on a hot burn. I've only run 3 medium splits in this stove and it provides a lot of nice heat. If I stuffed it, it would be too much for our living room.

    Despite these issues, I like the capacity of the firebox. There are splits that the F3 would have choked on, the Castine has plenty of room plus space for more.

    I hope this helps you in your search.
     
  11. Well Seasoned

    Well Seasoned Administrator

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    mike bayerl I usually load N/W, but shorts are inevitable with all the cutting I do. When I cut shorts,I keep 'em around 6"to fit the stove N/S.

    Currently, it's 15°F out. The high for the day, last night it was 4°F with w wind and tonight is going down to 7°F

    The castine has a medium fire box, so packing it as tight as possible goes a long way.

    Tonight, I'm burning 3 year old pin oak. 3 years ago I wasn't the best splitter, and since, have perfected splitting rounds into nearly perfectly squared splits. Splits like this for next year and after will fit in the stove so tight, I expect longer burns, and higher peak burns. So next year I'll be using this stove for the fourth season and expect a whole new learning curve.
     

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  12. mike bayerl

    mike bayerl

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    HEARTHSTONE HERITAGE Took the wife to another showroom. She liked the Heritage the best. It's a little bigger than the Jotul Castine and Hearthstone Castleton, without being too big. In fact, in total, it will stick out 2" less from the wall than the Castleton, but is a little wider. In addition, It has side load door that will be very much appreciated. Also, they are running $300 off the Castleton/Heritages. We both really like the looks and functionality of the BK Ashford 20.1, but it will stick out 6.5" farther from the wall and cost $500-1000 more than the Hearthstones. So, we agreed to start with the Hearthstone Heritage, good size, good price, super simple operati0n as our first wood stove. Maybe, down the line, we'll go to the slightly more complex, more efficient and certainly more expensive cat stove. P.S. In addition to $300 off the stove, they routinely give 20% off pipe if you buy the stove from them. Also, they have been a family business for >35 yr. All said and done, I think we will be in good shape to start on our wood heating adventures. Stay tuned!
     
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  13. Well Seasoned

    Well Seasoned Administrator

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    Awesome! Keep us posted. Pics of the install would be a great help for new members too.
     
  14. mike bayerl

    mike bayerl

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    Will do. Not planning to burn this heating season, so final install will be this summer. Thanks to everyone who helped us out!
     
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  15. Certified106

    Certified106

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    Awesome, I have always loved the looks of the Hearthstone stoves. I am sure you will enjoy it.
     
  16. mike bayerl

    mike bayerl

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    Wife was very helpful! She said let's get the simpler stove that tucks in closer to the wall, but go ahead and get the bigger firebox and side load of the heritage. P.S. we still have a very serviceable oil furnace, so wood will be secondary (we would love it to be primary, but we can always fall back on oil as long as we have electicicity). We both know that once we start burning wood, we will try our best to do 100% wood and no oil for heat. Yeh haw. The adventure begins..
     
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  17. mike bayerl

    mike bayerl

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    The decision on the stove is the good news. Now for the chimney I've got about 5+ feet 0f double wall pipe, 12-18" through the roof and about 8 feet of chimney above the roof (weird roof) with supports. This will get fun...
     
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  18. ailanthus

    ailanthus

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    The ONLY beef I've got with my castine is size. If I could have a do-over based on my experience & what I've learned here, I would go either Oslo/F600 or Woodstock I.S. / BK Ashford. I've considered going bigger, but I really do love the stove & it does awesome for 98% of the winter here, considering what I'm asking it to do (see my sig.) I agree with others - it does have some beast-like heating ablity.
     
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