Hi, brand new here, have a 20+ yo Jotul 12 Firelight CB. Two questions: I never notice secondary burn anymore, though I run hotter fires with dry wood and rarely let the wood smolder. Does an old stove stop recycling the particulate?? And, after replacing a very warped and disintegrating grate a few years ago, I noticed the new one is starting to develop a warp as well. I never start a fire with the ash pan door cracked, but I have a partner that tries to achieve instant heat by leaving the side door ajar whenever he feels a chill. It drives me nuts thinking he's going to ruin my grate and my stove, but in fact I'm not sure if that's true. Any thoughts?
Welcome winterkat .I'm gonna be no help to you,but no worries lots of very knowledgeable people here.
I’m not real familiar with the firelight. Other than there was a burned out firelight in the house when we bought. I looked into getting it back into operation, took it all apart to see what needed to be replaced. The cat and refractory chamber were completely crumbled and the bypass door was warped. Replacement parts were quite expensive. I talked to one fellow who rebuilds jotuls he said the cat chamber was the weak link for the firelights. I do not know this man and I’m not familiar with his work but I was referred to graham the stove man out of Gotham NH. He could get parts and said he really liked the fire light perhaps he may be able to help.
Is this a cat stove? Tube stove? Something is definitely wrong if warpage is beginning again. A leak?
I recently broke the glass in my CFM. The new glass has a gasket that is attached rather than the fabric gasket with the old one. Wife and I have noticed blue flames and much better heat output since the glass was replaced. It had seemed like we were fighting to keep the house warm before the glass broke, compared to a few years ago, but much better output now. Blessing in disguise!
I don't know what the CB stands for but it is the non-cat version of the 12/Firelight No one does anyone any favors using a stove in a manner which the manufacturer does not recommend. I'm a guess "recycling the particulate" means do the secondaries stop working when a stove gets old and my answer would be they shouldn't. But personally I don't think secondary burn stoves do all that great "burning particulates" compared to cat's incineration capabilities. The secondaries should be igniting wood gasses that form in the first part of a burn cycle. I have no idea how exciting secondary burn is in a Model 12 CB, but it's not all that in a True North. I rarely sit and watch a fire though, so there's that.
I don't see any "CB" model listed, just the 12... Old User manuals and old Jøtul identification | Jøtul
“CB” stands for Clean Burn. We had a Jotul 3CB of about the same vintage that we sold after a couple seasons of frustration. Non cat secondary design. Ours was incredibly hard to regulate. It was either raging or going out it seems. It was a pretty stove but pretty useless at the same time.
