Jotul Oslo air control lever??

I bought it brand new from the dealer. I get the stove to about 500 degrees then put wood in it and let the wood start burning good before I adjust the air. It appears the flame slows down a little but not much compared to full open or full closed. My dealer's comment is " it's the wood you are burning ". The ash was cut this past fall and it had been standing dead for about a year.

 

A few thoughts here.

How tall is your stack? If pretty tall, does it need a key damper in the flue?

Is the ash pan door closed all the way? The reason I ask is that if not latched tight, air can enter through the ash clean out door and give the blast air effect up through the bottom grate. I've had embers fall down into the ash pan area and when I put the pan back, the ash pan door did not close all the way. Now, I leave the ash pan full right up to the grate and it rules out air leaks.

I agree with starting to turn the air down sooner. I start closing the primary air lever around 425.

When you say you get to 500 degrees, you are adding wood. Are you loading the stove pretty full on the start up? I think you will find most light kindling and add splits or build splits over their kindling. A full stove on a cold start should give you a few hours of burn time. It will hit 500 degrees in maybe just over a half hour, but wood should not need to be added.

It may be just a learning curve with the stove. I would say that on start up, keep an eye on how fast an active the flames are. You don't want a raging inferno but a progressive fire increasing in intensity. If you say "whoa, those flames are getting crazy", then close the primary air a little, and see if it slows down.

 

I have a 2 story mortar chimney with a stainless liner. I will try turning the air down sooner but it appears there is not much difference between high and low on the air lever. Could the ash be too dry ?

 

That puts you around 20+/- feet with a liner. That should give you a really decent draft.

Do you feel slight resistance when moving the air lever? You should hear a mettalic noise of the metal plate sliding back and forth.

Close your air incrementally down when approaching 400. You should see the flames settling down.

I don't think the ash is too dry, we all strive for low moisture content in wood. The drier it is, the easier to run, more heat output, and easier re-loads.

Over 700 is a bit too high, definitely close it down sooner.

 

No outside air intake. The lever is at 4 and 8 when opened and closed.

 

Did I read that right? You are adding wood when the STT is at 500°? Yikes! I would have to stand 3 feet away from my Oslo and throw wood into it at that temp. I light mine from a cold start just like the manual says to. Medium split front and back, kindling in the middle. Once the kindling is going good I fill'er up and leave the side door open a crack till I get some stack temp and a decent flame. Close door and start shutting the air down a bit at a time when I get a 300° STT. 1 thing I noticed from the beginning was that mine seems to work better if I just let the ash pan fill up and leave it full all winter long. I only empty mine in the spring. Also keep in mind that when they give burn times, that don't always mean how long you get flames but how long the stove is producing heat. Take my advice with a grain of salt. I only know my stove and my set up and my wood so your mileage may vary.

 

I don't load my stove at 500 degrees. When I'm in full time operation mode, like now, it's a process of raking the coals, stuffing the stove as full as possible, letting the stove top run up to 550 to 650 degrees, then shutting the air completely off. This is what works for me.

Oswald will then burn that load out in 4 or 5 hours, but coals remain for a reload. Like this morning, I had plenty of coals to reload, I loaded last night at 8 p.m and by 9 p.m. had the air shut off and went to bed. At 5:30 a.m. I reloaded, and am currently watching it so as to shut the air down.....I'll reload today around 4 p.m.

Sounds like the original poster here may not have an air tight seal....ash door open a crack (it can appear closed on mine yet still be open) or something else......I can't imagine a situation of too much draft for the Oslo, she is surely not a runaway stove by any means, and the only time I reach 700 degrees is on a full load, or maybe a load of oak or pine kiln dried stuff.

When a guy shuts the air of on the Oslo at 550 to 650 degrees, it should near immediately go in to secondary mode, with flame at top, and possibly some rolling around up the insides of the firebox, but looks completely different from air wide open at those temps.

FYI, it's about 10 degrees here this morning