i love my little jotul stove. it's swedish. it is small, and will be perfect for a one room cabin, or a good sized wall tent. when i am in the house, this is what i look at all day. i sleep, cook, eat, write, and surf the net in this little corner of the house.i have an excellent chimney, only needs cleaning once a year. but my stovepipe and the flue that runs through the wall to the chimney build up creosote something fierce. i have to shut down the stove once a week to clean it out really well. last week i had to shut it down over night. i couldn't stay warm even with a good sleeping bag and a dog, so i was up at 4:30 in the morning ripping it apart and cleaning it in the dark. what a pain that was. couldn't find my headlamp, and couldn't see down the pipe, so i stuck my arm down the pipe to clean it by feel. had to make a laundromat run that week....weren't no scrub board gonna clean the sleeve of that jacket :-)
it's pretty warm here today, but damp. the stove is drafting poorly today, so i'm gonna shut it down, and hope it cools before dark so i can restart it tonight. mutt got really muddy on our trek today, so no way he's getting in the sleeping bag tonight....it'll be the stove, or the shivers. :-)
Creosote buildup weekly? What are you burning? Generally buildup happens because of incomplete combustion due to either wet wood or green wood. Or is it something to do with the angle of your flue and it not drawing properly? It usually takes at least a few years for my woodstove flue to gunk up, although this time it was 4 or 5 years between cleans which gave the chimney sweep a good laugh.
ReplyDeletekate.
this flue thing is a new problem this year. it's gotta be the wood. i am burning downed trees from a "forest reclamation" project of sorts here on the farm. don't ask me why you have to chop down the forest to reclaim it. so some of the wood is probably not seasoned well. i also have been playing with the baffle plate thing (whatever its called) inside the stove. there are several options for placement, and it doesn't seem to seat right no matter what i do. it is very likely that poor placement of that is contributing to the incomplete combustion. so, until i can solve the problem, i'm just cleaning it out weekly. i also have a chimney height issue, and have problems drafting in northwest winds.....
ReplyDeleteThe Kates are talking. This is great. :)
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