Jotul woodburner problems

[Marnhullman]

I have recently had a Jotul 400 stove installed by a HETAS installer and have the certificate to prove it! The chimney is lined with pumice and there are approved air vents in the room.

The stove is advertised as having an airwash system but the door glass keeps sooting up and I cannot keep the stove in overnight even when it's loaded with wood and the air control on the stove is turned to minimum. The logs I'm burning are quite small so I guess larger logs would be more dense and may take longer to burn but the stove does seem to burn logs very quickly.

I had a woodburner in a previous house and had no similar problems so I begin to wonder if there is a problem with too much draught but if that were the case then I wouldn't expect the door to soot up?

Grateful for any advice.

 

[mrgas]

I know nothing worth knowing about woodburners!!!
However, it is a new installation installed by a HETAS installer. Have you contacted the installer in the first instance, The manufacturer in the second and HETAS/Trading Standards in the last.
You must have some form of guarantee on a new installation?

 

[oilman]

What sort of stove did you have in your previous house?
Smoked door = smoke,
smoke = unburnt fuel
unburnt fuel = too low temperature or insufficient air.

 

[Marnhullman]

MrGas - your assumption that we have a guarantee from the installer is perfectly reasonable but regretably our experience with the company has been very poor and I am not hopeful they will be of any assistance.

Oilman - your observation that smoke, due to unburnt fuel, causes blackening on the glass is consistent with the user manual. However, what seems strange is that the wood burns quickly, we have two wall vents in the room in which the fire is situated and there are double doors to the room that are always left open so there's plenty of ventilation.

I will contact the installer and hope for some guidance otherwise I guess it's trial and error.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[mrgas]

Sorry to hear you have had a bad experiance from your installer. It is worth writing too them with your concerns, especially if you think there may be the slightest possibility of there been any safety issues with sooting/carbon monoxide. It is worth also speaking to the manafactures. I dont know anything about HETAS, but I would have thought they would be interested in any installation that may have not been correctly installed, if not what are they there for?
Writing is important and copy letters to your Trading Standards.
If all else fail Name and Shame the Installers werever you can!
Good Luck
Matt

 

[tryitandsee]

Each wood burner is slightly different, I suspect you just have to get used to this one and find out which logs burn the best and what restriction of air is required to keep it damped down enough to keep it going all night. Logs that are not dense for example (fast growing) will burn really quickly (Silver birch). Harder more dense wood (Oak) will burn much slower but need a hot layer of ash. The permutations are endless. Keep on experimenting with different combinations and you should get it to last through the night.

Keeping a good layer of ash for logs is normally best and not constantly riddling. Coal is different and needs the air flow.

I'm afraid the air wash system sounds good, but in order to restrict the air over night, you have to shut off the airwash draught thus allowing the glass to blacken.