Jotul 8TDC

seedspreader · #1 09/29/05, 10:23 PM

Anyone have a Jotul 8TDC? I have one sitting in my truck, need to paint it. Man I hear so much good about these, but the firebox just seems outright small with that catylitic honeycomb in it.

Thinking of selling it and getting something without the catalytic burner and a bigger firebox, but I know everyone says I will be suprised at how miserly this thing is on wood.

So does anyone here have one?

Haggis · #2 09/30/05, 06:32 AM

I have 2 Jutuls and the one in the house will heat our 1000' sq. ft. The firebox in our little QT is the size of 4 loaves of bread.

There is a price tag on the single wall stove pipe coming out of the top of the stove that has been there for 4 winters without buring off. Very little heat goes up the chimney. I leave the tag on the pipe to remind of how much wood I'm not sawing, splitting, and carrying.

OD · #3 09/30/05, 07:27 AM

We have a Jotul 600 and I hated it when we first got it. We bought it to replace our nice little soapstone that just wasn't big enough to heat this house.
Anyway, after I threw the instructions away & learned how to get a fire going in it, I'm really starting to like this Jotul. I did find out that getting a fire going & then turning it down so the fire will last all day is a bunch of BS. "If you want heat, you gotta have fire." That should be carved into the front door of every stove.
When we were shopping for this stove, every dealer we talked to said to not get one with a catalyst. They said that they get stopped up easily, & are generally a PITA. We got one without the catalyst, so I don't know if that is true or not.
Well, I said all that to say this: Be sure to get one that is big enough to do the job, or you will run yourself to death trying to keep wood in it.

seedspreader · #4 09/30/05, 07:44 AM

My gut is saying "sell, sell, sell..." because of the catalytic burner... Although I believe this stove has a "bypass" that allows you vent around it when you want to.

OD · #5 09/30/05, 08:35 AM

It all depends on the area that you plan to heat. Do you have good insulation? High or low ceilings? Will it be the main source of heat or just backup for another source?
Our stove is the main source of heat for a 36 X 40 foot house, half with a 20 ft. ceilng, & sitting on a hill. It is well insulated, but it still takes a lot of heat to keep it warm when the north wind is blowing.

WindowOrMirror · #6 09/30/05, 08:54 AM

and it's true that if you build a fire and then crank down the stove after it heats, that it will stay hot all day. Hot enough that is to start another fire, NOT hot enough to heat a house. If you want constant BTU output that will heat a large area (read: Home), you've got to stock the thing and turn it up a bit.

R

Wayne02 · #7 09/30/05, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZealYouthGuy

My gut is saying "sell, sell, sell..." because of the catalytic burner... Although I believe this stove has a "bypass" that allows you vent around it when you want to.

Listen to your gut on this one. While I am not familiar with that particular make of stove, I am familiar with catalytic stoves and stoves with small fireboxes... they both suck.

I recently purchased a new "epa rated, close clearance, high efficiency" stove for my shop. I elected to go with a "secondary burn" type high efficiency stove vs the catalytic stoves that I've had in the past. I was skeptical about the secondary burn concept at first, but I must say it really works well. Best of all it is much less complex than the catalytic designs. Also has no parts that wear out and need to be replaced.

I "sized" the stove according to my square footage and published stove output. What I neglected to take into consideration is the size of the firebox, the width of the door opening, and the direction the logs get loaded into the stove.

The stove is "advertised" to take a 17" log, when in reality it will only take a 15" log, closer to 14" actually. The inside width dimension of the firebox is almost 17", but the door opening is 15". This coupled with the very shallow firebox makes this stove a giant pia to use. The logs get loaded in parallel with the front of the stove instead of long-ways. Trying to get a log that is anywhere over about 14" loaded is a complete exercise in frustration and burned hands.

When you buy wood around here it is typically 17" length, finding anything shorter is almost impossible. I cut some of my own wood as well so I can of course cut it shorter, but then our house wood stove takes 17" logs, all my relatives stoves take 17" logs and of course all their wood stores are 17". We often "share" wood based on who needs what over the course of the winter. Having an oddball size is a giant pain.

When this stove is burning it puts out just the right amount of heat, and the smoke (or lack of it) is surprisingly very little. I was amazed at how clean burning this stove was. Of course since it takes such a small log load you have to restock the thing frequently and it won't come anywhere close to holding a fire overnight.

I will be replacing this mistake with a secondary burn, larger stove that takes the logs long-ways. It will probably be over-sized for the space, and I may not be the model of efficiency, but at least the darn thing will be usable.

Sorry for the rant... I'm still irritated at myself for not researching this thing further before buying this particular stove...

Wayne

WindowOrMirror · #8 09/30/05, 09:34 AM

Secondary burn, fron-loading door DOES reduce the size of log, but PRESTO!... a SIDE door to load in as well! :-D

The one note on the 500 that I'd make is... don't leave the ash door open - even a little - or you'll burn the thing up.

R

**Cabin Fever** · #9 09/30/05, 10:19 AM

I'm still leary of cast iron stoves and I'll tell you why. First, when I ws looking for a used stove many years ago, there were a lot of cast iron ones for sale. I'd say about half of them had a crack. At that time I thought one could not weld cast iron, but since then I found that a person could weld them....but it's difficult...and who wants to haul a 400-plus pound woodstove to a welder?!?!?

I'm not sure why these stoves cracked. Perhaps they heated up too fast or were hit with a heavy object. Or maybe, had cold water spilled on them while they were hot....which is not an unlikely thing to happen if you use your stove for cooking or heating water.

We have a graniteware pot that we used to heat water on the woodstove. When we set that pot full of ice cold well water on the woodstove, it does a "dance" for us. In less than a minute it actually starts rocking back and forth (the bottom of the pot is not perfectly flat). If the pot is too full, it will start slinging cold water all over the place. I wonder if our stove was cast iron, and not plate steel, if this spilled ice cold water would cause it to crack?

At any rate, when I'm asked, I always recommend a person to purchase a plate steel stove with secondary combustion. And by the way, assuming all modern stoves are "air-tight," the stove has nothing to do with how long a fire lasts. The duration of the fire depends 100% on how much air you allow into the stove...the brand of stove as nothing to do with it.

LisaInN.Idaho · #10 09/30/05, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haggis

I have 2 Jutuls and the one in the house will heat our 1000' sq. ft. The firebox in our little QT is the size of 4 loaves of bread.

There is a price tag on the single wall stove pipe coming out of the top of the stove that has been there for 4 winters without buring off. Very little heat goes up the chimney. I leave the tag on the pipe to remind of how much wood I'm not sawing, splitting, and carrying.

Haggis, we have a gas (propane) QT in each of my daughter's bedrooms. They are so darned cute!

Irish Pixie · #11 09/30/05, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZealYouthGuy

My gut is saying "sell, sell, sell..." because of the catalytic burner... Although I believe this stove has a "bypass" that allows you vent around it when you want to.

When replacing the old vintage Andes Parlor Stove that came with the cabin, we asked everyone we could find (that heated totally with wood as we do) if we should get a catalytic stove....the answer was a resounding NO. On average, they have to be replaced every 2 years and they aren't cheap. We bought a Vermont Castings Resolute Acclaim (moonlight blue, gorgeous stove)- not catatytic. The old Andes (not even airtight) kept the cabin wonderfully warm (it's a family joke that I can have DH stripped to his underwear in 10 minutes) but it went through an incredible amount of wood, and it wouldn't hold enough coals to restart a fire in the morning, so I'm hoping for the same heat with the Vermont Castings, less wood used, and coals to restart the fire in the morning.

Stacy

apirlawz · #12 09/30/05, 01:53 PM

We have an old Fisher cast iron stove. It's wonderful...heats the whole house (1,200 + upstairs bedroom), and holds a fire quite well overnight. The way the stove is built makes it really easy to load, and it takes 24" logs. The room with the stove was usually 65-70 in the morning, with the far end of the house being 58-62. Of course, if it was really windy and cold, the far end of the house got a little chilly in the morning...mid 50s The layout of the house really helps, though - long, open space with only a bedroom upstairs.

But anyway, I could probably count on my fingers the number times I've had to use a match to start a fire!

It's held up very well since it was made back in the 70's, a little rust around the edges, but no cracks, warps, etc. That's probably because of the firebrick lining. The top of the stove has two different levels, very nice for cooking when you need different temps.

On the flipside, the bugger weighs a ton...well, just over 450 to be more accurate. It took four of us and some pretty creative language to wrestle that thing into the house. I'm not sure how well it retains heat compared to a soapstone stove, and it certainly isn't as pretty as one! (It's charm is, shall we say, very rustic!) The pipe comes out of the back versus the top, so it does retain more heat that way, but I can assure you, the tags on the stovepipe burned off long ago! The shape makes for a large, easily loaded firebox, but it also ends up taking a lot of space. The front of the stove, along with the only door, is on one of the narrow ends of the stove, (as opposed to most stoves, with the front being on one of the long sides). So, it kind of juts out into the room, rather than sitting along the wall. It works well where we have it, but I can see it being a problem in other situations.

All in all, I'm really tickled with it. Being a relatively new "homesteader", it's one of few things we actually got right the first time!

**Cabin Fever** · #13 09/30/05, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by apirlawz

We have an old Fisher cast iron stove......

Fisher woodstoves are not cast iron, they are made from plate steel. I know, I used to own a Grampa Bear Fisher stove. Fisher's are well-made, heavy-duty, indestructible woodstoves!

seedspreader · #14 09/30/05, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cabin Fever

Fisher woodstoves are not cast iron, they are made from plate steel. I know, I used to own a Grampa Bear Fisher stove. Fisher's are well-made, heavy-duty, indestructible woodstoves!

And I have one that looks like a fisher... you know the low hump up front and a raised hump in the back with a single door with the screw down damper control. I have used that stove in the past and it will run you out of the house, I know I can make that one last all night by damping her down... it just is bigger and not as "pretty" as the jotul. I think I could sell the jotul online and make some money just off the name though. Hmmmm.

Silvercreek Farmer · #15 10/23/07, 12:37 PM

Well, got my Fisher a couple of hours ago, fellow I bought it from was working in the area and was nice enough to drop it off. I went ahead and fired it up to burn the oil the fellow put on it off. Also got started with the wire brush, got a lot more to go! It may be my imagination but even the kindling I used to start it seemed to last longer!

**Cabin Fever** · #16 10/23/07, 12:51 PM

What kind of shape is the door gasket in?

seedspreader · #17 10/23/07, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matthew Lindsay

Well, got my Fisher a couple of hours ago, fellow I bought it from was working in the area and was nice enough to drop it off. I went ahead and fired it up to burn the oil the fellow put on it off. Also got started with the wire brush, got a lot more to go! It may be my imagination but even the kindling I used to start it seemed to last longer!

Vs. that box stove you have... it is definitely longer... you'll find it takes a little longer to heat up (not much) but you have a much more substantial stove now.

minnikin1 · #18 10/23/07, 08:09 PM

We have a jotul. It's cast iron, but doesn't have brick liner. BIG MISTAKE!
Salesman talked me out it even though I knew better.

It heats the house. It's not a lasting heat. Once the fire is out, the heat is over.

We had an old steel stove with the brick, and it not only heated the house, it kept it warm long after the fired died out.

Also, we chose to avoid the catalytic converters. Most everyone we talk to says they are losing popularity because they cost to much and give too little in return.

farmerscotty · #19 10/23/07, 09:57 PM

Remember.........dry wood in any stove makes a big difference........Dry wood is not wet wood or green wood.........dry wood is covered wood kept dry.......less creosote, less stopping up......less flue fires..............

Scott

HermitJohn · #20 10/24/07, 10:24 AM

Jotul makes some lovely non-catalytic stoves. You couldnt give me a catalytic one. But hey what do I know, I am still using the round SOTZ kit I bought in 1983 mounted on an old 20 gallon pressure tank in its latest reincarnation.

Since NorthernTool has decided to mail me a medium sized tree in form of catalogs this year, I did see an interesting new model that Vogelzang has come out with: http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...9109_200339109

I am not a fan of Vogelzang but this Durango model looks interesting since its an end loading model and does meet the strict state of Washington standards. Its plate steel so not sure how well it would hold up. Probably ok if you clean it in Spring and oil it to prevent rust. I know the price is quite competitive with comparible other new stoves, but still seems way overpriced to somebody like me. I looked and looked and no comments on internet how well it works in real world.