Review of Jotul F 100
Lovely little stove
Like most people we spent a long time contemplating the various options before settling on this stove. We liked the way it looked and found it at a good price, but I was a bit worried by other users comments that it could be hard to light and that it had relatively basic controls.
In fact it's been fine, although I can see why the lack of an additional air vent for ignition might be a problem in some set-ups. Here, we have a strong draw from a 10m chimney and - as long as the wood is under 30% moisture - it lights incredibly easily and the door can be shut almost immediately. As others have noted, the handle is great because it has a wooden knob that stays cool (although I'd like to be able to tighten it up so that the bolt didn't keep coming undone!). It's slightly annoying that the (cast iron) air control lever gets scorching hot but I imagine wood wouldn't last long there! It has a big, uncluttered firebox compared to the other 5kw models we looked at, and the view of the fire is really excellent - something we didn't really consider properly before deciding. It's pretty too, in a classic sort of way. I'm glad we got this one, it really brings our room to life. Two points worth considering; we installed this ourselves and, when the guy came to smoke test it, he found that smoke was streaming out from under the stove when the door was open (but not with the door closed). Weird, huh. I assumed it was our inept installation, but it turned out that the bolts inside the stove weren't sufficiently tight (especially the ones that hold the cover on the rear flue exit). We tightened these up and that solved the problem instantly. But bolt tightness out of the factory is something to check during installation. Second thing is that the baffle plate at the top of the stove is quite difficult to get in, and if it's not sitting perfectly in position it dramatically reduces the effectiveness of the airwash. I'm not hugely impressed with the airwash anyway - I've had to clean the glass a couple of times already, in less than a week, but to be honest that may be to do with too-wet wood or simply cack-handed operation by us. All that said, we are properly toasty now and I'm loving having this wonderful stove in our living room. Just a shame that the cold weather is nearly over for this winter!Stove expert replied: It is strange that the bolts were not tight but an installer should check when installing a stove that all parts are as expected. Possible this was an oversight on the assembly line! Otherwise seems a good review but do not use wood with more than 20% moisture content to get the best out of your stove.
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