Its so good to see a loved Jotul 118. Up here in Canada there were multiple Taiwanese copies marketed from 1978 on. We had one of those that heated our entire house for twenty years. It was a joy to light with our tall, straight chimney and DRY wood. Simply load it with wood up to 24" long! shread some newspaper, close the door and it would sound like a jet engine roaring. The cast iron inner shields eventually warped and the sides developed some cracks from these "Italian tuneups" but it lasted 20 years. We replaced it twenty years ago with a real Jotul non-box, I had to learn how to build a fire after being spoilt.
I recently purchased a 1976 Jotul 118 at an estate sale. It was only used five or six winters and is in great shape. The online manual describes what you explain here (start fires at the front) but your video was much better. Thanks very much for sharing this. If you have tips for cooking on top of this particular stove, I'd love to hear them. Our stove still has the original heat shields inside. Not modified as yours is.
I have the Jotul F45 and Jotul 602. I run them the same way you do but I prefer to leave a good layer of ash in the stove. It helps insulate the coals in the back of the stove and gives a longer burn.
These old jotul stoves are so much better than the new jotul black bear re make. I have one like this and it is in my old abandoned cabin in the woods. I am going to bring it home to the pole barn and restore it and use it in the house,or an new metal building addition on my property. Good stove
We agree. They don't make stoves like they used too. All the new stoves have secondary burn chambers and cat convertors. We don't know anyone who actually likes them or gets good heat from them. Check out our stove fabrication videos for this stove if you ever want to get more heat from the old Jotul. Awesome to hear you're going to put some life back into such a great peace of workmanship.
Thank you for your explaining the burning cycle. I just bought one. Can you please make a video where you start from scratch??? Not starting with marbels, it would help a lot.
You are welcome! Here is a link to one of our videos that shows how to start a fire from scratch. If you have any more questions after watching this video please let us know and we will get back to you. studio.ru-vid.comTE3lzeEW0kM/edit
Good morning thanks for the informative video. Been working on getting off the grid in Eastern North Carolina. Got water catchment and solar covered but needed something for interior heat for winter. Ordered a cigar stove from us stove yesterday
I load mine up before I go to bed and it lasts for about eight hours. They are made to stay alight in fact on the front of mine there is inscribed a prayer saying it should always keep burning. Mine is about fifteen years old and since I've had it we never use c.h. I wouldn't say it overheats the house but then I have a large house.
These do work for most people and we used them for the first year we used the stove but, we feel the temp thermometers put us out of touch with having a true connection to the heat of a fire and how comfortable the home feels based on what a device says the numbers are for the stove and for the home.
