Jøtul cast iron stoves: what the iron changes and which size fits.

The story at the counter is usually the same. Somebody grew up with a Jøtul in the den, or a neighbor has had one running for thirty years. That is the stove they want. It is a good reason. Just know what the iron actually changes, because some claims made for it are bigger than the iron.

Cast iron warms up slower and cools down slower

A cast iron stove takes longer to come up to temperature after you light it. Then it keeps putting heat into the room after the fire has burned down. That suits a stove that runs all evening and through the night. It suits a quick fire on a cool morning less well.

How much of that you feel depends a lot on how much metal is in the stove. Jøtul makes a steel stove too. The F 35 Rockwood is built of welded 3/16 inch steel plate with cast iron parts. Jøtul lists it at 385 pounds. The cast iron F 445 Holliday is listed at 418. On paper those two carry similar amounts of metal. If holding heat after the fire is what you care about most, compare weights on the spec sheet as well as materials.

A cast iron stove is built from plates you can replace

This is the difference that matters most over twenty years. Jøtul's manuals for the F 602 V3, the F 445 and the F 500 V3 all say the stove is built from cast iron plates sealed with stove furnace cement. Cast iron expands and contracts as it heats and cools. So each manual asks for a break-in: a short series of small to medium fires before the first hard burn.

The payoff for that is repair. In the F 602 V3 parts list, the back panel, the side plate and the top plate each have their own part number. A damaged plate is a part to order, not the end of the stove. Jøtul's own site makes the same point: its cast iron parts are durable and simple to replace. It is a big reason we still work on Jøtuls older than some of the people who call us about them.

The parts that wear out are the same on any wood stove: door and glass gaskets, the glass, the baffle and, on a catalytic model, the combustor. The manuals give a quick test for the door gasket. Close the door on a dollar bill and pull. If the bill slides out easily, the seal is too loose and the gasket is due.

Enamel colors go on the iron

The other reason people pick Jøtul is color. The warranty in Jøtul's manuals covers the enamel finish on cast iron components, which is where the enamel goes. It asks for a little care. The manuals say never to clean enamel while it is hot, to wipe it cold with a damp cloth, and to skip soapy or abrasive cleaners, which can stain it. Which colors are offered changes by model and by year, so ask us before you fall for one.

Where are Jøtul stoves made?

Two places. It is worth being exact about which does what.

Jøtul AS is the Norwegian parent company. It was founded in 1853, its address is in Fredrikstad, and it runs its own foundry. Jøtul North America is in Gorham, Maine. The manual for each of the four wood stoves on Jøtul's U.S. site today says the stove is manufactured by Jøtul North America at the Gorham address. Jøtul North America is also the company named on each stove's EPA test report.

When Jøtul moved its North American wood stove production to Gorham, its announcement said the Norwegian company would keep producing the cast iron parts and ship them flat to Maine for assembly. Jøtul's U.S. site also calls its products handmade in Norway. We have not found a current Jøtul statement that splits the work piece by piece. The fair summary from Jøtul's own documents is a Norwegian company that casts its own iron, with the stoves sold here built and certified in Maine. If where each casting was poured matters to you, ask us and we will ask Jøtul.

Every current Jøtul wood stove meets the 2020 EPA limit

Since May 15, 2020, a wood heater made or sold at retail in the U.S. may not put out more than a weighted average of 2.0 grams of particulate an hour. A stove tested on cord wood instead has a limit of 2.5 grams. Jøtul posts the lab report for each stove. All four current models come in well under the line:

• F 602 V3: 1.4 grams an hour, catalytic.
• F 35 Rockwood: 1.2 grams an hour on cord wood, non-catalytic.
• F 445 Holliday: 0.49 grams an hour, catalytic.
• F 500 V3 Oslo: 0.50 grams an hour, catalytic.

Each manual states the stove meets the 2020 EPA limits. You can look any model up yourself in the EPA's certified wood heater database. Three of the four use a catalytic combustor, which needs a periodic check and eventually a replacement. Our post on sizing a wood stove covers when a catalytic stove is worth that.

Which Jøtul fits which room?

Start with the firebox, not the square footage. The heated area on a tag is the maker's estimate, not a tested rating. Jøtul's manuals say so in a footnote: heating capacity varies with the design of the home, the climate, the wood and how the stove is run. Here are Jøtul's published numbers for the four current wood stoves.

Read across the firebox and log rows first. They decide how much wood goes in and how long it lasts.

• F 602 V3 for a small room. A den, a sunroom, a cabin. The firebox is small and takes 16 inch wood. It is for evenings in one room, not for carrying a house through the night.
• F 35 Rockwood for a mid-size room on a simpler stove. It is non-catalytic, so there is no combustor to look after. It is also the steel one, so you are choosing the Jøtul name more than the iron.
• F 445 Holliday for a living room that opens to the kitchen. A bigger firebox than the F 35, 20 inch wood and up to 9 hours. A sensible place to start for a stove that backs up a heat pump in a mid-size house.
• F 500 V3 Oslo for a large open plan room or an older, leakier house. The longest burn and the biggest box. It is also the easiest one to oversize. A big stove choked back in a small room burns dirty, which is the mistake the sizing post spends most of its time on.

Two things change the answer for any of them. Most firewood around here is cut at 16 inches, so a 24 inch box is room to spare rather than a requirement. And Jøtul's footnote says burn time varies with the wood too. Our firewood post covers the 20 percent moisture target and how long each species takes to get there.

Should it be a stove, an insert or gas?

We carry Jøtul cast iron wood stoves, wood inserts and gas stoves. If you have a masonry fireplace that puts out more draft than heat, an insert may be the better route than a stove on the hearth. Three ways to fix a fireplace that does not heat walks through that choice. If what you love is the look of the cast iron and not the firewood, ask about the gas stoves.

What to bring when you come to look

• The room. Rough dimensions, ceiling height and how it opens to the rest of the house.
• What heats the house now. A stove that backs up a heat pump is a different job from the only heat in the building.
• Your wood. What length your supplier cuts and whether it is seasoned.
• The chimney. A photo from outside, plus one of the fireplace if you are thinking about an insert.

Both showrooms keep stoves burning, which is the only real way to judge cast iron. Which Jøtul models are on the floor in Rome and Canton changes, so call (706) 234-0521 if you want to see a particular one. More on the line is on our Jøtul page.