Old Jotul 8 Wood/Coal Stove

Anyone know about these? The house I bought back in May has a Jotul 8 stove in the basement (mentions 1984 on the back plate), says on the door for wood or coal fuel only. It's the first generation with the circular air draft control at the bottom of the door. I've burned wood in it so far and it works great... Not sure if I'm going to seriously consider burning coal in there, but, I was wondering what kind of parts I'd need to retrofit if I wanted. I'm guessing there's a special grate I need to buy?

Welcome to the forum. Post some pics of the stove, grate, and air intake. One of us on the forum will have an answer for your question of its ability to burn coal.

The snowman.

spirilis wrote:Anyone know about these? ... I'm guessing there's a special grate I need to buy?

Maybe, what kind of grate is there now. Do they rock or shake back and forth to allow the ash to fall to the ash pan. A coal stove will need that. If not, fortunately, parts for most brands are easily found on line. Just a thought - if the stove has been used with wood there may be a major clean up effort required to remove any creoste buildup. The same with your chimney. However, even with the thought of doing that, coal will provide such a better heat that it's well worth the effort. I think you'll be kicking yourself as to why you didn't switch sooner. I know I am. Lisa

lowfog01 wrote:

spirilis wrote:Anyone know about these? ... I'm guessing there's a special grate I need to buy?

Maybe, what kind of grate is there now. Do they rock or shake back and forth to allow the ash to fall to the ash pan. A coal stove will need that. If not, fortunately, parts for most brands are easily found on line. Just a thought - if the stove has been used with wood there may be a major clean up effort required to remove any creoste buildup. The same with your chimney. However, even with the thought of doing that, coal will provide such a better heat that it's well worth the effort. I think you'll be kicking yourself as to why you didn't switch sooner. I know I am. Lisa

It doesn't have a grate right now; I found on StovePartsPlus there's a "Model 8 Coal Kit", I sent them an email asking about it (prices/pics/etc). I'm guessing that just contains a grate and maybe some shaker parts. Right now it contains the steel firebox plates on the bottom & sides, and a layer of ash on which the wood sits, with a log retainer in front to prevent logs from rolling out. The side plates have protrusions and I'm guessing that's to hold a grate in place, but I'll have to see what the kit looks like.
This was more of a curiosity than anything, although if the parts can be had for cheap it might make a good back-up solution in case I can't get wood for cheap...

PS- This post already shows up in google when you search "jotul 8 coal stove". Wow!

Actually here's a good picture of one that somebody's selling on ebay:
**Broken Link(s) Removed**Mine's exactly like that, except my flue outlet is up top instead of in the back (plus mine is black). Same internal configuration. In those pictures the air control is fully closed, but if you turned that dial counter-clockwise you'd see two air vents--one at the top of the dial feeding air under the log retainer (primary air) and one on the bottom feeding air under the steel firebox insert, where air gets routed around the sides and into the upper firebox (for wood secondary combustion)

Hi,

I have that exact stove, now since replaced by a Hitzer 30-95. I always assumed that the Joutul could burn soft coal as mine has a solid bottom plate.
Mine also came with the house when I bought it. I was able to locate a manual for the newer model online. It states not to burn coal. I don't see how
you could hook up shaker grates without drilling through the stove but I've been wrong plenty times before. Let me know if you would like a copy of the manual.

dbev wrote:Hi,

I have that exact stove, now since replaced by a Hitzer 30-95. I always assumed that the Joutul could burn soft coal as mine has a solid bottom plate.
Mine also came with the house when I bought it. I was able to locate a manual for the newer model online. It states not to burn coal. I don't see how
you could hook up shaker grates without drilling through the stove but I've been wrong plenty times before. Let me know if you would like a copy of the manual.

I found a copy of the manual online, possibly the same one you had; it states not to burn coal but it also described the newer generation of the Jotul 8, which had a catalyst and some air "slot" up top I think. This is the first generation with the rotary air control down at the bottom and no catalyst, which I haven't found a manual for... but it's definitely supposed to be capable of burning coal.
I am kinda curious about the shaker grate, not sure how they implement that on this stove. Can't see any good place for a handle to come out. Maybe you're supposed to open the door and shake it with some kind of tool?

Hmm had a long post here but removing it for now; turns out the coal grate parts at Woodmanspartsplus.com don't quite jive with the measurements I took of my own Jotul 8's firebox. After I clear that up I'll repost it.

Well I finally got some closure on this topic, a Jotul dealer tracked down some info on this and as it turns out, Jotul did make a coal basket kit for this stove for about a year, but they have no parts available anymore. A PDF of the coal kit did turn up:
#8 Coal Kit

Fascinating kit, it replaces all the internal components with a short ashpan/grate, custom firebricks with perches that hold some firebars and a hopper that houses the coal. Not sure where the shaker handle goes, maybe you have to open the door to shake it down... Also there's an insert to close off the secondary air draft. Would love to see a whole kit used someday but I'm not holding my breath. One interesting tidbit is that the flue outlet's 2 holes can be used to house a MPD, never thought of doing that since mine just came with 2 bolts for securing the stovepipe. I might go find a 7" MPD and retrofit it into that collar. If it hurts the draft too much I can take it out easily... much easier than if it's buried in the stovepipe somewhere!

It probably didn't work all that well or they would have kept it available. You really need to have controllable under air feed with no possibility of the air having any other path but up through the coal bed. If air can get around it, or over the top, you'll have a problem getting anthracite to burn well.

I originally thought it turned into a top-loader after looking at the PDF, but the dealer corrected me and said it was still a front loader but with that hopper taking up most of the vertical space it was difficult to load coal into the thing. That must've killed its demand just as well. As for the air though, looks like the bottom grate has a gasket to help contain the primary air.

I burned wood with a Jotul # 8 and also had the coal burning kit for the stove. This had to be back in 1984/ 1985. Anyway the stove burned wood very well but the coal kit for it did not work well AT ALL!!!! At the time I also had a Red Jotul 507b and that stove burned anthracite Very, Very Well !!!!!
If you want a Jotul coal stove get a #507.... I have 3 at the moment and they work very well.

Gorgeous PC, Shame they don't still make those 507's. Jotul has always made a pretty good product. They should come out with a "new' coalburner.