Improving my wood stove

[JRMichler]

I have a Jotul 610 wood stove that is about 12 years old. It looks a lot like their current F 602 V3 wood stove. It's a nice little stove, with two aspects that I dislike. The minimum burn rate will overheat our 1300 square foot house at any outside temperature above 20 to 25 deg F. And the ashes contained a lot of unburned wood as charcoal.

I looked for ways to get a cleaner burn, and hopefully allow a reduced minimum burn rate. I first tried lining the bottom with firebrick. No improvement. Then I made a grate from a piece of expanded steel mesh. That did not work. It first softened and sagged, then burned up.

I then bought a piece A286 alloy high temperature stainless steel. That stuff is a challenge to drill. I drilled 100 holes 1/2" diameter, and had to stop and sharpen the bit every 10 holes. After bending to the shape shown in the photo, I installed it.

It has been used six times for 1/2 day every time. The ashes have almost no charcoal, so it's getting more useful heat out of the wood. The minimum burn rate seems to be slightly lower than before. Any unburned wood stays on top of the grate and gets burned up with the next firing. Ashes are removed by lifting the grate and scooping from underneath. Success!