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Jotul vs. Vermont Castings

18 years ago

Trying to decide between The Aspen and the Jotul F602CB. A local store said that they could order the Aspen ($200 ship cost) but that they no longer sell Vermont Casting because the company was undergoing "Changes" and didnt' give good service. He recommended the Jotul [which he has in stock]as a far superior stove. A store 45 miles away has both in stock. Any comments?? Thanks

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Comments (4)

kframe19
18 years ago
VC used to have a great reputation, but what I've heard over the past 5 or so years from quite a few different sources makes me think I wouldn't risk buying one.

Jotul, on the other hand, still has an excellent reputation.

I'd seriously consider one.
corningclarke
18 years ago
I had terrible problems with my Jotul; igniter broke almost immediately after the (very short) warranty period, expensive to replace and factory very difficult to deal with about gettingi part, sent wrong one, etc. Our installer charged $150 for service call. I'm sorry to hear that VC is going downhill, because I wouldn't buy from Jotul again.
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Go with the Jotul. First of all, no cat. Vermont Castings USED to be among the best in the industry but they've been sold so many times recently the quality has deteriorated to a point where the stove dealers here in Vermont won't even sell them anymore because of so many problems. Did you ask WHY a fairly new stove had to be rebuilt already? And why did the previous owner get rid of it? Go with the Jotul. It'll give you years of virtually trouble free service.
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Have you tried to speak to the manufacturer? If it's still under warranty, they should be able to respond, in fact, even if the warranty expired. I hope they have a responsive customer service department. We have a Jotul gas insert that we're happy with so far, but their customer service department is almost exclusively for the contractors who install their things -- they don't respond to retail inquiries, which was a disappointment when we had some questions. I hope Vermont Castings is more responsive. The other things is: When you have the guy come over to get it working, is he able to explain why it was malfunctioning and what you can do about it on your own if it happens again?
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kframe19
18 years ago
And there you have the other side of the story.

Jotuls seemed to be pretty popular in central Pennsylvania when I was growing up. I knew several families that had them, and they still seem to get pretty good traction there.
begreen1
18 years ago
We had an older 602B for years and loved it. It is one serious little heat machine. Very easy to use and nice looking. The downside is that it has a small firebox and is easy to overfire. However, the new Jotuls are a bit different and I haven't burned a new 602. Be sure to invest in a thermometer for this stove and watch it when you fire it up.
We now have a new F3CB and find that it's a real challenge to get it really cooking. With the 602 we could get up to about 500 deg in about 45 min. (It's not good to rush a cast iron stove up to temp). But we have not been able to get the 3CB up to this temperature period. It's as if it was designed never to overfire. The result seems to be that it is not a great heater. (Very pretty and the flames look loverly, but where's the heat?) Suspect current design is by lawyers and not engineers. :-)

Older VC stoves (pre-epa) are great. Some models of the newer VC stoves are terrible, so do your research carefully. I have a friend that has gone through 2 VC stoves in the past 10 years. This is with the resolute aclaim, then the encore. It needed an expensive rebuild every 3 years. She got so frustrated that she is paying for expensive electric heat instead. Very sad to see this. Our first new stove was the original resolute and I loved that stove.

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