The Jotul 602 has been being made decades and claims the highest selling stove in history accolade. Over the years it has gone through several versions, but the latest Eco comes with DEFRA approval, Eco-Design compliance, direct air, single air control high efficiencies.
Jotul is a Norwegian company that has been making stoves for 170 years as of 2023 and is not only world famous, but also held in the highest esteem by anyone in the know. They make this stove from cast iron, still cast in Norway, it is a wood only appliance that is built for serious use, cooking, overnight running and a great traditional look.
Lighting the stove: 6/10
This stove is a very deep and narrow stove which is a bit different, but doesn't negatively affect it, in fact because of this depth its actually really well behaved and doesn't have the same smoke spillage issues that a lot of others suffer. Lighting was all fairly standard, castings do tend to take a bit longer to heat up, but this one responded well.
Cleanness: 5/10
Given that this was designed before WWII it's amazing that they have managed to achieve a very modern 81% efficiency. It is also very impressive that even though this stove doesn't have a traditional air wash system, the glass doesn't have a blackening issue. You do need to wipe it over every once in a while, but even when running it overnight the glass was still clean enough to see everything in the morning.
Controls & Controllability: 7/10
I'm a big fan of the wooden handle which not only looks great, but feels nice and suits the character and traditional style of the stove. The control (there's only 1) is very simple just pull out to open up and push in to shut down. It's not astounding, but is certainly good enough. In fact the balance is almost perfect when you consider that I left it running for 11 HOURS, and the glass was still clean and get it going again was as simple as chucking a few bits of wood onto the base and opening the vent. You couldn't really ask for too much more to be fair, from a function point of view. The only thing it didn't quite have was that super controllability that enables some very pretty floating flames, but given the size of the glass on this stove, it was never designed with the fire view as peak priority.
Fuel economy & Burn time: 9.5/10
This stove can run for 10-13 hours on a net of kiln dried logs, so it is very high performing. It also runs overnight with ease and given its style it is suited to the utilitarian user who wants the Swiss Army knife of stoves. The real economy to this stove is only harnessed when you put it to work with all its potential:
Cooking, sole heating for a space, drying the washing, keeping the damp away, being the focal point, the conversation piece and the ultimate 24/7 finishing furniture for a room.
What I thought:
This stove is obviously not for everyone, its not got a great view of the fire it's a nearly 100 year old design and it is best placed free standing in a room, rather than in a small fireplace. But get into the spirit of the person this was design for, the utilitarian frugal user, who wants everything possible that a stove can give, high performance and cheap fuel bills. That user if they take the plunge and buy the 602 will not only never regret it, they will never want another stove again, why else would a 100 year old design still be desirable today. What else can boast that!