BK Ashford Smoke Smell Follow Up

I went thru a two year period of the wife hating the wood stove(s). The problem was a combination of owning the wrong stove, and the amount of personal time and dedication it takes to get three years ahead when you're burning close to ten cords per year. Four years in, she's past that, and is now the first to ask when I'm going to light the stove when the outside temps drop.

I learned the key is to minimize her exposure to those annoyances. In my case, it meant not talking about stoves or firewood, and not going out to split wood while she was stuck in the house watching kids, even if that meant clandestinely taking days off work to split wood while she wasn't around. In your case, I guess it means ensuring you don't get smoke smell in the house while she's home, even if that translates to always burning at a higher than desired rate while she's home. You can experiment with your fixes, and subsequently turning it down lower, when she's not around. That is, if you don't want to kill the whole wood-burning thing for your family.

The stove can only burn so low. Heating a small home, especially a well insulated one, with wood is a challenge nomatter what stove you have. The problem is that the house looses heat more slowly than most woodstoves make it for most of the year. The only solution is to let the fire go out and the house cool before restarting and overheating a bit.

That said, if your cat is active, the smoke shouldn't be leaving the stove into the room.

Ashful said:

I learned the key is to minimize her exposure to those annoyances. In my case, it meant not talking about stoves or firewood, and not going out to split wood while she was stuck in the house watching kids, even if that meant clandestinely taking days off work to split wood while she wasn't around.

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Lol great post. This sentence embodies so much of the wood burning process in my home too- clandestine!

Calentarse , are you still smoke free? Was the flue the "fix"? I have the same issue. The smoke is very light but annoying.

It is an ashford 30.1. You never see any smoke but can smell it. 5' of double walled connector and 13' of 8" Metalbestos. I just finished sealing some flue leaks With Dave from A-1 Stoves. Inspected the door gasket. Tightened it up a little. I am thinking that, perhaps, the creosote is wicking through the gasket, while hot in a liquid state, and evaporating. I will fire it up in an hour after the silicone caulk sets up and see if that helped.

Is there any product one can slap on a gasket that would soak in to make smoke sneaking past impossible?

The only thing I can think of is gasket cement but it becomes stiff and no longer conforming to create a seal. Only silica and asbestos can withstand the heat while remaining compliant.

Reading taken at the cat thermometer hole, -.11" flue 600F. I am just starting this load of wood. When the flue is 300F, it is around -.06". The stove is usually on low fire with the pointer at~3:30. The knob is calibrated: at cold iron 1:00=shut. Fully CW the indicator stripe stops at 6:00. I believe I have a very strong draft.

I hear folks here talk about how there's "zero smell" from their stove, but I've also been in the houses of many wood burners who say they can't smell anything in their house, and I have no trouble smelling it as they're saying this. Similarly, I know people who actually believe you can't smell their house cat, and almost any non-cat person will tell you they smell cat piss the second they walk into the home of said cat owner. I assert that the house of EVERY wood burner smells a bit of wood smoke, whether they realize it or not. The folks I see complaining about it here may just be those more sensitive to it, and actually believing the BS others lay down. I have never been in the home of any wood burner that does not have a slight smoke smell, period. In my experience, this smell is only offensive in the case of those who burn wood that is not properly dry.

In my house, I don't believe the smell is actually coming from any leak in any one of the four stoves I have run here, but is drawn in with the make-up air from outside the house. It likely comes in thru the attic and second floor windows, but it is surely there, faint but constant thru the burning season. Four stoves, and they were all the same. In my case, it varies more with wind direction than anything else.

Now getting back to your questions about gaskets, there is a curious thing happening, here. We know that a properly set up stove will be under negative pressure, relative to the room in which it's installed, and so one might think a leak in any gasket should not emit smoke. After all, your stove isn't air-tight, there's a big hole called the air inlet. However, it does seem that the air wash system, which directs inlet air across the glass, may create an area of neutral pressure right around the door, such that a door gasket leak could emit smoke. Seems unlikely, but it has been a point of discussion in the BK Performance thread.

Negative. No smoke smell in my house......and no cats either. Real or in the stove.

Squisher said:

Negative. No smoke smell in my house......and no cats either. Real or in the stove.

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I don't think my house smells of smoke either, but I do notice it a little at the very beginning of every burning season. So, it's either disappearing on it's own (unlikely), or I acclimate to it after the first few days, and can no longer detect it (very likely).

begreen said:

If the folks have an Ashford replacing another stove they should be believed if they are noting a persistent difference.

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I believe this is the only valid argument against my assertion. Touché, my friend!

My siracco has the same smell of smoke at the upper left corner of door. Its not horrible but its there. My old country stove had no smell. I have 18' of stainless liner. So its hard to convince me its a draft issue. Althought, i think measuring draft in most of these casses would help. And if i reacall this is fairly simple with the dwayer manometer. 32 dollars on amazon is a lot cheaper than stainless pipe.

Ashful said:

I don't think my house smells of smoke either, but I do notice it a little at the very beginning of every burning season. So, it's either disappearing on it's own (unlikely), or I acclimate to it after the first few days, and can no longer detect it (very likely).


I believe this is the only valid argument against my assertion. Touché, my friend!

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Well myself I have a super sniffer, really sensitive. I've burned my whole life and live in a rural area where most do. Neither myself, anyone in my family, and any guest we have had have ever noted smoke smell out of my stove. And I know what smoke smells like. I have a upstairs open fireplace that will spill some smoke if conditions aren't perfect (although none since I've installed a grate wall of fire, but that is literally another thread that I will update) and trust me I can smell smoke still. I haven't become accustomed to it because my stove leaks a smoke smell. It simply just doesn't.

I have 27' of insulated liner and 3' of double wall. I started with a 90 going into the wall and had a smoke smell on low burn. I swapped out the 90 for 2 45's and the smell was gone. The issue I had was not enough rise before the 90 and also have a pretty long horizontal run through the wall. My previous non cat had no issues on the same chimney. A cat stove that burns low is a bit picky when it comes to the chimney.

I get the occasional smell of smoke but I expect it when burning wood. Visitors always say they can't smell any smoke stink so it's not staying around from reloads or anything else.

jeffsk7 said:

My siracco has the same smell of smoke at the upper left corner of door. Its not horrible but its there. My old country stove had no smell. I have 18' of stainless liner. So its hard to convince me its a draft issue. Althought, i think measuring draft in most of these casses would help. And if i reacall this is fairly simple with the dwayer manometer. 32 dollars on amazon is a lot cheaper than stainless pipe.

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I can detect a smoke smell in the same spot on my Princess, but it doesn't bother me. I have 21' of pipe and tremendous draft. I'm pretty sure it's not a draft issue. I've had people over that also burn and they don't believe the stove is even burning until they get close and feel the heat. My BIL yanked my door open last year with the cat way active because he didn't understand how a modern stove works.

You should have gotten a PE stove... Heh, heh, heh... Just kidding. When the wind is blowing just right, and I haven't gotten the stove box up to temp, we get a little bit of smoke smell coming in through our sliding glass door and/or dog door. Nothing is absolutely perfect. Believe you me, any current EPA stove is better than the smoke dragon my dad ran when I was a kid during the "oil crisis" of the '70's. Our whole house reeked of creosote and we had 2-3 raging chimney fires every year!

My house smells like smoke and cat pizz.

weatherguy said:

My house smells like smoke and cat pizz.

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It's okay... mine smells like smoke and dog breath. I can't tell.

Can't tell which is worse. Lol.

I fired up my stove at 2:00PM, bypass at 2:30 and ran it wide open to char the load until 3:10PM. The smell of smoke is still present. I say smell because I cannot see it. It is definitely coming from the hinge area. Using a flashlight, as I look into the stove (it is turned way down) I see no smoke. The chamber static is -.05" . How can smoke leak out? No back puffing at all and no flames. Just glowing coals. The smell is apparent at all stages of firing. Since we have several people experiencing the same "smoke smell" thing we have a real problem to resolve. Our collective brainpower will do it.