BK Ashford Smoke Smell Follow Up
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Mine is 6" X 5' double walled and 8" X 13' Metalbestos for a total of 18'. Magnehelic readings: -.03 at 200F, -.05 at 300F and -.11 at 600F. I believe the draw is good. Draw readings taken from the cat thermometer hole to indicate actual combustion chamber pressure.
The Ashford 30.1 manual says -.05" on high burn. My flue has that at low burn. The flue is straight up.
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
Measuring at the cat probe hole. Hmmm, I wonder if that's the same as firebox or flue. Sure is convenient.
Wow seems crazy that the original design had such a glaring flaw for such an expensive highly regarded stove. I have been researching which stove to buy and now the blaze king does not seem like a great idea anymore. I live in Seattle area with 1300 sq/ft home and do not really need the long burn times combined with smoke issues, having to burn totally dry wood and dealing with the cat. I am considering a non-cat stove now. Any recommendations on a high quality non-cat stove.
For a non-cat in this area I would look at the PE Super or Spectrum or Alderlea T5. This series has a regulated secondary burn that is quite efficient.
I have heated my house since 1971 with wood. The Blaze King stoves require the least amount of attendance of all stoves. Every stove has a start-up. After start-up of the BK you set the thermostat and you are done. Tweak it up or down as conditions change. All other stoves require some level of constant monitoring and adjusting to prevent over/under firing. Not the BK. The BK burns more like a furnace than a wood stove. Steady, controlled heat.The little smoke issue I have with the door will be resolved. We have the VP at our disposal! This is NOT true of other stove manufacturers. As for the cat, all the fragility of the ceramic units is gone, the BKs use steel cats. They are a dream to use. Long burn times are lovely. My house is always warm in the morning. Never even a question. Very wood stingy too. I burn wood cut, split and dried for one summer wood with no problems. Just get it done in the spring. My previous (high-end) stove was a cat stove too but it behaved as an angry child. Then I discovered the BK. She is a keeper.
I can appreciate that BK folks like their stoves, but the assumption that others need to tweak their stoves constantly is incorrect. We load the T6, let the fire get going and turn down the air. With dry wood this is about a 15 minute process. The stove is not touched again for hours until maybe 30 minutes before a reload. Then I open up the air about 50%. Reload 30 minute later and turn down the stove within about 5-10 minutes. Rinse and repeat 8-12 hrs later depending on outside temps, how hard the stove is being pushed and whether it's burning softwood or hardwood. Our house too is always warm in the morning. 8 yrs of burning in this stove and all I have spent money on it gaskets. And never a runaway or overfire worry in that time. Nor a hint of a smoke leak.
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Ashful
Minister of Fire
Just like a BK... but replace your 8 - 12 hour interval with 30 - 40 hours.
EVERY stove has design flaws... or more accurately, compromises. If there were a perfect stove, there would be only one stove on the market. Choose your poison.
I believe BK makes most of the best stoves on the market, today. That's based as much on overwhelmingly positive reviews from others with more stove experience than me, as well as my own 40 cords experience in my Jotul Firelights vs. the BK Ashfords.
I'm not sure how many stoves BK sells per year, but we have here a small handful of complaints of a very minor smoke smell, out of likely hundreds of units sold. It sounds like they've already identified a likely cause of the problem, and they seem to be installing the proposed fix on new stoves shipped.
In making the decision on which stove to buy, I'd be paying more attention to their response to this possible problem, than anything else. They're going out of their way to hunt down a problem that seems to be affecting only a few, sending out replacement doors and parts, as well as implementing a change in their production of these doors. This is why I have such admiration for Blaze King and Woodstock. They seem to be two companies who go above and beyond the rest, to stand by their customers, post-sale.
BKVP
Minister of Fire
Correct.
Just like a BK... but replace your 8 - 12 hour interval with 30 - 40 hours.
EVERY stove has design flaws... or more accurately, compromises. If there were a perfect stove, there would be only one stove on the market. Choose your poison.
I believe BK makes most of the best stoves on the market, today. That's based as much on overwhelmingly positive reviews from others with more stove experience than me, as well as my own 40 cords experience in my Jotul Firelights vs. the BK Ashfords.
I'm not sure how many stoves BK sells per year, but we have here a small handful of complaints of a very minor smoke smell, out of likely hundreds of units sold. It sounds like they've already identified a likely cause of the problem, and they seem to be installing the proposed fix on new stoves shipped.
In making the decision on which stove to buy, I'd be paying more attention to their response to this possible problem, than anything else. They're going out of their way to hunt down a problem that seems to be affecting only a few, sending out replacement doors and parts, as well as implementing a change in their production of these doors. This is why I have such admiration for Blaze King and Woodstock. They seem to be two companies who go above and beyond the rest, to stand by their customers, post-sale.
Thank you Ashful. We do all we can. Our senior management met today on this topic. We reviewed all records by consumers that call into our US and Canadian offices and we are unable to find a single case where there was an issue with an Ashford and a smoke smell. All the instances are from members of this forum. (They may have called in subsequently and spoke with me.)
I'm not certain how that translates, nor am I foolish to believe there could not be others that just have not reported such an issue. As for specifics, at the most, we belive there to be about 10-12 concerned owners at this time. That is 10-12 too many in our opinion. Although our sales figures are proprietary, suffice it to say 10-12 is something like 3 places to the right of the decimal, maybe even further.
We did address about 4-6 owners this past 9 months, from this forum. Some have been successful, others have not. Changing the fastener method for the door gasket retainers was one step we integrated, although we cannot say for certain it was a culprit. It did make sense the stud designs could have keep the gasket from being adjusted or compressed completely. To be very clear, this is different in design than any other models we make.
Also, we believe this issue to also be restricted to 10-12 Ashford 30's, no 20's that we have heard about.
On Monday, I will meet with some engineers and then follow up with a couple of the folks here. I expect we will get this resolved very soon. It must be said, we greatly appreciate the patience of those involved.
Merry Christmas to the entire Hearth.com family!!
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