I have read on here a few times about the "batch" of reverse wound springs in the thermostats. The fact is, there were 6 in the past 14 years. We gladly replaced them. Those stoves still performed, just inverse to the decal indications.
Chris, I was just checking in with hearth.com (why the heck I'm doing that in North Carolina in July is a good question) and noticed you have joined the forum. I am very psyched about that. You guys make the best woodstove, and your participation here shows that you care about supporting the product.
I do have to comment on the reverse-wound thermostat. My Princess had one - I think I caught it only because (a) you mentioned the possibility in one of the lengthy and very helpful telephone conversations we had when I was doing my install, and (b) I'm an engineer, so I tend to think about stuff like this (plus I've been heating with wood for almost 40 years). So I would humbly suggest that just because there are only 6 reverse-wound thermostats that you
know of, there may be more, as yet undiscovered. (And you
did gladly replace it).
Also, you seem to say that a stove with the reverse-wound thermostat would work fine, just that the 1/2/3 indications for the thermostat control knob would be reversed. I doubt this very seriously. Even with the reverse-wound thermostat, the flapper opens up
more when you turn the knob from 1 to 3. What is different is that when the stove gets hotter, the flapper opens more. This is known (in control systems engineering) as a positive feedback loop - when the stove gets hot, the thermostat opens more and gets it hotter. The only thing preventing the stove from glowing is that there is a limit to how much air can get in, even with the flapper fully open; nonetheless, this is very likely to lead to overfiring of the stove (as it did with mine, though I've seen no signs of damage thankfully). Of course, as the stove was designed, and with a properly fabricated thermostat, you have a negative feedback loop ("negative" usually being "good" in the context of feedback loops).
If something is wrong with the stoves performance, it is very, very unlikely to be related too a reverse wound spring.
Granted, but it's not that hard to check, as I describe in a massive thread on this issue:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/blaze-king-thermostat-faulty.48603/
... in post #1, and a method that doesn't even require removing the thermostat cover in post #17.
P.S. Bow-hunting bear is pretty bad-ass !