BK Ashford 30.1 and flames

[Heatin&Eatin]

Hi,
New to the forum, but I've been reading and learning for awhile. Looking at purchasing the Ashford 30.1
and had a question about what the fire looks like.

I've seen videos showing what it looks like when it's turned down low, and what it looks like when it's in bypass.
I'm interested to know if it resembles a non cat stove when it's being run with the tstat in the mid to high area.
I would be running it lower most of the time for the efficiency, but would like, at times, to have the ambiance of a good flaming fire. Is this something I can accomplish by turning up the tstat a little?

 

[MtnBURN]

Yes....when you turn up the t-stat the fire comes alive/looks like a regular stove.

And that's where the similarity ends. LOL. This was our first cat stove and first season of burning our BK Princesses. (we bought 2) To say we are happy with our decision would be an understatement. Just a great stove all the way around. the only downside is that we only used 1/2 of the wood we stacked for the year and will now have to move it to build the new wood shed. Oh, drat.... ;-)

I think yer gonna love the Ashford....

 

[Heatin&Eatin]

Thank you MtnBURN for your reply. That was what I was hoping to hear.
I want to feel sorry for you for your predicament, but.....

Now I have to find a wood source so I can start drying.

 

[SCOTT S.]

Yeah we just turn it up if we want flames the ashford has a very nice fire show.

 

[Heatin&Eatin]

Thanks, Scott.
Waupaca, huh? Nice to know the stove works well in Wisconsin.

 

[SCOTT S.]

For us it was between the ashford and the pe summit classic. Because of this site I ended up with the ashford, this is one of the few major purchases in my life that I haven't second guessed. Wonderful product. When it gets below zero I will let the furnace help but otherwise the ashford carries the load.

 

[tarzan]

It would be hard to imagine you would be disappointed in the Ashford. The BK's are simple to operate and provide so many hours of heat from a load of wood you will be amazed. Especially if you are already a wood burner and base your expectations on what you are familiar with.

The downside, if you could call it that, is a boring "nothing to see here" type of stove unless it is very cold or you just want to turn it up for a while to watch the flame show.

The upside to the boring stove is that it can provide lots of heat with a "nothing to see here" type of fire and a happily active cat eating the smoke from the smoldering wood.

 

[Heatin&Eatin]

Thanks guys for the replies.
Okay, so correct me if I'm wrong.
I can turn the stove down, and get incredibly long burn times, compared to non cat stoves.
But I can turn it up when I want to see the fire, and it will likely still burn as long as a similar sized non cat stove will on low.
Being a cast iron jacket over a steel box, it won't radiate as much as plain steel, so it won't be as likely to heat me out of the room.
Is that about right?

I'm planning on getting the blowers. Do I need to get an OAK for it because of that? Anyone have the brown enamel?

 

[webby3650]

The Ashford has a beautiful fire when you turn it up.
Even on high it'll have longer burn times than a comparably sized non-cat. You won't be disappointed!

 

[SCOTT S.]

Thanks guys for the replies.
Okay, so correct me if I'm wrong.
I can turn the stove down, and get incredibly long burn times, compared to non cat stoves.
But I can turn it up when I want to see the fire, and it will likely still burn as long as a similar sized non cat stove will on low.
Being a cast iron jacket over a steel box, it won't radiate as much as plain steel, so it won't be as likely to heat me out of the room.
Is that about right?

I'm planning on getting the blowers. Do I need to get an OAK for it because of that? Anyone have the brown enamel?

I can run my stove when it's 50 degrees outside and not be too hot in the stove room. BK's have incredible turn down. The cast iron definitely tempers the heat. I have the brown enamel and the wife loves it, she wanted a fireplace and the look of this stove is the only reason I got the stove I wanted. In Wisconsin the fans are a must, anything below 30 degrees ours are running. I don't have the oak and regret not getting it as we have cold drafts at floor level when it's cold out that we never felt running the furnace.

 

[Poindexter]

I am running a (brown enamel) Ashford 30.0. My wife and my arthritis like it pretty warm in the house. I thought (and still think) a princess sized stove would have been better for us, but the wife said, "Ashford 30 in brown enamel, or I start looking at non-BK stoves."

In a typical winter up here I manage to burn 8 cords between August and May in my one and only stove, so you know I am running it hard. Even on a high Tstat setting there isn't much of a flame show in the back half of a burn. The first half of burning a load down, yes, plenty of flames, just turn the Tstat up. In cold weather I am pretty well setup to have a pretty good flame show around and shortly after dinner time.

If you choose this stove:

It will run on wood at 20% MC per handheld gizmo, but it will run a lot better if you can get your stacks down to 16% per handheld gizmo. The manual calls for 13%MC, I find 12-16% to be the ideal window. Plenty of folks here burning wood in Ashford's at 17-21% and liking their stoves. I have been there, done that and still banging the drum for 16%.

The manual also calls for minimum 15' of stack from stove collar to chimney cap. I ran mine the first year with 13' 6", added 2' summer of 2015, been running 15'6" total stack winter of 15/16 and it has made a huge difference. Not real noticeable below about +20dF outdoors, but trying to run the stove on a low Tstat setting when out door temps are +20dF to +50dF the extra 2 feet of stack to bring me to the minimum required in the manual has made a big difference.

Yes, get the fan kit. It's brilliant.

OAK is a tough call, depends on your house. I am in 1980s construction and would rather burn a little extra wood to get more air turnover to minimize mold risk. They are bone head simple to hook up, but there is some finesse required at the planning stage to end up happy with them.

Best wishes.

 

[Heatin&Eatin]

Thanks Guys,

Webby, thanks for the picture.

Scott & Poindexter,
So it sounds like you like the brown enamel? I couldn't find a picture of the Ashford version of that color. I like it on other brands like Jotul.
Is it holding up okay?

Poindexter, aren't the Princess and Ashford 30 similarly sized?

I have a gas fireplace in this corner now that is vented through the wall. If I decide to add the OAK later, I wonder if I can reuse that hole.
I'll be going straight up 2 stories with the chimney, so I should be near or over 20' I should think.
I'll definitely get the fan kit.

I still have to get my wood, and I'll be making some sort of poor man's solar kiln in an attempt to speed up the drying process.

I have my work cut out for me. Thank you all for your replies and your help.

 

[begreen]

Parallax has some shots of his stove in brown enamel. It looks even better in person. BK did a very nice job finishing this stove.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/help-question-new-ashford-installation.128625/

 

[Heatin&Eatin]

Thanks begreen! It does look good. In the pic you posted, it looks like it has a shelf on the left side.

 

[webby3650]

Thanks begreen! It does look good. In the pic you posted, it looks like it has a shelf on the left side.

They offer a side warming shelf. Can't have one on the other side because it would interfere with the bypass operation. Kinda odd looking on one side only to me.

 

[Poindexter]

Poindexter, aren't the Princess and Ashford 30 similarly sized?

Similar yes, identical no. The Princess is a tiny bit bigger and can put out a little bit more heat.

 

[Heatin&Eatin]

I'm trying to think what I would use the warming shelf for. I would be concerned laying anything on top of the enamel might scratch it.

 

[SCOTT S.]

The brown enamel looks great in person if you click on my profile picture that is my setup in low light it almost looks black. Ours is holding up great no chips yet.

 

[begreen]

A good enamel job is pretty tough if you don't bang on it or shock a hot surface with cold water. Our enameled Jotul 602 with trivet grate is 32 yrs old. It still looks good.

 

[Heatin&Eatin]

Thanks Scott and begreen for your comments on the enamel durability. It's nice to get opinions based on real world experience.
This is a great site!

 

[Calentarse]

Agree with all said here. Wood length was shorter than I was used to. I'm cutting around 16 inches pieces now so everything comfortably fits in my Ashford.

You can definitely get flames with a higher setting and lots of them burning softwood. If I put yellow pine in my stove it really gives off a flame show from all the sap in the wood. The jacketed stove body with the stat burn control are what really makes these stoves special. Truly amazing that the fire can be so controlled.

 

[Heatin&Eatin]

Calentarse,
Thank you for your response, and you make a good point about the shorter wood length. This is a concern of mine. If cut an split my own, no problem. But I'll need to buy some for this year and likely next, so I may be recutting a lot. But it does seem like a good stove so it may be worth the extra
work upfront. Alternatively, the Princess can take slightly longer wood, but doesn't look as nice to me, doesn't come in brown enamel, and doesn't have the tight corner clearance of the Ashford.

Good to know about burning softwood and the flame show. When I have company, it may be worth planning what wood I use. That
may sound silly to many, but it isn't often and I'd like to see it too sometimes.

 

[Calentarse]

Calentarse,
Thank you for your response, and you make a good point about the shorter wood length. This is a concern of mine. If cut an split my own, no problem. But I'll need to buy some for this year and likely next, so I may be recutting a lot. But it does seem like a good stove so it may be worth the extra
work upfront. Alternatively, the Princess can take slightly longer wood, but doesn't look as nice to me, doesn't come in brown enamel, and doesn't have the tight corner clearance of the Ashford.

Good to know about burning softwood and the flame show. When I have company, it may be worth planning what wood I use. That
may sound silly to many, but it isn't often and I'd like to see it too sometimes.

You're in Wisconsin; you will see plenty of flames. You're going to need to turn the stove up quite a bit in winter, and you'll be using blowers a lot I would imagine. I'm only heating 1200 square feet with hardwood and I almost need the blowers when it gets down into the teens here, so I know you will need them and you will definitely be turning that stove up to 2.5 and maybe 3 in the winter quite a bit. You will see plenty of flames!

I was in the same predicament as you when I was replacing my other stove; I needed to tuck the stove in a corner so the Ashford was nice for that. You make a good point about the Princess that I had not noticed: it has less clearance? I suspect that this is because it is not jacketed? I absolutely love the jacket and never realized how stable it keeps the temps over the burn process. I will never have another stove without it. That cast iron stove I had before would have my house almost 90 degrees at certain points in the burn process.

 

[Calentarse]

Calentarse,
Thank you for your response, and you make a good point about the shorter wood length. This is a concern of mine. If cut an split my own, no problem. But I'll need to buy some for this year and likely next, so I may be recutting a lot. But it does seem like a good stove so it may be worth the extra
work upfront. Alternatively, the Princess can take slightly longer wood, but doesn't look as nice to me, doesn't come in brown enamel, and doesn't have the tight corner clearance of the Ashford.

Good to know about burning softwood and the flame show. When I have company, it may be worth planning what wood I use. That
may sound silly to many, but it isn't often and I'd like to see it too sometimes.

Also, it is not silly at all to select wood type for the situation. I always pulling certain types for certain burns out of my pile. Burning my hardest wood in the shoulder season, although counter-intuitive is very wise so I can sustain long burn times with the oak coaling very well. I burn a lot of crap maple and some soft wood in the dead of winter where I was to load every 10-12 or so...

 

[SCOTT S.]

Not sure where in Wisconsin you are but if you're close, pm me mine is still running 24-7 you can check it out in person.