BK Ashford 30 Install

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

I'm all for mind over matter as a concept, but
you can compare all day, and I don't think it'll change a thing. On the other hand, more crimping might lead to a smaller ID.

Haha. I think the inner pipe is pretty tight on the collar now. What do you suggest? I can straighten out the corrugations using a vice grip.

The new 45's are barbeque-ing in my old trash gas grill right now to bake the paint a little bit . The stove top meter on them is reading 250-300°F @ surface. Pretty close to what it reads on a high burn. I propped them up on some fireplace tools and set it to medium-low with the lid cracked.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Haha. I think the inner pipe is pretty tight on the collar now. What do you suggest? I can straighten out the corrugations using a vice grip.

The new 45's are barbeque-ing in my old trash gas grill right now to bake the paint a little bit . The stove top meter on them is reading 250-300°F @ surface. Pretty close to what it reads on a high burn. I propped them up on some fireplace tools and set it to medium-low with the lid cracked.

I've done this exactly twice, and it was on aluminum gutter downspout, so others feedback might be more valuable. But, here goes- I started with round pipe and used needle nose pliers to add crimps around the entire circle. To tighten back up, I just twisted the pliers in the opposite direction of making the crimps.

If it's already tight, I'd try it as is. Only if I found leakage would I take it to the vice (closed), slip the crimps over the top of the vice where the jaws stick out, and bang on the crimps with a hammer, which is how I'd do it with steel stovepipe. But only if I really needed to.

 

[Ashful]

I'm all for mind over matter as a concept, but
you can compare all day, and I don't think it'll change a thing. On the other hand, more crimping might lead to a smaller ID.

Hah... spelling/grammar checker got me again!

Here’s what you need to adjust crimps. Also available for $3 less at Walmart, or $10 more at Home Depot.

https://m.lowes.com/pd/stanley-fatm...MIt5Ti8JHS4AIVxISzCh1JtgsqEAQYASABEgJtHPD_BwE

 

[vwmike]

Glad to see your not giving up and making some progress! I also hate how many “pro” installers tend to put things together with out
much thought at all just to go on to the next one.

 

[AlbergSteve]

That looks like a huge space between the inner and outer pipe. This is what mine looks like. The inner pipe you can see in this photo sits tight to the collar weld and the outer pipe sits flush on top of the stove.

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

@AlbergSteve Wow, that is much tighter.
Unfortunately in mine there is still a little bit of crimping pipe protruding but the end of the collar is now very snug to the inner flue pipe. I spent a few hours to recut the short connector pipe section, crimped the inner tube, and basically press fitted it into the lower 45 with wood blocks and a mallet. All the other joints were tightened to the bevel. It all came together nicely

I'm still waiting for my 6" brush but all the [existing] stove pipe was brushed out with regular scrub brushes. So pending the sweep tomorrow I will relight everything and see how it goes!

 

[Ashful]

When you get to sweeping, if you’re like many of us, you’ll find that 70% of the crap is in the first few feet above the stove, and another 20% way up at the cap. The mile between will be pretty clean. I have 30 feet of pipe on one of my Ashfords, and 25 feet of it contains almost zero creosote.

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

Update:
-Chimney was cleaned. Maybe 1/4gal or so removed. Even coat throughout, large collection at the tee, medium buildup at 30° elbows and near cap.
-Lit a new load with enough small oak to last 3hrs. Seems much more consistent draft so far. No smoke spillage at all.
-Two new observations:
1. At full fire startup the chimney connector used to be cool to the touch, now is is close to main stovepipe.
2. It got up to ~325°F STT, at 75% stat setting, the flames tapered smoothly where they used to pretty much get snuffed out. No creo smell at all...though the new collar pipe and/or elbows are curing a decent amount...
Once cured I'll be able to tell if the creo smell is gone.

My initial feel is that it will be able to run at 75% or lower w/o stalling. If the wife can tolerate some more curing I'll try an overnight load...

 

[Rickb]

Update:
-Chimney was cleaned. Maybe 1/4gal or so removed. Even coat throughout, large collection at the tee, medium buildup at 30° elbows and near cap.
-...

That is a lot of cleanings. Like 3 times what I get after burning a full cord.

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

@Rickb that wasn't counting the 90° elbow! There is almost that much just in the elbow.

I ran a slow overnight burn at 60% and it certainly burned great! With 25lbs of oak/ash it was about 250°F STT 8hrs later with 4lbs of coals left. I reloaded and we turned it down to enough to get no flames, but it quickly recouped and relighted once it cooled down. No creo smell at all produced, just a bit of curing smell when the stove pipe surface got above 200°F. The new cat gasket, 45°s and sweeping have certainly made a large difference in performance! It seems to have a much more controlled burn presumably because there is better flow through the stove.

If the curing smell goes away I'm going to be so happy!

 

[Ludlow]

The connector is hot now because the buildup that was insulating it is gone, Im thinking.

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

@Ludlow The connector used to be 6" higher and now dropped into the stove collar. The elbows are probably offgassing as well.

 

[maple1]

The connector is hot now because the buildup that was insulating it is gone, Im thinking.

If air was being sucked in at the stove collar before and isn't now, that would make a difference also.

 

[Ashful]

Nice! Hopefully we can call this one a success story. Between you and @chazcarr, this was a good weekend.

 

[moresnow]

No creo smell at all produced,

Lets hope your issues are behind you. Good luck!

 

[spudman99]

Very happy for you VCS. You stayed with the problem and worked with the vast knowledge of this member community. I am sure there are plenty of folks who would have turned the unit back to the dealer or blamed the manufacturer whereas you worked it out.

I know several weeks ago you were ready to through the towel in, and I am sure your significant other was none to pleased. Glad you seem to have it set up properly now and can enjoy the shoulder season burns that are soon to be upon us.

 

[Ludlow]

@Ludlow The connector used to be 6" higher and now dropped into the stove collar. The elbows are probably offgassing as well.

If air was being sucked in at the stove collar before and isn't now, that would make a difference also.

Ahh. Got it. I must have missed some of the details. Thanks.

 

[SpaceBus]

I've been following this thread for some time. It's great to see that you figured this out!

 

[begreen]

Good to hear this is working better and you worked it out without the extra part. I didn't like the look of that DSP adapter.

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

Ok, so I loaded with a big load of extra dry ash which had been causing it to spike and stall. I tried turning it down almost all the way to 55% and it snuffed out eventually for 30min. There was a very minor hint of creo smell as it cooled from 325°F to 250°F then picked back up with a slow flame. Might have hit my stall point there. With wetter oak that probably would not happen. I can definitely work around that.

Thanks so much everyone for all the support, you guys have been amazing!

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

So the curing is mostly done and it is running great on small loads. Zero smell of any kind with a 10lb load on medium or high. The new issue that I'm having is that there seems to be a little pre-cat smoke released in the initial high blaze full of dry ash. Even if I turn down the air to 75% minutes after the ignition, the whole firebox turns into a giant fireball. I don't think it's curing smell because the flue won't be that hot at that point. Once the flames slow down or die out it seems to go away.

Maybe is it possible my draft is TOO high now? I can always remove some pipe. I still get a little bit of smoke spillage on the occasional hot reload though and don't want that worse.

If I had enough large oak left I don't think it would have this problem, just this 14% ash seems to be burning so hot. This new batch is full of 5lb+ logs and still burns very quickly.

 

[Ashful]

What do you mean by “pre-cat smoke”? From where is it emitting?

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

What do you mean by “pre-cat smoke”? From where is it emitting?

It's hard to tell. No visible smoke that I've seen but it smells like normal ash smoke, not the sweet catalyzed smoke type smell (and cat is engaged). Kind of a pungent "burning" kind of smell which is typical of the ash smoke that I've burned. It just seems to build up a bit in the room.

 

[lsucet]

It's hard to tell. No visible smoke that I've seen but it smells like normal ash smoke, not the sweet catalyzed smoke type smell (and cat is engaged). Kind of a pungent "burning" kind of smell which is typical of the ash smoke that I've burned. It just seems to build up a bit in the room.

Can be possible now is burning hotter and it curing a little more when reach higher temp?

 

[spudman99]

So the curing is mostly done and it is running great on small loads. Zero smell of any kind with a 10lb load on medium or high. The new issue that I'm having is that there seems to be a little pre-cat smoke released in the initial high blaze full of dry ash. Even if I turn down the air to 75% minutes after the ignition, the whole firebox turns into a giant fireball. I don't think it's curing smell because the flue won't be that hot at that point. Once the flames slow down or die out it seems to go away.

Is it possible you are closing the bypass too soon? From your statement, you are turning down the air shortly after ignition, but is the bypass still open then? My wonder is if you have achieved a sufficient char on the wood with such a quick choke of the air. More char = less smoke in the box. Not criticizing, just wondering?