Hey, folks. I'll keep this very brief. Recently purchased/installed a BK Ashford 30.2. So far, it has lived up to the hype! Killer stove. My question, however, is where exactly should I expect to find "low-medium-high" on my thermostat? The dial itself rotates well past the "thin" portion of the gauge on the thermostat. When I turn it to HIGH, it bottoms out at the fat end of the gauge. However, turning it counter-clockwise, it turns well past the thinner part until it's almost back around to 6 o' clock again. In that case, is LOW still 1 o' clock-ish (or thin part of gauge) and is nothing happening internally after I've turned the dial past LOW/thin portion/1 o' clock? Help!! For the nite, I've set the thermostat at 1 o' clock or what I believe to be LOW.. Thanks for your time!
Blaze King Ashford 30 Thermostat Question(s)
- Thread starter ralph_deadmoon
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jetsam
Minister of Fire
Begun, the 2022 Swoosh War has...
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(In seriousness, one of the most important parts of actual air intake, and thus burn rate, is your flue system. Stove manufacturers test stoves with a controlled system; yours is different. Yours is different from itself on a cold day versus a warm day, on a windy day versus a calm day. Yours is different when you switch from dry pine to damp oak (because the flue is warmer with the dry pine). There is no way for a stove manufacturer to accurately say "This point on the dial is 50k BTU/h", or any useful point of reference, because each install varies a lot.)
(In seriousness, one of the most important parts of actual air intake, and thus burn rate, is your flue system. Stove manufacturers test stoves with a controlled system; yours is different. Yours is different from itself on a cold day versus a warm day, on a windy day versus a calm day. Yours is different when you switch from dry pine to damp oak (because the flue is warmer with the dry pine). There is no way for a stove manufacturer to accurately say "This point on the dial is 50k BTU/h", or any useful point of reference, because each install varies a lot.)
Eack BK install is unique to itself as far as what portion of the dial is actually effective for burn rate. Nobody can tell you what portion of the available dial "your" stove/setup will use.
Chances are good you will use the wide open position to start your fresh loads. As directed in the manual. Chances are also good you will figure out where the fully closed position is as well for your stove/setup. My fully closed position is approximately 3 o'clock. If I twist my dial from wide open to 12 o'clock I hear the air intake flapper snap to full closed at 3 o'clock. Very rare that closing my dial to less than this 3 o'clock position has any effect on burn rate.
Soooo, in reality my effective fire control/burn rate control is wide open to 3 o'clock. The fine tuning happens between 3 and 4 roughly on my personal stove. That very small area of effective burn rate control regulates 99.5% of my loads. I mark each end of my effective control with a small magnet for quick reference as it's rather dark back there
If you are now more confused, you are in the majority of new BK users.
This will all make more sense as you progress through many loads.
Fire away if you have more questions. Enjoy.
Chances are good you will use the wide open position to start your fresh loads. As directed in the manual. Chances are also good you will figure out where the fully closed position is as well for your stove/setup. My fully closed position is approximately 3 o'clock. If I twist my dial from wide open to 12 o'clock I hear the air intake flapper snap to full closed at 3 o'clock. Very rare that closing my dial to less than this 3 o'clock position has any effect on burn rate.
Soooo, in reality my effective fire control/burn rate control is wide open to 3 o'clock. The fine tuning happens between 3 and 4 roughly on my personal stove. That very small area of effective burn rate control regulates 99.5% of my loads. I mark each end of my effective control with a small magnet for quick reference as it's rather dark back there
If you are now more confused, you are in the majority of new BK users.
This will all make more sense as you progress through many loads.Fire away if you have more questions. Enjoy.
BKVP
Minister of Fire
What is said below is correct. Each user install is unique. For the vast majority of folks, 2-6 is the effective range of movement for sustained combustor activity. Depends upon the draft.....
I understand all of this. I'm not looking for advice on where to set my thermostat. Rather, I'm wondering why my dial turns past 12 o' clock in the first place. According to the literature that comes with the stove, the dial is only effective between 12/1 o' clock and 6 o' clock. However, my dial turns counter-clockwise past 12 (11:00 thru 5:00).
Thanks for your input but, again, I'm not necessarily looking for advice on where to set my thermostat. I understand there will be a learning curve and it will depend on wood species/moisture content, etc. and that my particular stove may be unique as well. However, what I'm wondering about is if my thermostat's range is approx 12/1 o' clock to 6 o' clock, why does it turn counter clockwise past 12 (from 11 thru 5)? Have I damaged the thermostat by turning it past 12 into this range??
(Copied and pasted from another reply) Thanks for your input but, again, I'm not necessarily looking for advice on where to set my thermostat. I understand there will be a learning curve and it will depend on wood species/moisture content, etc. and that my particular stove may be unique as well. However, what I'm wondering about is if my thermostat's range is approx 12/1 o' clock to 6 o' clock, why does it turn counter clockwise past 12 (from 11 thru 5)? Have I damaged the thermostat by turning it past 12 into this range??Eack BK install is unique to itself as far as what portion of the dial is actually effective for burn rate. Nobody can tell you what portion of the available dial "your" stove/setup will use.
Chances are good you will use the wide open position to start your fresh loads. As directed in the manual. Chances are also good you will figure out where the fully closed position is as well for your stove/setup. My fully closed position is approximately 3 o'clock. If I twist my dial from wide open to 12 o'clock I hear the air intake flapper snap to full closed at 3 o'clock. Very rare that closing my dial to less than this 3 o'clock position has any effect on burn rate.
Soooo, in reality my effective fire control/burn rate control is wide open to 3 o'clock. The fine tuning happens between 3 and 4 roughly on my personal stove. That very small area of effective burn rate control regulates 99.5% of my loads. I mark each end of my effective control with a small magnet for quick reference as it's rather dark back there
If you are now more confused, you are in the majority of new BK users.
Fire away if you have more questions. Enjoy.
I took a cue from your reply and sorta quickly dialed the thermostat back from 6 o' clock, heard the flapper close around 2 o' clock. I hadn't listened for that yet.. thanks. Still curious what, if anything, happens if I dial that thermostat counter-clockwise past the LOW/closed/1 o' clock position. Any chance I would've damaged the thermostat in doing this??Eack BK install is unique to itself as far as what portion of the dial is actually effective for burn rate. Nobody can tell you what portion of the available dial "your" stove/setup will use.
Chances are good you will use the wide open position to start your fresh loads. As directed in the manual. Chances are also good you will figure out where the fully closed position is as well for your stove/setup. My fully closed position is approximately 3 o'clock. If I twist my dial from wide open to 12 o'clock I hear the air intake flapper snap to full closed at 3 o'clock. Very rare that closing my dial to less than this 3 o'clock position has any effect on burn rate.
Soooo, in reality my effective fire control/burn rate control is wide open to 3 o'clock. The fine tuning happens between 3 and 4 roughly on my personal stove. That very small area of effective burn rate control regulates 99.5% of my loads. I mark each end of my effective control with a small magnet for quick reference as it's rather dark back there
If you are now more confused, you are in the majority of new BK users.
Fire away if you have more questions. Enjoy.
Dialing back any lower did not damage anything to the best of my knowledge. People do it occasionally and I have heard of no problems/damage. However If your knob travels past 6 the other direction it has likely come loose on the shaft. Simple setscrew re-tightening is likely needed. Carry on with your experimenting. Good luck.
BKVP
Minister of Fire
This is what I experience as well. You can hear the intake flapper slam closed at 2 when it's cold. It's never going to open at any higher temperature so that is the lowest effective thermostat setting and where (or slightly more CW) many of us run the stoves the majority of the time. BK did help you out a bit by only providing "swoosh" from about noon to 6. They could have started the swoosh at 2 o'clock but maybe the aesthetics weren't as good.
I can also spin my knob all the way back around CCW to about 7 o'clock. If you ever look under the thermostat cover you will see why. The full max stopper is also a full min stopper. I'm not sure why some folks don't think they can spin it back this far. Perhaps their particular model has an extra feature.
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