Blaze King Ashford Door Gasket/Glass

[Shane Collins]

I recently bought a BK Ashford 30. I found in the shoulder season when I was burning on low my glass was getting pretty black but it did burn off if I burned a hot fire for a while and it wasn't too bad. Since it got cold and I'm burning hotter my glass is almost always clean. I'm amazed how clean it stays. We just had a warm spell and I ran it lower last night and this morning the glass was somewhat dirty. I ran it hotter as the temp as dropped now and the glass is mostly clear again.

I also notice a smokey smell sometimes. Not all the time but my wife and I do notice it from time to time. I think it's coming from the cat probe hole. Luckily we both like the smell. I don't always notice it and I don't see it as a problem.

BKVP said in another thread about the glass and creosote buildup in the stove. He suggested running a smallish load on high for an hour. Every now and then I do that for the flame show, a nice burst of heat and to burn off any buildup. Give it a try, he said it's safe to do, just keep your eye on temps. After I did it my glass was almost as clean as new.

 

[Calentarse]

Does anyone feel that my gasket has an issue here? It doesn't look like this anywhere else around the door. You can see here it seals nicely on the top and bottom of the picture but along the center in this picture it seals along the far right of the gasket. On slow burns, I suspect that this is where the cooler gases and smoke are escaping. The gasket doesn't look this way anywhere else nor does it have the odor anywhere else. Coincidence?

 

[Diabel]

Sometime ago I had a leak in the door gasket (air being sucked in of course). Was too busy with work, and we were in the middle of a cold spell.
I had this flat gasket with adhesive on one side. I used it sometimes to wrap the cat can so it would not be too loose in the refractory box.

Just a thought, if you could apply a strip of something like that to the area where you think it is not sealing right. Elimination by trail......

 

[cannon]

I have the same smokey smell from my princess,you can't see smoke just smell it,it has been bad enough to set of the smoke alarms in the house.The smell seems to collect near the ceiling.If you are taller than your wife that is probably why it smells stronger to you.I have great draft and 4yr dried wood with 11% moisture,the smell is worst at low burn.These stoves are supposed to be air tight but some are not.If you smell smoke then you have a leak. By the looks of your glass you have a leak.I've been working on my door to fix this issue and have it 90% solved,in the last 10 days of burning I have very little build up on the glass,just in the 2 bottom corners. There's good info on Firecats website.
http://www.firecatcombustors.com/v/vspfiles/manuals/WoodStove_Usage_Guide.pdf

 

[webby3650]

View attachment 146484 Does anyone feel that my gasket has an issue here? It doesn't look like this anywhere else around the door. You can see here it seals nicely on the top and bottom of the picture but along the center in this picture it seals along the far right of the gasket. On slow burns, I suspect that this is where the cooler gases and smoke are escaping. The gasket doesn't look this way anywhere else nor does it have the odor anywhere else. Coincidence?

I see the glass is dirty in the same place other BKs are. The gasket is also dirty in the same place the glass is, makes sense to me.

 

[webby3650]

I have the same smokey smell from my princess,you can't see smoke just smell it,it has been bad enough to set of the smoke alarms in the house.The smell seems to collect near the ceiling.If you are taller than your wife that is probably why it smells stronger to you.I have great draft and 4yr dried wood with 11% moisture,the smell is worst at low burn.These stoves are supposed to be air tight but some are not.If you smell smoke then you have a leak. By the looks of your glass you have a leak.I've been working on my door to fix this issue and have it 90% solved,in the last 10 days of burning I have very little build up on the glass,just in the 2 bottom corners. There's good info on Firecats website.
http://www.firecatcombustors.com/v/vspfiles/manuals/WoodStove_Usage_Guide.pdf

You definitely have a problem! Smoke alarms!? How's your chimney setup? Short? Multiple elbows?

 

[Badger]

This method will not work for most Blaze Kings. You must have a very tall chimney, or run on high most of the time.?

Right now I run on 2 +\- a little and my draft is a little questionable. I do however like the ambiance of open flame so I try to time my day load to be out around 6 and I'll throw in a couple uglies in and let her rip. The kids and wife appreciate the warmth and I get the scenery.

 

[cannon]

No problem with the chimney,39 inches from stove top to first elbow,through the wall to 24ft triple wall stainless straight up.The problem is with the door on the stove,I've had 3 doors from Blaze King before we figured out what was happening.The glass bracket is held in place by studs and nuts which are directly under the door gasket.When the door was closed against the flange on the stove,the flange was directly in line with the studs and nuts and would push the glass loose.The bracket that holds the glass would actually bend away from the glass leaving the glass loose in the frame.Charley at Blaze King took a door and removed the door gasket and put the door back on a stove and closed the door against the flange and the studs almost hit the flange,almost no room for a door gasket. He ground down the studs after installing a new glass bracket which gave the door gasket a little more room.

 

[Calentarse]

Right now I run on 2 +\- a little and my draft is a little questionable. I do however like the ambiance of open flame so I try to time my day load to be out around 6 and I'll throw in a couple uglies in and let her rip. The kids and wife appreciate the warmth and I get the scenery.

I tried to have a small hot fire when I got home last night. Didn't do anything That black is like baked into the glass. Owell, not much ever to look at anyhow. I'll just learn to use my thermometer more.

 

[Calentarse]

No problem with the chimney,39 inches from stove top to first elbow,through the wall to 24ft triple wall stainless straight up.The problem is with the door on the stove,I've had 3 doors from Blaze King before we figured out what was happening.The glass bracket is held in place by studs and nuts which are directly under the door gasket.When the door was closed against the flange on the stove,the flange was directly in line with the studs and nuts and would push the glass loose.The bracket that holds the glass would actually bend away from the glass leaving the glass loose in the frame.Charley at Blaze King took a door and removed the door gasket and put the door back on a stove and closed the door against the flange and the studs almost hit the flange,almost no room for a door gasket. He ground down the studs after installing a new glass bracket which gave the door gasket a little more room.

Oh Lord. I can't say I understand everything you're saying in above post. Would a brand new Ashford have those issues anyway? I see you're operating a princess. Different door structure?

User cannon: By some of the questioning on this site, I'm left to believe I should suspect that low draft/wet wood is causing the problem. Your situation suggests that draft nor wet wood is the cause; instead, structure of the door of the stove. I'm just not sure what to do at this point. Should I contact Blaze King and see if they can instruct me as to how to fix the issue? Also, fyi, the smell is strong the higher up in the room you are. I stood on the couch and it was definitely more pronounced up there, so you are right!

Last night, I lit a fire and after getting it going hot, I shut the stove down as I normally would. I had the top off and I shut all lights off in the room. I could not see any visible smoke. I'm thinking I'll just wait and see what time brings. My dealer only purchased this stove for me, he doesn't know anything about them. In fact, he tried to discourage me away from buying it buy saying, "you do know they're made in China, right?"

Smoke or not, it's a controlled burn process that is easily modified with the BK's controls and I feel safe burning the BK. At the end of the day, the smoke that comes out of it isn't enough to turn me off to the brand. Love its operation. Just wish it was air tight because smoke is definitely coming out of somewhere and no amount of dry wood or increased draft can eliminate it.

 

[Calentarse]

I see the glass is dirty in the same place other BKs are. The gasket is also dirty in the same place the glass is, makes sense to me.

Webby, I tend to agree with you. If the "leak" or smell of smoke were coming from the gasket, wouldn't it be discolored to the right of the seal? Further, I swiped my finger down the right hand side of the frame of the gasket and no soot.

New theory: when I bolted the cast iron front of the stove on, maybe I didn't get it tight enough? This would mean the door isn't coming in tight enough in that area? I didn't really want to come down hard on them because I thought heat would only cause expansion further tightening them...

My handle does only very light latch when I close the door. I just thought man, it's kind nice cause it's so easy to latch and unlatch but seems to be sealing nicely on the gasket.

 

[cannon]

You are not going to see smoke,it is being filtered by the gasket so you just get the smell. Check your glass for looseness when door is cool,one hand on each side of glass and push back and forth around edges of glass,shouldn't be any movement.If there is, maybe the brackets that hold the glass in need the nuts tightened.From the looks of your pictures the Ashford has the same set up as the princess on the door.You have to remove the door gasket to get to the brackets that hold the glass in.I don't know the situation of your wood or draft,it's a process of elimination.

 

[cannon]

Check your draft,if it's good eliminate it from the list,check your wood, get a moisture meter and check the inside middle of a fresh split,if it's good eliminate it from the list of causes until you narrow it down to the problem.

 

[webby3650]

Webby, I tend to agree with you. If the "leak" or smell of smoke were coming from the gasket, wouldn't it be discolored to the right of the seal? Further, I swiped my finger down the right hand side of the frame of the gasket and no soot.

New theory: when I bolted the cast iron front of the stove on, maybe I didn't get it tight enough? This would mean the door isn't coming in tight enough in that area? I didn't really want to come down hard on them because I thought heat would only cause expansion further tightening them...

My handle does only very light latch when I close the door. I just thought man, it's kind nice cause it's so easy to latch and unlatch but seems to be sealing nicely on the gasket.

Why did you unbolt the face of the stove?

 

[Calentarse]

Why did you unbolt the face of the stove?

To get weight down since I didn't have a good method of moving it into the house and also had to paint it. I didn't want all that spray paint in my house so I painted the top, front and sides outside and then rebolted them on. Was really simple.

 

[Calentarse]

Update: As of today, I'm able to get a little of the initial odor down by really charcoaling the wood when I load it up. Before, I was locking it down as soon as the cat was in the active range. Now, I back off the air a bit and let the stove burn off some of the volatiles. While the damper is open, very little smoke smell can be detected around the top. After closing the damper, it's like flipping a switch. I can definitely still smell it when I walk into the house and it has been smoldering. Fire keeps on burning and burning and I'm getting plenty of heat so I presume the draft is fine. If it were any better I'd be getting too much heat! Moreover, even when I burn it on a higher setting (since wind was blowing hard yesterday I was able to leave it on 2.5 for hours) the smell still remains, perhaps to a lesser degree. Thoughts?

 

[Calentarse]

You are not going to see smoke,it is being filtered by the gasket so you just get the smell. Check your glass for looseness when door is cool,one hand on each side of glass and push back and forth around edges of glass,shouldn't be any movement.If there is, maybe the brackets that hold the glass in need the nuts tightened.From the looks of your pictures the Ashford has the same set up as the princess on the door.You have to remove the door gasket to get to the brackets that hold the glass in.I don't know the situation of your wood or draft,it's a process of elimination.

Can't find where anything is loose with my door or glass. Everything seems solid and I don't see any soot or anything around any of the gaskets indicating a leak. I did a candle test but couldn't really tell anything definitively..

 

[Calentarse]

Has anyone conjured up a way to seal the cat probe hole? I know there was some talk on it. I just can't find where the smell is coming from and it's definitely notable to me on all thermostat settings other than 3 (that's my stove's max setting). If anyone has thoughts about my previous 2 posts (there were no responses before), please don't hesitate to comment. My draught is adequate enough to keep a very hot fire yet I still get a smell, no matter my wood or weather outside. I could add double wall pipe but I don't want to go through the added expense if I don't have to (and other than this odor, I don't have any other complaints re. my draught and don't necessarily want the added draught bc that would cause more heat).

We finally had some temps in the teens recently and I had the stove on 2.5+ for the entire evening. That definitely clears my glass off! Ashford does a really good job with the airwash system when the stove's turned up!

 

[begreen]

Have you been in touch with BK tech support and your dealer? If yes, what do they say?

 

[Calentarse]

Dealer only ordered stove for me; they originally didn't sell Blaze King and wasn't fond of selling it to me. That'll be a dead end. Spoke with Jennifer at Blaze King and she, understandably, told me that their stoves were not tested on single wall pipe and she therefore, was unable to speculate further with me. Don't know if she was with tech support; I had submitted an online inquiry.

I just don't feel that this is a draught issue. It has to do with the stove not being air tight and when the cat is engaged, the odor permeates. It also seems to come through a bit when the damper is open, interestingly enough.

I also don't feel that this has to do with the gasket or the door glass. It does not move. Solid. Gasket seems to pass dollar bill test everywhere as it is new. I don't smell anything coming up from the door when the stove is lit and I can smell it in the room. I have sniffed all around the top of the door. Nothing. It's coming from the left, at the top, in the front, from underneath the top. Somewhere in that corner is leaking smoke/fumes yet I see no holes inside or out in the welding.

My new theory is the cat probe hole, and perhaps the highest point in the stove is actually that area (even though escaping fumes from the hole would more closely escape the top cover around the pipe). I thought the stove was level but perhaps that's the nearest escape and that's why the smell comes from there...I want to explore a temporary solution there with that hole and see what comes of it...The only wrench I throw in my own theory is that when I had the top off one day I could not smell anything coming out of that hole but could smell smoke in the front left so I suspect it's not the hole at the same time.

 

[begreen]

Remove the top and with the room dark, shine a bright flashlight horizontally across the top. See if you can see any wisps of smoke.

 

[Calentarse]

Remove the top and with the room dark, shine a bright flashlight horizontally across the top. See if you can see any wisps of smoke.

I've done this and I saw nothing

 

[begreen]

Basic question. Do the crimped edges of the single wall pipe face up or down toward the stove? How is the seal at the flue collar?

 

[Calentarse]

Crimped edges face down. The flue collar seal is tight, and where there was even the slightest gap, it's sealed with chimney cement.

 

[begreen]

Sounds good. As a test I think I would try a small bead of furnace cement around the cat probe hole and then bed the thermometer in it.