New Ashford 20 Install

[freak tractor]

First post—excited to join the community! Recently bought an Ashford 20.2 to replace my old Vermont Castings Defiant Encore. I also had a brand-new Selkirk Class A chimney installed. I have a small ~1,250 sqf house in the Catskill Mountains in New York State. I loved the old VC, but it would sweat us out of the house and would barely last four hours, so overnight burns were out of the question. This winter I was intent to have the oil furnace be a supplement to the wood stove, not the other way around.

My local dealer was pitching me on the Jotul F445 Holliday. I almost pulled the trigger when they mentioned off-hand that they had some unsold Blaze King stoves they bought up during Covid, but had proved very unpopular. (A lot of folks around here are allergic to anything with the word "EPA" on it, and they refuse to use cat stoves out of principle.) They offered me a 30% discount on the Blaze King provided I could pick it up myself. This worked out well, since the IRA tax credits are valid until the end of the year. So I got an Ashford 20 for about $1,800—not bad! I rented a U-Haul trailer for $30 and got it back to the house.

Yes, I know the 30 has a bigger firebox. I've read every last thread on the topic. Still, given the size of my house, the 20 made more sense for my needs. Space is very limited, and my wife and I wanted something as small as possible. I have no problem with more frequent reloads. Despite the small firebox, I'm still getting 12+ hour burns. I even got a 16-hour burn with the thermostat never going lower than 3 o'clock. It's so strange getting used to seeing no flames in the firebox! Sometimes I'll crank it up high for a few minutes before turning it back down so I can see some secondary flame action.

But the best part, of course, is how much less wood I'm using. It truly is night and day. The only issue is that my installer used single-wall pipe on the 90 up to the Class A since we have plenty of clearance. When we rebuild our hearth next spring I'll swap that out for double wall, but for now I'll just make sure to sweep the chimney in a few months. The extra heat is great, though.

Glad I got this buttoned up last week, since today we had our first major snowstorm of the year. The house is decently insulated for being 175 years old , and the stove is keeping us around 70 degrees without breaking a sweat. Anyway, looking forward to contributing to the BK community!

 

[stoveliker]

That's some bang for your buck!!

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

I'd call it an amazing deal! Well done!

 

[Highbeam]

You say you got the little 20 because space is so tight but then you used single wall because you have so much room. Hmmm.

While he gets rid of the single wall might also want to use two 45 degree bends instead of a 90 if you can.

If you only want/need 12-20 hour burns on low and you saved a ton of money then the 20 box seems like a great fit.

Get that wood covered!

 

[freak tractor]

You say you got the little 20 because space is so tight but then you used single wall because you have so much room. Hmmm.

While he gets rid of the single wall might also want to use two 45 degree bends instead of a 90 if you can.

If you only want/need 12-20 hour burns on low and you saved a ton of money then the 20 box seems like a great fit.

Get that wood covered!

Hah—yes, well, since we have 9-foot ceilings, the 18" clearance for the single wall isn't much of a problem. As it is, the hearth was designed for the massive VC Defiant, so a lot of the living room floor space is taken up by the stove. When we redo the hearth to reclaim floor space, I will better appreciate the 20's smaller footprint compared to the 30. Yes, we could have fit the 30, but I don't regret this choice at all. Currently we have two 45s, so I'll probably do the same thing with the double wall, even though there is excellent draft in the ~24' chimney.

The wood is now covered, but I have a wood shed for the drier stuff.