Ashford smell

[tabner]

My Ashford 20 is now giving me the smoke/creosote/barbecue smell whenever I run it on medium/high. Especially if the blower is on.
My chimney is lined and tall, and it’s in the low teens here, I have good draft.
I know there have been a lot of threads in the past about Ashfords and the smell - is the general consensus in those situations that it’s generally a door/gasket adjustment?
The stove turns down fine, so I assumed the door gasket was OK, but perhaps there could still be some minor misalignment or compression of the gasket?
After this cold snap passes I’ll do a dollar bill test, but I just wanted to see what the usual/common culprit ended up being with these Ashford smells?

 

[tabner]

I meant to put this on the blaze king page. Please feel free to move it.

 

[Dieselhead]

It is my belief the gasket gets creosote soaked and when ran hot the creo bakes out of the gasket and that is the sweet bbq smell. Under certain conditions I get it in my king, it’s not exclusive to the Ashford.

 

[tabner]

It is my belief the gasket gets creosote soaked and when ran hot the creo bakes out of the gasket and that is the sweet bbq smell. Under certain conditions I get it in my king, it’s not exclusive to the Ashford.

That makes a lot of sense and seems to fit the context of what I’m experiencing.
I have almost never run the stove on high, and I am right now, and it’s definitely most pronounced during these hot burns, in the middle of the burn cycle, and with the blower on.
Perhaps I just need to run the periodic hot fire a little more frequently.

 

[BKVP]

Also, the Ashford conversations have been mostly (99%) theAF30 & AF30.1 models. AF30.2 models have had few smoke smell related concerns.
BKVP

 

[tabner]

OK, cool, thanks. And I should edit/correct my first post - it gives the impression that a lot of Ashfords had this issue - which isn't fair. I understand it's an over-represented, or self-selecting group coming on forums for help. Overall my Ashford is an awesome piece of engineering and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend BK to anyone.
I also noticed that I hit a batch of subpar moisture wood on the bottom row of my woodpile. Today I'm burning dryer wood, with the blower off, (and the temperature is no longer single digits creating intense draft) and I'm having NO smell.
So I'm thinking everything is fine. I'm also due for a quick vacuum/brush of the catalytic combustor, that may help.
Not sure if it's the blower, the subpar wood, or the strong draft, but I don't think it's anything inherent to the stove.

 

[stoveliker]

I wonder though if it's not inherent to the air flow of the stove, why we heat predominantly about Ashfords and not about (to name a random example) Chinooks.

There are likely more Ashfords out there,.but the Sirocco might be near that number and we don't see much (any?) complaints from those models.

Just an anecdotal thought without having any data...