New ashford 30.2 installed this summer have a few questions!

[Cburke]

Hello everyone. I have been a member for a while just lurking though. I recently got rid of my non cat wood stove and upgraded to a bk asford 30.2. Haven’t been able to run it too much here in pa because it’s been rather warm. But I have had a handful of fires. Overall love the stove big learning curve switching to a cat stove. Few questions. I have been getting small amount of smoke smell about 6 hours or so into my burn at a fairly low setting. Don’t smell it on when first starting the fire. Is this normal due to it being in the 40s to high 30s at night and mid 50s day time, or do I have one of those strange ashfords that have smell issues. I was inspecting the door and I’ll post some pictures of the hinge area seems a little off to me as the pin looks smashed up a bit and some washers and bolts don’t really match up. I had the stove professionally installed it’s a straight run of double wall pipe probably about 16ft high. Any way. The smell seems to come from the upper left hand corner of the door. The wood I have on hand for burning right now is 4 year old America. Beech stored off the ground in a well ventilated wood shed. Here’s some hinge pictures and stove pipe set up. Thanks for the help!

 

[Tron]

You can do the "Dollar test" if you think your door isn't tight all around.

 

[stoveliker]

The other thread has been moved to the BK forum with the same question.
I suggest to remove this one @begreen ? (you moved the other one)

 

[Woody Stover]

It looks like the knife-edge on the stove isn't hitting in the center of the gasket in that corner, possibly because the hinge got moved.
I've never seen a door hinge bolted on. Anyone know if that's only done on BKs, or also on some other plate-steel stoves?
Was the stove "professionally installed" by the dealer you bought it from? I'd contact the dealer since either it was defective from the plant, it could have gotten bumped in shipping, or their installer messed it up.
In any event, someone besides you should be responsible for making it right. You could try to move the hinge back to where it was, as indicated by the washer mark, but that would be a last resort if you can't get satisfaction otherwise.

 

[Cburke]

Yes the installer

It looks like the knife-edge on the stove isn't hitting in the center of the gasket in that corner, possibly because the hinge got moved.
I've never seen a door hinge bolted on. Anyone know if that's only done on BKs, or also on some other plate-steel stoves?
Was the stove "professionally installed" by the dealer you bought it from? I'd contact the dealer since either it was defective from the plant, it could have gotten bumped in shipping, or their installer messed it up.
In any event, someone besides you should be responsible for making it right. You could try to move the hinge back to where it was, as indicated by the washer mark, but that would be a last resort if you can't get satisfaction otherwise.

yea I thought it was weird. I'm a mechanic by trade so I noticed it right away. Installer is contracted by the dealer. Installer did my last stove and all my services and has always been very good to me. Also I was there for the whole install I didn’t see him do anything funny with the door

 

[stoveliker]

To me the knife edge impression in the gasked seems perfectly centered...? Both from the impression location and the color (brown up to that impression, gray outside of that).

 

[Cburke]

Yea i was a little put off by the door being bolted on as well wondering if anyone has a new model year ashford on here

 

[Woody Stover]

To me the knife edge impression in the gasked seems perfectly centered...? Both from the impression location and the color (brown up to that impression, gray outside of that).

Looking more, the impression does seem centered well in the vertical section to the corner. Now, on the horizontal section of gasket near the corner (first pic,) the gasket is black all the way across, and creo is deposited on the window and frame, so that may be where the smoke is escaping. Maybe not when draft is strong enough to suck air in, but on those 40* nights when draft is weaker. Harder to tell if the gasket is centered there.
If OP ends up trying to fix this himself, maybe loosen the bolt and move the hinge back to the original washer mark, then re-gasket the door, bunching the gasket slightly where the black section is, so it will press harder against the knife-edge there.

 

[Cburke]

I think I might try to adjust the door tension it does seem that the latch has become much easier to cinch down after an about 6 fires. So maybe the gasket tension was marginal? Hopefully we get some cooler weather soon but it doesn’t look like I’ll be burning anytime in the new two weeks here in pa. If that doesn’t help I’ll call the installer/dealer and have them sort it out.

 

[moresnow]

Where are you setting the stat knob on your "fairly low setting"?

 

[Cburke]

I’d say about 1/8th to a 1/4 above absolute minimum I’m still learning a cat stove coming from an epa non cat style. I don’t have a flue temp probe maybe that would be a good idea?

 

[Tron]

I don’t have a flue temp probe maybe that would be a good idea?

That's always a good idea and the analog/mechanical ones are not very expensive.
I mostly use mine to prevent overfiring on startup.

 

[stoveliker]

Looking more, the impression does seem centered well in the vertical section to the corner. Now, on the horizontal section of gasket near the corner (first pic,) the gasket is black all the way across, and creo is deposited on the window and frame, so that may be where the smoke is escaping. Maybe not when draft is strong enough to suck air in, but on those 40* nights when draft is weaker. Harder to tell if the gasket is centered there.
If OP ends up trying to fix this himself, maybe loosen the bolt and move the hinge back to the original washer mark, then re-gasket the door, bunching the gasket slightly where the black section is, so it will press harder against the knife-edge there.

It's hard to see; I had the impression that the outer rim at the bottom of the gasket was not coated, but you may be right. Better pic would be needed imo.

The (bottom) corners of the glass being coated is quite standard in a BK - though you're right that if it leaks that will result in (more) coating. I do note that running at 1/8 of the thermostat in this (not very cold) weather may be part of the cause; at 16 ft draft in warmer weather may not be great.

Still, I've found the (few and far in between) cases of smoke smell from BKs always hard to deal with. Tough to truly figure out what's going wrong.

 

[Cburke]

It's hard to see; I had the impression that the outer rim at the bottom of the gasket was not coated, but you may be right. Better pic would be needed imo.

The (bottom) corners of the glass being coated is quite standard in a BK - though you're right that if it leaks that will result in (more) coating. I do note that running at 1/8 of the thermostat in this (not very cold) weather may be part of the cause; at 16 ft draft in warmer weather may not be great.

Still, I've found the (few and far in between) cases of smoke smell from BKs always hard to deal with. Tough to truly figure out what's going wrong.

Yes. I will experiment of the next few months and see what we get. It could possibly be a mid adjusted door. Maybe I’ll bring it to the installers attention see if he has any thought he does a lot of blaze king service in my area.