I was in a rush, and so wasn’t as verbose as I should have been. It seems obvious to me, given the very low number (statistically) of smoke smell cases, that multiple factors must combine in a certain way to cause this problem. If there were just one smoking gun, as you point out here, we would see many more of these complaints.
In my case, as Aaronk has been suggesting the last few weeks, unusually strong draft combined with wet wood, and surely a few other factors I’ve never identified. I’ve been burning three years with draft 3x what BK spec’s as their “allowable maximum”, with no smoke smell issues. Now, within two or three days of switching to wet wood, I’m getting it on every load. It’s only happening on the stove with very strong draft, not on my stove with a 15 foot chimney, which is actually burned at a much lower rate.
This morning, I loaded with mostly dry wood (six splits of 3 year + two splits of 2 year, all red oak), and will aim to load again tonight with dry wood. It will be interesting to see if this clears up, after a day or two back on dry wood. I’m assuming the capillary action of the gasket (creosote seeping thru the gasket and burning off on the outside) is the primary mechanism, which is why I anticipate there being a few days lag in cause/effect.
