Well, I wouldn't call it 'fatal.' How about getting a piece of Iconel or other high-temp screen and fashion a shield you can put in front of the cat intake? The screen on my stove catches quite a bit of ash before it gets to the cat, and you can easily brush it off when the stove is out.
Whoa, easy, Ranger! It was the OP who asked a question about "what is the best stove to get with the priority being long burn rates and something that is really well engineered?" At first I gave a generic response that "there's no stove that's all things to all people....no perfect stoves, blah blah." Then, here they come with the "long burn time" pitch again, after several owners in this thread said they can't burn real low without some smoke smell. In other threads, issues have been raised such as crashed cats or gunked chimneys with too-low burn rates. OK, they can burn pretty long with even a medium air setting...that's great. But what about the "engineering" that the OP asked about? Somehow, that never gets mentioned. I realize my tongue-in-cheek rant parody is taken too seriously by some here, and I understand that it may not translate well on the internet. That's one of my shortcomings, I guess. But I still think it's kinda funny sometimes.
Not surprising. Might be wise to lay in at least a case o' the good stuff.
Yeah, I don't really understand what happened. The OP was sailing along with the new (non-OEM) flat gasket in there, no smoke smell and the next thing we know he's in private communication with BKVP, with no explanation of what they are going to try, and how they expect it will address the problem. I just don't see how the smoke is getting out of the stove, with the draft he's got. I'd like to know how tall that chimney is? I'll be watching to see what happens with this...hope it doesn't just disappear with no answers, like some of
my questions do.
Next time you go bird hunting , just say to yourself "There's that bird-brain Woody!" Kapow! When the dog brings it, tell him "Go ahead and eat that one." 
