Most users don't experience this. Most are able to run the stove with full loads daily. Our stove is burning through one now.Mines been running pretty well. Covering the boost air hole and running smaller loads (3-4 splits) has been the key to success for me. I added a flue damper as my first step last year but it wasn’t as effective as what I mentioned above. Only really use the flue damper when it’s super cold/windy and I get too much of a draft going. Still odd to me that most users of the PE stoves experience this but yet PE considers it normal. I’d guess it gets them to pass EPA standards vs an optimally running stove but who knows.