Sirocco Insert Smoking

[stoveliker]

On startup, the door is left cracked until wood is substantially charred,

Don't do that. Close the door as soon as the fire can sustain itself. Running with the door open keeps cooling the cat (delaying its heat up), even if the bypass is open.

 

[crstrode]

Don't do that. Close the door as soon as the fire can sustain itself. Running with the door open keeps cooling the cat (delaying its heat up), even if the bypass is open.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[ajzzara]

Good. I agree; given the age of the cat, the temperature, the flue height, and most importantly that there was no smoke 2 hrs in (when 3 hrs in still has the amount of fuel seen in the pic) it's a good possibility that draft is the culprit.
Temperature outside and flue height will help with this.

When it's warm, one can't dial down as far as when it's cold because draft stalls, leading to insufficient fuel for the cat to keep itself hot, and therefore smoke out of the chimney.

As I said you can stuff a piece of leftover single wall pipe in the top to see if it helps. Or indeed wait for colder weather.
Generally below 45 things should work better.

Keep us updated.

So, apparently, I have developed a fear of heights, and halfway up the chimney, I froze and came back down. I am having a liner dropped down my other flu that leads to a stove in the basement (another can of worms), and when they do that, I am going to have them put an 18" extension on this one. I definitely have a draft issue. As you suggested, in the colder weather, there is no longer smoke when adjusting the cat after waiting a bit. That said, I have low burn times with the stove turned down, and when the cat drops out of active, there is still chunks of unburnt wood that I have to stir around to get going again. The chunks may also be due to wood that has a little higher moisture content than 20%. The wood shed I built last April should alleviate this

Despite the short burn times, the stove has been keeping two stories of my three-bedroom A-frame pretty warm (67-74), even in the low temps we have been experiencing the past few weeks. The only heat I have to run is the mini splits in the kid's room, which is set to 67 and only runs at night with their doors closed. I think once I get the extension and the wood seasons a little more, I should see longer burn times.