That could very well be. Would be a good idea to clean the stack. Was going to order some brushes to do it myself. Perhaps I'll just bring someone in this first time to make sure it's done right.
Here are some photos taken this morning. When I came downstairs, the stove still had tons of fuel but was almost out of the cat range. It seemed like the fire wasn't getting enough air. The t-stat was set to 2 (and it has been adjusted pursuant to BKVP's instructions).
In the past, I might have turned it all the way up. Most of the time it would just fire back up but sometimes it would do nothing for a few moments and then I'd get a giant back puff. This time, not wanting to chance the back puff, I turned it up just a bit. A few minutes later, there was fire in the box. The photo below captures the flames. I then went outside and took these photos. Because the sky was overcast, you can't see the smoke coming from the stack but it was substantial. Hopefully you can at least see the height of the chimney in relation to the peak of the roof.
I later turned the t-stat back down but there was still smoke coming from the stack. Less of it, but it rarely gets to the point where there's no smoke. I don't know if that's normal or problematic. If it is a problem, perhaps it's due to not getting enough air from the OAK.
Also, with regard to the back puffing, was the issue operator error (due to my having turned the t-stat up too fast) or should such things not happen no matter how fast one raises the setting?
(Sorry for the sideways photos. I can take the time to rotate them if anyone needs that in order to glean the information they contain.)
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