Tweaking and modding?

Greetings and welcome to the funny farm.

One should only adjust their damper when they change the batch of fuel being burned if the stoves combustion blower follows the firing rate setting otherwise you have to change the damper setting for each firing rate.

So it depends upon your stove, some stoves only need the damper set once and all other minor adjustments are done by trim controls.

High Silicone Gasket or high temperature silicone sealant, there is nothing I'm aware of called High Silicone, both silicon sealant (makes a custom sealing gasket) and silicone gaskets come with different temperature ratings. You always use ether with the same or higher temperature rating. That way the seal won't fail due to temperature and one doesn't have to carry a pile of different tubes and gasket material. It never hurts to use a higher temperature rated material.

Tweaking and modding is risky territory , be-careful.

Don't try to bypass any of the main settings as a fire could startthat will damage the stove.

Its about keeping the burn near its stoich air/fuel ratio. more fuel = needs more air. just like a car.

too much fuel = overflowing burn pot
too much air = flame dies out

I never touch mine, but my stove is pretty automatic. all the electronics decide how much to feed. I choose 1-5.

My intake air damper is almost all of the way closed. This is because I have a tall, partially insulated, straight 4" flue pipe. The stove drafts like crazy so the damper gets closed down quite a bit or I'll have too much airflow for the amount of pellets fed. You really shouldn't have to play with it a lot once you have it properly set unless you chnage your pellets. I might open mine slightly if I'm running it on the lowest settings depending on what the flame looks like. I don't like to run it any more open than neccesary to get a complete, clinker-free burn. I would rather have the heat go into my room, not up the flue.