I'm not burning the Oslo hot enough

I was up on the roof, cleaning the gutter, and saw this in the gutter. I knew immediately what it was, and indeed, there's much more on the underside of the chimney cap. This fragment was part of a 3" x 6" sheet (I tried to light it on fire to see how flammable it was.)



I've been slowly learning about how to operate our two stoves, but it's been hard to break from the habits I formed while burning in open fireplaces. I really do think I am learning my lessons, which are to pack the stove much more than I had been, pay better attention to the air, pay better attention to the room and stove temps and NOT the flame, and then either let it cool down, or pack it again, instead of being throwing a split or two on at a time, poking along.

My questions: should we get it cleaned now, or just finish the season and then get it cleaned? Can I reverse some of this with really hot burns? How bad is this shiny black sheeting, compared, say, to the powdery soot I see coming out of the Morso chimney? Is it possible to "preview" how much creosote is in the flue by using a fiberoptic camera? I have been tempted to buy one on eBay. Thanks in advance, my experienced friends.

We have a moisture meter and had great wood up til about 2 weeks ago. That is why I spent so much on the wood this year (had a previous post on that). Readings had been ~15%. Just now have started a new batch of wood, that has been as high as 20%, but that has been just been in the last couple of weeks.

When I have been distracted and inattentive to managing the air flow properly, I usually have typically been running it with the air open too much. Although sometimes I close it too soon, and it chokes out.

I guess I'm surprised at advice running it with more air, since it will be cooler; but there will be more airflow, I gather.

It is very hard to inspect myself- top of chimney is high. I think I gotta get a sweep out here.

I haven't bothered to clean the glass yet. Here's what it looks like now:



I just now cleaned most of it, it cleaned easily with a wet paper towel, EXCEPT that glaze on the right, which will take some scrubbing. There are flakes of black creosote on the inside of the stove too.

We finally got an IR thermometer, and I guess I try to keep it at 400, but it drifts down. The magnetic one way underestimated the temp, and I thought it might not have been running hot enough; it's better than I had feared, now that we have have good measurements, but I guess I should be shooting for higher? The flue temp has been lower, but I hadn't been paying it as much attention- thinking it was somewhere in the 200s?, just above the stove?

The flue is not exposed, it's in a large masonry chimney, but I am short, and the flue is on the high side of the chimney (relative to the roof). I think the total height was 20 or 25 feet. Getting it to draft when the stove is cold has been a challenge, but I thought the height was good for that. But I guess if it is a little on the long side, the gases will condense?

I have only recently packed the stove enough so that it gets to about 400, but I guess I thought if I was in the middle zone (lower end of it) I was ok. I am definitely not aggressive about loading the stove.

I know we would benefit from a blockoff plate, I was going to make that a summer project. In the other threads on blockoff plates, I've seen some debate about whether or not to insulate it, can't remember what the issue was. It is a cold exterior chimney on the north side of the house, so perhaps we would benefit from that even more than the average hearth.

What temp should I be shooting for on the flue, and is there a standard location for measuring that temp?

It's a T-connection (the stove is in front of the fireplace) and there is an insulated 6" liner in the chimney.

Well, I can see a little into the liner, and have taken pictures, which I'll post later, but it looks not so bad. Mainly bits of the shiny black stuff, but not the huge flakes on the underside of the cap. Quick question- I was going to run out now and buy a brush, do I want a steel bristle or a fiber bristle, and do I want the extension set? Maybe this isn't as hard as I thought?

Is that because the steel bristle is too hard on the flue, begreen?