My understanding is it's any time the wood is putting off flammable gasses. So just being charred on the outside doesn't mean it's stopped off gassing, but more like when you have a stove full of hot coals that don't emit significant flames even when given plenty of air. In a non-cat stove the off gassing phase is obvious because its just defined by whenever there are flames while in a cat stove you'll have a black box but still be off gassing with the cat doing the burning, then slowly transition to coaling phase but tougher to tell when this really occurs.
First hand experience. My older son loves beer and nachos.Lol. Knew someone would go there, didn't think you'd be the first.
Ok but say in a non-cat stove, flame or no flame, wouldn't the coals be off gassing too since they're still emitting CO? I've heard stories on here about people setting off their CO detectors or even worse by not realizing there were hot coals mixed in with the ash in their ash container.
