BrotherBart said:
Scratching my head over why you would get up there and add pipe before trying a top down start up. You have plenty of chimney. Too much in most situations. You should have an overdraft with most burns.
+1
Gotta get an up draft started.
Cold air is heavier than warm air.
No fire, pipe full of cold air, you have a down draft condition. , pushes cold air down into the stove, if the door is open cold air pushes the smoke out the stove.
Adding pipe may add to your problem, more heavy cold air to move.
Normally you only add pipe if, when it's windy & some structure is causing the wind turbulence blow air/wind down your chimney.
When real cold here, I've had to pull the clean out plug on the "T" outside, light some paper in it to get a draft started.
Then go back inside & start a fire. (& clear the smoke out of the basement)
It has pushed the smoke right out the inlet air at the bottom of the stove.
It even sometimes happens to me when -20 or colder & stove burn is almost burned out.
Mine has to make two 90° turns to get into the outside chimney. May change one to 2 - 45°s. May help some.
Try what Bart said. It works 99.9% of the time
Unless reeeeeeealy cold out, you have a super high pressure area just move into your area &
the paper fire goes out before it can lift the cold air out of the long pipe.
Learning curve for all of us. Each stove set up, location, weather conditions, house, chimney etc are a little different.
Once you learn your system & adapt to the conditions, all is good again.
Don't forget that if bathroom fans are running, & you have a fairly tight house, your house is sucking in air somewhere to maintain
pressure equilibrium. It may suck air in through the stove pipe.
Some new "tight" homes (5 Star energy rated) require a special inlet air vent connected to the wood stove inlet air. (combustion air)