Ever have to reduce draft to light a fire?

The other day I had a little trouble getting the fire to go. I added some more paper and kindling after the flames had died and found that my matches kept burning out as soon as I stuck them inside the stove. "Hmm..." I thought, "Oxygen-depleted environment. Too much draft sucking the air out of the box?" So I reduced the setting from 4 to 2 (or 1.5 maybe) and tried it again. This time the match stayed lit and the fire took off.

Is this a common experience? I'd never heard of it before.

I do have 28 feet of rise on an insulated interior chimney, so I do get a good, strong draft.

corey21 said:

i never had to do that. i just have 15 foot chimney triple wall. sounds to me like you have way to much draft.

do you have a damper in the pipe?

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No, I don't have a damper. I considered it before installing the stove last year, but thought I'd see how things went first. It would be a fairly easy retrofit for me. I don't usually have too much trouble lighting fires, and most of the year, I burn 24/7 anyway, so I'm not sure if it's necessary even now.

I'd welcome the opinions of more experienced burners, though. I should also point out that I usually end up settling with the draft control at about .7. Sometimes I go as low as, .5 but never lower. Of course, most of my experience last year was with marginal wood, so you have to factor that in.