And, if so, how heinous? I didn't wait until the stove was just a bed of coals before adding more wood. There was still a decent size chunk of wood burning and the stove top was around 410 when I added two more smallish med splits. I bypassed the cat first and upped the draft, opened the door and there was a flurry of exploding sparks, stuck in the two splits, closed it up and lowered the draft. It still caught within a couple of minutes and I engaged the cat within a minute after that as it was really going to town :bug: . Stove top after 15 minutes is around 425 and there are small flames in the splits and some secondaries going at the top of the stove. So, it seems to have calmed down nicely at this point. My intent was to extend the burn another couple of hours as I have some stuff to do and won't be able to load it up when it would have needed it and didn't want the house temp to drop. Dumb idea? I admit that the shower of sparks wasn't my brightest idea yet and I certainly wouldn't want to put on more than a couple of splits seeing how it went to town. Will I pay the price later in the burn cycle (wood at different stages of burning and off-gassing)? It's something I would have done in my old (not only pre-EPA, but pre-twentieth century) stove with no problems, but maybe the new stoves are not meant to be operated like that ever? What do you do in a similar situation of wanting to extend the burn a bit? Be more patient :red: