Odd, but nice discovery...

So today I didn't plan on building a fire as I thought that the house was warm enough and the high is supposed to be over 60 etc... Then the wife asked why we weren't burning "It isn't cold in here, but it would be nicer if it was warmer" - parse that one out and it all comes to the same thing, get a fire going.

So I figured I'd do a small fire to please her yet not overheat the house - and of course as it is foggy and drizzling as well as over 40* outside the draft was very slow to get going. Lighting a smaller fire also slowed the process - bottom line I had to leave the house before the stove was up to temp (was tight timing wise anyway as I only had 30 mins before leaving given it was unplanned...).

Anyway - after coaching her on when to close the cat etc I headed out. The surprise for me was that even though the stove was still not warmed up (stovetop under 250, Cast around 220, stones around 140?) I didn't see any smoke out the chimney! I expected to see a steady stream of smoke flowing out given it wasn't really burning all that hot and the cat hadn't been engaged yet. I don't recall seeing any secondaries in the stove either - as mentioned it was a small fire (only 4 splits and a few pieces of kindling to boost it along).

Well, I'm happy to know this as I haven't looked during start up really and always assumed I was smoking the whole time - good to know. Of course it might have been a fluke too... will have to trudge out there and look some more if I decide I really care that much. Anyone else notice this?

I don't make special trips out to look at my chimney anymore, but I love to drive away and see no smoke when I know my 30 is cruising along!

If you hadn't engaged your cat yet, I'm kind of surprised that you didn't have any smoke. With my non-cat, until the secondaries fire off, I know I'm going to get some smoke. I would think that a cat stove would be the same way. Until it fires off, you just have a fire in a metal box!

-SF

Must've been some awful dry wood.

I quit watching the top of my chimney even when it does smoke it is still not near as much as a older stove would.

Well, the wood is decent, but I do get occasional sizzlers too. I wonder if the secondaries started firing off just as I was leaving the house or something... I don't know what temp the top would report when that happens so I'll have to take note of it in the future, I do know I have noticed them rather earlier than I expected so perhaps there was some of that going on.

I just hope it wasn't that the smoke was just all condensing inside the pipe and not getting out! (eek!)

Top-down start?

Pseudo top-down. Stick a SC between the top couple splits and lit it go from there, although I did put a few pieces of kindling on top.

This morning I did it again and checked on the way out of the house near cat engagement time - sure enough, no smoke. Nice to see, I think there must be some burning going on that I'm not aware of. I wonder if perhaps it is hotter in the top of the stove than I realize and some secondary burn is happening?