Waterford Stanley maintenance

Hi all,
I have a 1993 Waterford Stanley. i have used it for 8 years for cooking, heating the water and heating the house. (The house is small, well insulated and has solar features, too..that's why I am able to heat it with such a small firebox). I live in central North Carolina.
For the past few years, smoke seeps from under the left side of the cooktop on startup or if i damp it down too much. I have unsucessfully attempted to caulk it from the inside.

I hestitate to pulll it all apart and redo everything, primarily because it works fine otherwise and I lack experience with disassembling and reassembling this stove.

I wonder if that's the only way to fix it or if there is a simpler way. Anybody have any experience/advice/people I could call to ask questions?

if you are sure the chimney is clean, then yes- its time to take the inside of the stove apart to clean the baffle.

some waterford stoves have a removable cast top to access stove top bolts- to clean top of baffle
others came apart from inside- warped or damaged parts can make this hard! sometimes easier to pull the flue pipe and clean thru the flue collar.

luck