Not necessarily, there are many factors; how many of this model stove are in operation; user sensitivity to slight smoke smell, some users may be more tolerant or believe it is normal; how the stove is used, it's possible majority of users run it in the upper range and it leak is not detectable; and of course any reports of the issue have to get grouped in one place where you can then see a trend. You see this all the time with many products that are recalled years after design, development, and distribution.
I look at this device as a black box with an input and output with requirement that the output is presented with - .04 to -.06wc to make it work. What's frustrating is the manufacturer tells me that the -.04 to -.06 wc in a clay lined chimney is not the same as -.04 to -.06 in a stainless insulated liner and with no technical explanation.
My opinion is there is some type of turbulence going on around the door causing localized high pressure zones under certain operation conditions forcing gases through the porous door gasket, and it is possible the insulated chimney is actually creating a slightly higher drafts, draft values that are high enough to neutralize these high pressure zones. Just a theory!
I find that hard to believe; these things are meant to run "in black box mode" - a majority will not be running it on high (in particular this largest stove of the line...). Moreover, turbulence in this case will *never* create such a big pressure difference that (with the permeability of a properly seated gasket) it will "force out" gases. The pressure differences in a turbulent system without appreciable impedances between locations (as in, an open box with corners...) is *never* enough to overcome the huge impedance formed by the porous gasket if it is seated well. Your opinion just does not mesh with the physics.
The whole point is that the speccing out of a stove includes testing of precisely the whole range of factors that can vary from case to case - and based on that the manual provides a range of requirements within which the stove works. What I've understood here is that the testing (and measuring) is far, far more extensive than I had ever imagined.
There are 3 components of the system, chimney, stove, home. The chimney is the engine; it makes things work. The home needs to be "allowing" the engine to work (get enough make-up air in so that the pressure at the stove is proper). The stove is in between and essentially does its thing by being the (tunable) bottle neck for the gasflow driven by he chimney. It should not leak, in particular if the chimney is performing well.
I think someone asked to check the gasket: is it black on one side and all white on the other side of the knife edge everywhere? If not, you found the problem of why you smell something. But in the end the chimney, the engine of the system creating gas flow, appears not to work hard enough, because if it does, gases would not be coming out but being sucked into a leaking stove.
And finally, there is a grouping of issues - in
@BKVP's books (and his head, I have been told...).
