Last week, I hauled in a load of wood that may-or-may-not have had some oily substance on some of the pieces, and at the time figured "oh well, it will burn off", forgetting about it until the next reload. I loaded the stove (full of course), waited for it to catch, closed the bypass and went upstairs. About 10 minutes later, I noticed black smoke billowing over the house and across the street. I headed to the basement stairs and could smell something was not right. Iliterally flew downstairs to find the stove burning fairly well, but with a room full of thick sooty smoke. I opened the bypass and it took off like a rocket, so I closed it about halfway and all was well. I then tried to close the bypass completely, and smoke billowed from the draft controls. Uh oh.... I left it partially open, and it burned ok, but would not stop belching sooty smoke from the chimney. I experienced the same smoke billowing from the drafts on the next attempt to engage the cat, this time with a new load of clean wood. We had a houseful over the Thanksgiving holiday/weekend, so burned it with the bypass partially open for a few days, the basement needed to be heated and we didn't have time or money to mess with fixing it. I did however notice, that with the bypass partially open, the stove produced far more heat than it had previously, and rarely did I see any smoke from the chimney. I don't know how well the cat was working before, although I do know it is the original cat from 1990. The stove was rarely used until the last 6 years or so, but when we moved in, the cat had been completely clogged with ash, and the stove had the same behavior it is showing now- billowing smoke from the drafts and tbe fire dying when the bypass is closed completely. I did vacuum the ash from the cat about two weeks prior to this incident, and there was quite a bit.
