Cold Draft Start Problems - i win

[EL DRIFTO]

noob here to get my daily light:

so i went downstairs to start the stove that was ice cold
clothes dryer had been running so the basement was actually hotter than anywhere
i forgot that i left the basement ex fan on since i don't use it anymore - internet, have to post reality when it comes to posting facts
it was nice for a few days

with just a handful of fire starts under my belt, i have encountered a second "fill the entire house with smoke" starting nightmare.
it seems, with the right circumstances, that without a robust, quick, instant super flame
the lack of draft makes the starter fire starve for oxygen & go out which is really smokey
smoke is either going to roll into the room to get the paper started
or you may close the door to stop it from pouring out, then it starves
since the down draft keeps going, all that smoke WILL appear in the house, through the air inlet, even if you freeze & leave the door closed

although holding the propane torch to the stove pipe DID instantly move the cold draft once, it's gonna take more than that sometimes

it's never crossed my mind to get out of a vehicle drifting @ 90 before i parked it
nor would i walk away, even if the house was on fire, without pulling the plug

example 1:
bsmt ex fan on, house air tight except for "draft window" next to stove barely cracked as usual
2 18" square cardboard starter rolls under some finely splits, as i usually start fires
plumbing torch gets a good light for a second, slam the door shut
quicky run around back & stuff $12 bathroom ex fan, with a cord attached, to the air intake, blowing in of course
run around to the front & notice it's getting the fire started
in only 2 minutes, the flue pipe was hot enough that cold draft problems are over
the fan did fall off the box i had it propped up on & it gave me a chance to see the smoke shooting out of the air intake, in the first 20 seconds
once the stove pipe is warm to the touch, cold draft problem is over, as long as the starter fire isn't allowed to go out

example 2:
cold stove of course
not so much down drafting as much as curiosity...
i whip out the starter fan, on a cord & start the fire as usual, but now i'm curious
this time i didn't have the fan air tight to the stove intake,
i let it sit back a few inches to just toss more air in there
i didn't time it, but cold stove to 500 in 10 minutes
of course i pulled off the fan, party over
this was on not so finely split wood & not much wood either...
my little fire WAS started & going like mad, it of course would burn out soon without more wood
so i went to add some massive chunks to see just how started it was
"the burning wood was still too rigid to load much into the stove !"
the lowest it got was 420 after i loaded chunks
i was able to walk away, stove trimmed, loaded & roaring in 30 minutes
i was also still able to touch the bottom corner of the firebox, it wasn't that hot yet

 

[EL DRIFTO]

example 3:

i used too few pieces not split well
let the fan run for 45 minutes, with the door cracked open
then with too few coals, i tried throwing a huge slab on top & let the fan run
seemed like it was wasting wood just fine, but there was a tipping point where the fan seemed to be killing it
after about an hour total, the fan wasn't letting heat build, so i unplugged it & the slab burnt away fine then
so it's not a fix all, but it helps

in other news, i was sleeping downstairs the other night, with the LP furnace back on & i noticed a serious draft
not to mention the entire house smelling like stove
it wasn't hard moving towards the open window feeling across the basement toward the stove...
when i got there, there was a super cold blast waking out of the OAK inlet (i don't have kit installed)
i grabbed a rag to stuff it & still felt a blast ??
mmk, so there's an entirely different air intake on the 30 i never noticed
i stuffed the rag in there too & now know how my OAK fan got to smelling smokey
it looks like the other intake goes into the upper, afterburn chamber of the stove
& OAK WOULDN'T STOP pressure problems there
here is a sh'tty phone pic, using a mirror, showing the other air inlet/draft hole
in the back of the stove, underneath, about 3" in front of the main air inlet

although lighting a fire in this thing would have the entire house filled with smoke b4 it finally got going
i certainly will be blocking that other, tiny hole for a minute, whenever i plan on taking on the super cold down draft from hell

it's certainly not a matter of whether or not there's a huge reverse draft to deal with on start up in my ap
it's that a little smoke may blow out the clean out drawer or a tiny bit around the rag in the other hole

EDIT:

well after some more time with the stove, it seems all the fan is good for is ice cold start problems only
use it for three minutes, works great
makes no difference after that if it aint ready to burn

it doesn't solve any problems with too little, too wet wood etc
in fact, it just blows the heat right out of the box if it's not ready to burn
like leaving the air control too open, not the door