My stove over fired. What do I do next?

[tg27]

My house came with an old Jotul Firelight 12. I've been using it for the past 6 years with no issue. But last week, this happened:

• After loading it up, I heard it “whooshing,” like air rushing up the stove pipe
• It was running hot (around 650), but I had just closed the damper so I expected the temps to drop
• But they didn’t…it hovered around 650. That’s when I noticed the back glowing (see pic)
• I eventually quickly opened and closed the damper to disengage the catalyst, which seemed to work (or it started cooling off by coincidence)
• One thing to note, the damper was really hard to close after opening it. Not sure if something was stuck or what. I was scared it was going to get stuck open which scared the hell out of me

Few things about my stove. It's old! The back plates has a small crack. But my chimney guy did inspect the stove when he cleaned the chimney and said I seemed good to go. Also worth nothing, this was my 3 or 4th load of the day when this happened, and it was probably my 5th fire of the season. Up until that last load...everything was a-okay!

SO...my question is, what do I do next? This feels pretty serious to me, but am I over thinking it? Do I need to have someone come out to inspect it, or can I do a sort of "common sense" inspection myself. This is new to me.

Thank you in advance for your help! Always appreciated.

 

[stoveliker]

Maybe the crack got bigger, allowing more air in and overfiring the stove

I would not use it like this until you figure out what went wrong.

I would not use A stove with a crack, not a sweep who says that it's fine when it's cracked

Do you have a flue thermometer? If so how high did that go up?