No smoke, no creosote?

[Ctwoodtick]

im trying figure the best way for me to find the Goldilocks zone with my wood insert, so that I can avoid creosote, while not wasting heat up flue.
Is is safe to say when stove is running and there no visible smoke from chimney, then there is no creosote to form?
I’ve been at both extremes now, previously getting only very light dry ash at end of season. Just recently during this shoulder season i thought I’d experiment a bit with trying to use less wood and I know I have been cutting air off too much too soon based on what I saw up top and have corrected that.
Like I said, looking for the “just right” zone and being an insert I can’t take stovepipe temp readings. Bit frustrating too, because I thought I had this whole thing figured out

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

previously getting only very light dry ash at end of season.

That's about as good as it gets. If you know how to do that, well, do that. It's never going to be perfectly clean.

 

[firefighterjake]

With no thermometer I'd guess that what you're doing and seeing is pretty much all you can do short of wiring up a remote thermometer. While creosote will form over time, seeing, or rather not seeing smoke in the chimney is often a pretty good indicator of a decent, clean burn. Finding dry creosote and not much of it at the end of the burning season is also a pretty good indication that you're doing something right.