As a first time stove owner operator I thought I'd post some of my experiences with learning to get my non-cat stove working correctly. I have found that the stove reflects the personality of the operator and that can be a bad thing. Me for example, I was having the Devil of a time getting the stove up to temperature where the tubes would fire and I was having lots of white smoke from my chimney and this was happening MOST of the time I would fire up the stove. I couldn't get home before my wife one night to light the stove for her so she took it upon herself to light it and get it going. She had witnessed me struggling with the stove for a couple weeks and I was sure she was going to have the same problem. I got home to a stove that was cruising along at 600 degrees stove top and excellent secondaries from 3 splits, clear glass and no smoke from the chimney. I was dumbfounded and asked her how she was able to get such a good fire going. She says," I loaded it with a ton of kindling, lots of newspaper, lit it and when it was roaring I added 2 splits and when those were going really good I closed the damper a little more than half way and I just forgot about it until you came home". Unlike me she doesnt obsess about things. I would be watching the fire continously, making small adjustments to the damper constantly, opening the door to add wood or revive a fire that I put out by closing down the damper too quickly, always going outside to check the chimney, checking the thermostat on the stove, etc.. All she cares about is that she is warm and her common sense overides her analytical side which is not my personality. I have adopted this mindset for the last 4 fires I have built and it is working great, however, I cant completely ignore the analytical side of things and I now know what I was doing wrong. This has all been said before, I read it myself from you guys and gals many times over, but to get a non-cat stove working well build a kick ass kindling fire that gets the stove nice and hot as quickly as possible. Let it burn...........do not reduce the air........let it burn......do not fiddle with the air so as to see the pretty blue flames! Add 2 or three medium size splits into the full of fire firebox and let them really get going too. Do not reduce the air!! When those DRY splits are burning real good I have found that my stove top temp is about 5oo degrees and if I close the damper about half way at this point the stove top temps really start climbing and the burn tubes really start firing off. Huzzah!! I can then reduce to about 1/8 the way open for a great show of afterburn and a nice 600 degree stove top that stays hot for a long time and add a couple more DRY splits if we want it real warm in the house. So in my case I just neded to sit back and relax, resist the urge to constantly adjust the fire, use (one more time!) DRY wood and dont be freaked out by a BIG fire in the box. Big fire good! Anyway its been working real good this way and I am finding that as it gets colder and I load the firebox with more wood, the stove just works better and easier when it is really cranking. All I had to do was listen to what you guys were saying. Hope this helps anyone who might be a fiddler also.
I had to get her to calm down enough to read the whole thing before she realized that it wasn't mine..... 
