Small fires, am I just asking for Creosote?

[Dajolu]

I use my wood stove basically as "Natures TV". The heat I get off it is a bonus. Friday, Saturday, Sunday night after the kids are in bed. I'm not really comfortable leaving a loaded stove all night while we sleep. I have been only putting about three average size oak splits in with a decent amount of kindling on top to get it all going. I run it hot for a bit to get the cat active and then shut the air down. Then when its time for bed I am not worried about the stove running away or anything like that will a packed stove. Is having these smaller sized fires asking for creosote build up? Or as long as I keep things hot I guess I'm ok?

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

Keeping things hot you will be fine, with cold starts you always have a higher chance of buildup due to the initial hurdle to get your flue up to temperature. I work extreme hours so I end up cold starting alot. The trick seems to be using a lot of really nice kindling to get heat up the flue right away.

 

[John Lehet]

What I would do if I were worried is I would do one of your typical burn cycles during daylight and look at the chimney through the course of it. If you see smoke coming out, then you’ve got some likelihood of creosote, though even a bit of smoke might be nothing to freak out about.

With my non-cat stove, I’ve gotten pretty good at running it, but still sometimes I go outside to do something and smell smoke I wasn’t expecting, and I see it coming from the chimney. I go in and give it more air. Even with these episodes, sweeps have never found anything more than a bit of soot in my chimney.

 

[kborndale]

As long as your wood is dry and your burning hot it shouldn't be bad. Did you do the same last season? How did the flue look at the end of the season?