Last week sometime I something happened with my system and all of a sudden I saw my bench temperatures climb significantly. I thought the bench had hit a new stage in drying or something. I didn't think much of it other than being happy that it was functioning properly- finally!
Over the course of the last week I have noticed that my draw isn't that good. It wasn't noticable at first, but gradually noticed more and more flame creep, that pot I use to cover the logs when I was gone was needed all the time or else it was smoking up like crazy. No more rocket sound. That pot/fire cover was getting so hot I couldn't touch it. Finally, this morning I went to light the fire and no draw at all. Smoking out the chimney, smoking out the feed- no draw whatsoever.
Besides the smoky house, I pulled the fire into a metal bucket and moved the flaming smoking mass outside. I checked the cleanouts- A little dark but mostly clean as a whistle. I pulled the duct where it enters the chimney:
Totally plugged!
This wasn't the hard sticky creosote gunk I used to get with my old wood stove, but rather dry fluffy little balls, almost like drier lint. I pulled almost 2 gallons of the stuff out of the chimney flue and felt a gust of cold air whoosh down. Fired it up- back to normal. Good draw, no smoke. I don't know what this stuff is, but definately going to be more attentive from now on (cough, cough).
"Knowledge is power. Arm yourself."