My FIL was at the shop and said he didn’t think we had a fire going because there was no smoke coming from the chimney. I looked and he’s right you can’t see any. What is up with that?

That means the fire is burning very efficiently

That, and probably just a bed of coals

So nothing to be concerned about?

X2

nope, wait till he loads it up and you'll see smoke

Nope

No worries at all.

Oh I’ve seen it smoke when I fire it up in the morning. I just put a load in before I left the house but it hadn’t started smoking yet when I pulled out of the driveway.

When is the last time you ran a brush through the flue? Probably nothing wrong but it don’t hurt to brush it before the heat season starts and again half way through the season. Especially if you’re wood is not well seasoned.

I don’t think they put flues in back in the 1920s.

Nothing to be concerned about.

I burn my Quadra-Fire 24/7 from late-October through early March. The only time any smoke is visible at the chimney is for about ten minutes right after I load it.

If you look closely you can see the air distortion from the heat out the top of the chimney.

If, on the other hand, smoke is filling up the building you are heating and not coming out the chimney, you should probably be concerned.

I have a heat & glow Northstar and burn white oak that has been debarked and seasoned. Not much smoke once it gets up to temperature. I may have to scoop ashes once or twice a month.

Ol dad

I see a lot less smoke w/ my 6" stainless round insert sleeve than I did w/ my 12" masonry flue, plus I never burn it w/ the cap... just more efficient it seems.

Same here, except we're using Woodstock Ideal Steels. Assuming you've got a relatively efficient stove, the presence or absence of smoke can have a lot to do with how you're managing your fires. We've got two separate houses on our property, each with the same exact stove (albeit with different chimney lengths). In my house, we load the stove, let it get good and hot, and then crank things down to the desired combustion rate. We only see smoke from our chimney during the warm-up period. My FIL lives in the other house, and he tends to keep his fire going at a lower temp at all times, adding wood when it looks low. Smoke issues from that chimney all day long, because it never gets hot enough to burn efficiently. He stays warm and seems content, so I don't fuss with him about it. His chimney has 2-3 times the buildup that ours does, though. All of that smoke is just uncombusted combustible material leaving the house, and unfortunately, a lot of it ends up stuck inside the chimney.

The Quadra-Fires are pretty efficient and brag about their Four-Point burn system. At one time they were rated by the EPA to be the cleanest-burning non-catalytic wood stoves available.