Devils advocate here: Why would this be worse on an EPA stove, when they have already burned most of the particulates that cause the creosote in the first place vs an old smoker that's sending it up the flue?
I was thinking the same thing.
At the same time I’m not so sure it would be as effective (for heat extraction) on an EPA certified stove. The flue pipe from the EPA firebox I’m using now runs noticeably cooler than the old smoke dragon did.
I also don’t believe cooling the flue gasses automatically means more creosote deposits… it would depend on the set-up. Creosote forms not because the flue gasses are cool, rather it’s because the chimney walls cool down causing condensation (of sorts) inside. My brick chimney runs up through the center of the house, it’s always warm, always a strong draft, and creosote has never been a problem… even when “smoldering” the fire in the old smoke dragon. The place I lived before this had the brick chimney running up the outside of the house, it was a bear to get drafting at times, it took forever to warm –up on cold days, and it would plug-up where the flue pipe connected to it. So yeah, if you’ve got 15-20 feet of chimney pipe running up the outside of your house, or a masonry chimney on an outside wall, then I’m thinking cooling the flue gasses would be a bad idea. But on the other hand, if your chimney pipe runs up through the house, with only a couple feet sticking out the roof, then cooling the flue gasses wouldn’t be so bad… and may not even be an issue at all.
I dump a ton of (relatively) cool air into my flue without creosote problems. I have 2-feet of six-inch vertical pipe coming off the firebox, which connects to an eight-inch “tee” and 2-feet of eight-inch horizontal pipe to the chimney. Also connected to that eight-inch “tee” is the four-inch pipe from the LP furnace… LP appliances use “hooded” exhaust so it’s continuously dumping cool air into the end of the horizontal section of pipe. And the three-inch exhaust from LP water heater also connects to the brick chimney, continuously dumping more cool air into the chimney. Like I said, running up the center of the house like that it’s always warm and always sucking… sucking hard. Creosote just ain’t an issue. Actually I think dumping that cool (actually room temperature warm) air from the furnace and water heater hoods into the flue allows it to free-flow better creating a higher velocity through the chimney... faster than it would be with just the wood burner connected.