I would suggest you hire a local chimney sweep or wood stove serviceman to look over your system. If they know what they are doing they will be able to diagnose your problem. From my experience, here are a few possible causes of your problem. New wood stoves are so efficient that not much heat goes up the flue, for this reason creating a draft is more difficult than with a fireplace or an old stove. Wood MUST be very seasoned, split small and arranged in stove to allow maximum air circulation. Large logs or unseasoned wood will always cause smoke. You mentioned a stainless liner, is it wrapped in the required insulation? This is one step of stove installation that is often left off but very important. You also should make sure that no venting appliances are running until a good draft is created. Clothes dryers, gas furnaces, kitchen/bathroom fans all compete for air with your stove. You can read more about issues like this in the link provided. As for the "tinking" sound. This is common on Cast Iron Wood Stoves. Especially the Quadrafire brand. Cheap cast iron from China is cheaply assembled with screws and furnace cement. There is no welds on these stoves. The Cast iron expands and contracts and the noise will just get worse over the years. Hope this answers your questions! Here is a link that might be useful: Wood Stove Info

Just to give an update on my masonry heater's performances after 4 months of intensive use. We have used so far 7 steres of soft wood ( i think it must be equal to 4 cords?). For the first month or so we lit 2 fires/day. Since, we are down to one fire/day which allows the central heating system to kicks in for about 1/2h in the morning and the same in the evening. That takes care of the rooms which are not directly heated by the masonry heater. The bedrooms which are above the living room are heated by the masonry heater without problems. Our natural gas consumption is down by as much as 75%. As to our confort, well it is sensational. We have discovered radiant warmth and chances are we will never go back to anything else. Of course it does come with chores ( carrying the wood, preparing the fire..) but it is such a small price to pay for so many benefits including the immense satisfaction you get when you know you have done something for our planet.

Another perspective. We have a used brick, with fire brick and tile liner wall with three fues, one for the master bedroom (fireplace has wooden/Dry Wall finish) one to the basement and one on the main floor which support a large fireplace with a large wood storage bin (with it's own exterior door for loading, we don't us it for that for obvious reasons), all finished inside with used brick. The whole unit is on an exterior wall with the flues exterior to the house proper all enclosed in used brick, real brick, may have block underneath, I don't know. I don't recommend it if you're going to use it for heating, and I'd recommend it for decorating reasons only if that's real important, and would ask why not use brick veneer? Then the flues could be enclosed in an insulated structure that would help keep the flues warmer, cutting back on smell and improving the draft and heat utilization when heating with wood. Of course if you're using the fireplace "open" you'll be doing good to break even on heat gain/loss. We're having the chimney people out on Tuesday to clean two of the flues, maybe power clean the flue to the main floor, it is used the most, and then install a "LockTop" damper at the top of the main fireplace flue so we can close a "storm door" like damper when the unit isn't in use. All this will run about $800, something to keep in mind when one thinks they are saving money when burning hard wood, we did use an insert in the main and it did heat well. We've been here almost 20 years and have burned upwards of two cords in a season, less in recent years. Not sure what all has changed, it isn't the used brick construction, but we have noticed an increase, under some weather conditions, of the old fire smell, thus the above mentioned work is intended to correct...we will of course have to remove the insert as the damper requires access to a chain coming down the flue for its operation, we'll just use he fireplace for ambiance on a few times a year going forward. The subject of smell has been on the forum many times, and there is a general consensus that an exterior masonry chimney is more problematic than an interior chimeny or one in an insulated enclosure, as is done, I believe, in most stainless chimney installations that have a simple frame box around the chimney to cover its route to the roof.

It's a big chunk of change and I don't know the answer, but I consider it a long term investment. It was about the price of an economy car when we bought it, and it's going to last forever. The car would have been dead by now, 18 years old, while the Tulikivi is practically as good as new. Whether it's actually cost effective I don't know. It's got some advantages over a metal woodstove though, most of which don't translate directly to cost. You use less wood. You only have to make one or two fires a day because it retains heat so well, you don't have to keep it going all the time. Soapstone is the, or one of the, most heat-retentive materials, but it doesn't get hot enough to burn you like metal does. It lights up better than any other stove I've had and never gives off any smoke whatsoever, even when the door is open. It doesn't rust. It stays warm for a day or more after having a fire and everyone gravitates to it. People are always sitting next to it or hugging it like a pet bear or something. My sheets hang on it and dry faster than in a dryer, with no wrinkles or wadding up. I dry laundry on a rack in front of it all winter. You can grill in it and, in some models, bake in it. I didn't think about this before we bought it, but it's a real conversation piece, people always want to hear about it and think it's beautiful. I realize these reasons aren't necessarily persuasive if the bottom line is cost savings, but I think your calculation is off. A standard steel box will not be anywhere near as efficient, will use much more wood, will be leakier and smokier, and not as people friendly.