How big a flame is too big?

We have a Quadra Fire Mont Vernon insert and we are on our 2nd season. As reported earlier, we have been having problems with our pellets - Maine Woods. The pellet type was set to 'utility pellet' per the instruction of our dealer. That resulted in huge amounts of white ash in the burner, with little ash in the ash pan. Dealer then told us to change the pellet type to 'softwood' and the result was much more heat, smaller amounts of ash in the burn area, but signficiantly more black ash on the glass and much more ash in the ash pan (fills up after two bags). While I'm not thrilled about the extra soot / black ash, we have been running the softwood setting since it heats much better.

Now the new problem....over the last two weeks, we have been getting a burning paint / metallic smell from the stove. It smells worse when the stove is running full tilt and we have noticed that the flame is getting really, really high - despite being set on the lowest setting (the flames are reaching the top of the glass and putting soot on the top 2 inches of the pane).

Any advice?

Is it time to call and have the dealer adjust the flame hight setting?

How hot is too hot? If we smell burning paint / metallic smell, does that mean we are running too hot and at risk of a fire?

Many thanks in advance; this is only our 2nd season and I'm still getting the hang of diagnosing issues with the stove.

The 'hardwood' setting is working very well. I'm getting a lot of heat and not alot of ash.

Thank you very much for the advice.