Constantly venting embers, should I be concerned?

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g1mb

Member
Feb 15, 2011
25
central CT
This is my first season with a pellet stove, a Lennox Bella that vents through a 4" pipe, 5' vertically then 2' horizontally and exits 5' above a wood deck. I have used 4 different brands of pellets this year and found 3 of them to be unsatisfactory for a variety of reasons. The one pellet I really like, Vermont (softwood), shoots fireworks out of my vent pipe.

I've read archived posts on this forum from people who would not accept sparks out of their vents, and those who say they wouldn't be concerned, but not many posts from those who do shoot embers out of their pellet vents and don't have any issues. These are the people I would like to hear from. From what I can gather this doesn't seem to be a very unique problem.

When burning the Vermont brand softwood pellets the stove will vent embers at an average rate of a half dozen a minute. The average ember glowing for a few seconds (3'-5') after exiting the vent, some longer. I only notice this on occasion while burning other pellets, but it seems almost constant with the Vermont pellets.

I have reduced the draft setting to a point where my fire is borderline lazy, and I have double vacuum the fines from the pellets before I use them to no avail.

How concerned should I be? I would like to purchase all of my pellets for next year this spring, and would like to go with the Vermont pellets as they are shorter, cleaner and hotter than the others I have used, but the fireworks are a little troubling.

-Gary
 
The clearances required for a compliant install takes all of that into consideration.

Some pellets produce a very fine ash and thus also produce more embers that can be sucked into and then pushed out of the venting.

With that 100 CFM blower the Bella has I'd even expect more out the vent on one of them than most other stoves.

To calm your concerns, I'd conduct a little experiment.

Get a large piece of thin paper, place it 3 feet under the vent termination and watch it for a couple of hours. Then count the scorch marks and report back here.
 
g1mb said:
...The one pellet I really like, Vermont (softwood), shoots fireworks out of my vent pipe.

I've read archived posts on this forum from people who would not accept sparks out of their vents, and those who say they wouldn't be concerned, but not many posts from those who do shoot embers out of their pellet vents and don't have any issues........
Click to expand...

UH OH :ahhh:
 
So let me get this straight, you are counting sparks from the chimmey???.. do you have any bushes nearby?... you say a 1/2 dozen an hour??.. Okay i am now back to help mode.... do you know slickplant??.. Okay i am done.. Sparks, embers, whatever you want to call them are normal and i bet you see them mostly at night.. I once had 7 blow out in just under an hour and i moved my bush..... anyways it's all good the embers are so small they will go out long before they can do any damage..... oh man my side hurts............
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
With that 100 CFM blower the Bella has I'd even expect more out the vent on one of them than most other stoves.

To calm your concerns, I'd conduct a little experiment.

Get a large piece of thin paper, place it 3 feet under the vent termination and watch it for a couple of hours. Then count the scorch marks and report back here.
Click to expand...

So my Bella's got a big blower, huh?

I thought about your suggestion, but I don't think I want to tempt fate. I doubt my deck is going to catch on fire, but I'm not so sure that a thin piece of paper under the vent won't. I was a little more concerned about any leaves that might end up on the deck in the fall.
 
woodsman23 said:
So let me get this straight, you are counting sparks from the chimmey???.. do you have any bushes nearby?... you say a 1/2 dozen an hour??.. Okay i am now back to help mode.... do you know slickplant??.. Okay i am done.. Sparks, embers, whatever you want to call them are normal and i bet you see them mostly at night.. I once had 7 blow out in just under an hour and i moved my bush..... anyways it's all good the embers are so small they will go out long before they can do any damage..... oh man my side hurts............
Click to expand...

1/2 dozen a minute, not an hour....

So, who is slickplant anyway? I knew if more than one person replied to this post, they would mention someone with a nickname I couldn't remember but would know once I saw it again.
 
g1mb said:
SmokeyTheBear said:
With that 100 CFM blower the Bella has I'd even expect more out the vent on one of them than most other stoves.

To calm your concerns, I'd conduct a little experiment.

Get a large piece of thin paper, place it 3 feet under the vent termination and watch it for a couple of hours. Then count the scorch marks and report back here.
Click to expand...

So my Bella's got a big blower, huh?

I thought about your suggestion, but I don't think I want to tempt fate. I doubt my deck is going to catch on fire, but I'm not so sure that a thin piece of paper under the vent won't. I was a little more concerned about any leaves that might end up on the deck in the fall.
Click to expand...

So put the piece of paper on the deck like a leaf and see what happens?
 
g1mb, please I beg you don't go there.

I see embers outside at night all the time rarely do they reach the ground glowing and try as I might I haven't managed to light off even TP a three feet from the vent.

I could just put a shallow pan of 91% isopropyl alcohol three feet from my vent and wait. Plenty of snow so I'm not worried.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
g1mb, please I beg you don't go there.

I see embers outside at night all the time rarely do they reach the ground glowing and try as I might I haven't managed to light off even TP a three feet from the vent.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

That's kind of what I wanted to hear, no need for concern.

You haven't really tried to light off TP from your vent, have you?
 
g1mb said:
SmokeyTheBear said:
g1mb, please I beg you don't go there.

I see embers outside at night all the time rarely do they reach the ground glowing and try as I might I haven't managed to light off even TP a three feet from the vent.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

That's kind of what I wanted to hear, no need for concern.

You haven't really tried to light off TP from your vent, have you?
Click to expand...

Actually I have tried several types of experiments, I even held my hands under the vent at a couple of feet. Part of the trust but verify thing. I had plenty of fire snuffer with me.

The safety folks appear to have the mater well in hand.

The key is that the embers are both small and well on their way to being extinguished and have extremely little heat or thermal mass left.

It takes several things to start a fire and they must all be present at the same time.

Now if that supper sucker you have was to start shooting out glowing pellets it would be an entirely different matter.

You did hook up the OAK as required on it I hope.
 
[/quote]

Actually I have tried several types of experiments, I even held my hands under the vent at a couple of feet. Part of the trust but verify thing. I had plenty of fire snuffer with me.

The safety folks appear to have the mater well in hand.

The key is that the embers are both small and well on their way to being extinguished and have extremely little heat or thermal mass left.

It takes several things to start a fire and they must all be present at the same time.

Now if that supper sucker you have was to start shooting out glowing pellets it would be an entirely different matter.

You did hook up the OAK as required on it I hope.[/quote]

Thanks Smokey.

OAK is hooked up. Sounds like a vacuum cleaner under my deck. I think they recommend you hook it up because if you didn't you would soon hate your stove due to the noise.
 
g1mb said:
woodsman23 said:
So let me get this straight, you are counting sparks from the chimmey???.. do you have any bushes nearby?... you say a 1/2 dozen an hour??.. Okay i am now back to help mode.... do you know slickplant??.. Okay i am done.. Sparks, embers, whatever you want to call them are normal and i bet you see them mostly at night.. I once had 7 blow out in just under an hour and i moved my bush..... anyways it's all good the embers are so small they will go out long before they can do any damage..... oh man my side hurts............
Click to expand...

1/2 dozen a minute, not an hour....

So, who is slickplant anyway? I knew if more than one person replied to this post, they would mention someone with a nickname I couldn't remember but would know once I saw it again.
Click to expand...

Sorry i misread your post....... I remember one time i was counting sparks and i fell asleep and when i woke up i was in slickplants livingroom tied up to a large bush and she was throwing buckets of sparks from the chimmey at me.... It was a real pellet nitemare for sure... ;-)
 
woodsman23 said:
....... I remember one time i was counting sparks and i fell asleep and when i woke up i was in slickplants livingroom tied up to a large bush and she was throwing buckets of sparks from the chimmey at me.... It was a real pellet nitemare for sure... ;-)
Click to expand...
:lol:
 
g1mb said:
Thanks Smokey.

OAK is hooked up. Sounds like a vacuum cleaner under my deck. I think they recommend you hook it up because if you didn't you would soon hate your stove due to the noise.
Click to expand...

It isn't a recommendation on the Bella it must be installed.

It isn't the noise it is the fact that it can put a very large dent in the stoves ability to produce any heat in the room it is in.
 
ROTFLMAO!! That's to funny!! A sparks bucket!! I gotta get one. That bucket would have saved me a BOATLOAD of money. I was nervous when I first installed my stove. I put pavers on the ground and stacked them in a pattern up to the termination cap. Way to preventative, but at the time I didn't know any better. House never burned down, and I'm only out $160 IN PAVERS!!! Grrrr.
 
A Pellet Stove and a Pyrophobe. This relationship is doomed.
 
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