KING 5500M Stove WARNING

I feel obligated to post this warning about a serious fire hazard I found on my new King 5500M pellet stove. For a little background I have been battling this stoves burn since I got it in Oct 2011. After several calls they sent me replacement gaskets which I installed and through this forum I found what is likely to be the real problem the feed rate... thank you for the info on how to manually set (something never mentioned by the manufacturer after a dozen calls).

So I change the gaskets and adjust the feed rate last night the stove runs pretty good, shut it down today and I notice smoke coming out of the bottom of the stove so I look and find piles of ash on both of the front corners of the stove, the side that has smoke pouring out also has a few half burnt pellets... thinking wtf did the stove crack? I vacuum the stove out for a better look to find 2 perfectly drilled holes right through the bottom of the stove. Call the company again to hear “Oh there are suppose to be bolts there†then WHY aren’t they there???? Mind you I have been running this stove for 6 months and had no idea this stove could have burned my house down! Not to mention all the trouble I have been going through to get it more “air-tightâ€. Check your stove it could be a fire hazard.

:gulp: WOW!! Good find there. Are they going to fix it or are you gonna have to make a trip to the hardware store yourself?

That's hideous! Reminds me of the Ford Pinto. So much for sleeping at night. Glad you found it.

Was that by any chance where the stove was bolted to the pallet?

There have been cases where other stoves were missing bolts on legs etc ... and they were fastened to the area below the burn pot.

Wow.... Glad you found it and everything is o.k. now.

What are they going to do to rectify the problem?

They said they would have a technician contact us to fix it. What that meant was they would ship the screws and then we call the tech in TN that will walk us through it. So yea a trip to the local hardware store for some self tapping screws and we fixed it. The reason they gave for it was they were probably holes used to send it through the processing line and the screws never got put in. No sorry, no glad your house didn't burn down, no so sorry for all your troubles, nada. I plan to demand that they at least issue a warning or a recall; when I ever saw the ash and burnt pellets on my hearth I thanked my lucky stars.

+1 Bear The dealer told me to replace the bolts when removing the stove from the pallet, or I would have 2 wholes on the side of my ash pan.

And things like that and the OPs issue are why I like to see overkill on the hearth pad.

Mine was not bolted to the pallet, the holes were probably for holding it up for powder coating ect. Funny you should mention "overkill" on the hearth pad cause I am glad I got my way My boyfriend wanted a cheap hearth pad I wanted to build a really nice one which is what I did He said you don't need to use backer board just the tile on 1/2" plywood will be ok.. nope I wanted to use backer board whether I technically needed or not. Here's some pics of my custom hearth

Nice pad. Are those wood chips on it?

Thank you. No woodchips just tile and glass.

I checke my 5500M bought in Nov,2011. No holes The stove was not bolted to the pallet. There was plywood stapled aroun the legs to keep them from sliding....then banding to secure the stove to the pallet.

This is why you always put a heat shield panel under any pellet stove or wood stove so if something does happen it won't catch your floor on fire. If you look in your owners manual you will see that it tells you that you need a heat shield under the pellet stove. I have a 5500m pellet stove and it works great. Also about the feed rate. It explains in the manual how to operate the pellet stove and it explains everything about the feed rate ,draft fan and room fan. When you change the feed rate you also need to change the draft fan number so the pellets get the correct amount of draft air so they burn the right way. As afr as the room fan blower goes I leave ours on automatic and it works just fine that way. Also the 5500m pellet stove is made to burn hardwood pellets. If you use softwood pellets or a mix of soft and hard wood pellets they will not burn that good and you will not get the heat that hard wood pellets give you. If you have any questions about what the best settings are for the feed rate and draft fan just reply and I can help you.

I agree that's really nice!