Mt Vernon AE and a House Full of Smoke

Last night it almost ran out of fuel. The flame was almost out. I added fuel and went back to bed. About an hour later I awoke to the house full of smoke. Smoke was pouring out the ashpan door and no fans were running. I believe what happened is that pellets made it to the pot but the stove got a mininmum firepot temp error, dumped the smoldering pellets inot the ashpan where they continued to burn. The ashpan door was closed but there was just too much smoke. The house tonight still smells really bad.

I take part blame but I didn't know this would happen. I consider this a design flaw. The auger should turn off sooner or the exhaust fan should stay on longer or both. The ashpan door sucks and doesnt seal very tight. Called my dealer. He didnt seem surprised and said it sounded like normal operation.

BIH

if he considers smoke in the house normal operation I think i would pay him a visit and give him a piece of my mind, or maybe even something upside the head. Boy that kind of stuff gets my blood boiling

Mike

I have had similar problems. Not only with the ash pan but also have had the burning pot overfill and smolder. I thought it was user error. I agree that the auger should stop when there is low temp. I install our Mt. Vernon and had to replace the thermocouple because it would have an error when first tried to start the stove.

Hmnn, wait for his shop to be busy, such as a bitterly cold Saturday, and throw a smoke bomb in. Ask him if he thinks smoke in his shop is normal.

I LOVE it...lol....that sounds like what I would do.....or be in his shop when its busy...and make a complete fool out of him.

If that situation happened again, you should toss a hand-full of pellets right into the pot to get it going again. It takes a while for the pellets to travel up the tube again when it is empty. I agree though, there should be some sort of safety to prevent burning/smouldering pellets in the ash pan.

Does the pan get exhausted...either with fan or draft? If not it should at least by draft when the fan isn't on. House smells a bit better today....or maybe I'm just used to it now Dealer is going to send me new clips for the ashpan. He wouldnt send me a new rope seal. I took the old one out, worked it a little and flipped it over.

BIH

jtp...good point about the handful of pellets.

Been there, done that. It DOES stink. I think the adjective is "ACRID".

I had a fire out, dumped some pellets in then gave it some fire gel, started flaming then I left.

Smoke alarms and a basement full of white smoke. It is creepy seeing the white smoke pouring out of a stove.

I believe that is what the mfg means by letting the stove cool down and shut down completely. I did neither plus I didn't pay attention to the flame. My bad. Hasn't happened since.

Peace

Dealer sent me new clips for the ashpan. I didnt realize how worn my were. If you have a Mt Vernon check your clips. The two parts should be touching and be tight. If not and you get burning fuel in the pan it will leak for sure.

BIH