Serenity Stove lets out a sudden loud puff of smoke.

[jonj3233]

My Serenity Stove today let out a loud puff sound and a little smoke came out through the door. Seems like some pressure was building up and it burped loudly. It happened once before but many months back and haven't had any other problems with the stove. Everything else works perfectly except for this very infrequent "burp" that seems to happen out of nowhere. Just trying to figure out what could be causing this problem to keep it from happening again and if it could be a symptom of a bigger problem I need to address. I know it is not normal and need to know what's going on with It, right? It was loud enough that the cat ran off. She lays by that stove constantly when I have it on and the first time it happened in November she was laying by the stove that time too. I looked through the forum and found similar problems I'm having but with wood-burning stoves only. I could not find any pellet stoves that had this problem in the forum and would like to hear from pellet stove owners on their opinions on this. Ever happened to your pellet stove? This stove is brand new, first season in use.

 

[mellow]

With a wood stove its called back puffing. That happens when the unburnt gasses that have gathered in the firebox ignite and cause a boom. That is usually a draft issue. I wonder if that could be causing your issue?

From the troubleshooting guide:

Verify exhaust motor is turning.

Enter the diagnostic area on the controller andhighlight the circle next to “Feeding”; this shouldcycle the auger and feed pellets. Then highlightthe circle next to “Exhaust”. The exhaust motorshould turn on and within 20 seconds, thevacuum signal should also become highlighted

 

[Washed-Up]

My Harman P61A does that sometimes, pellets take awhile to catch fire and builds smoke/gases as mentioned above, depends on pellets and how clean the stove is

 

[jonj3233]

My Harman P61A does that sometimes, pellets take awhile to catch fire and builds smoke/gases as mentioned above, depends on pellets and how clean the stove is

This got me thinking. Both times it happened at start-up when the hopper was low on pellets. I notice when it's low on pellets it won't feed as it should making it not catch on fire which would cause a buildup of gases. I always make sure the hopper is full before start up now but my girlfriend started it up when I was away today. Solved! Thank you for the responses!