Whitfield Advantage 2 smouldering burnpot, SMOKE in house

[pelletmom]

Tonight we had an "incident".

Whitfield Advantage 2, freestanding, installed with horizontal direct vent thru brickwall. Husband installed this himself, replaced door gasket...it's been running fine nearly 24/7 since early December. Maintained by husband who has cared for our other pellet stove for last 14 yrs.

Hopper empty, auger is shut off, stove shuts down and begins to cool off. A few minutes later, husband notices smoke smell, goes round the corner to find smoke in the room. Smouldering pellets in burn pot, no exhaust fan, so smoke has no where to go 'cept out the front and has begun to fill the room.

DH turns on exhaust fan to clear smoke in the stove.

No damage, stove cools and is cleaned, refilled and relit. Burning fine now (residual smoke smell).

This is #2 pellet stove, other is a Whitfield insert (about 14 yrs old) in a cathedral ceiling living room. The freestanding stove heats the other half of the house (and typically keeps that part of the house very toasty )...incl kids bedrooms, large playroom, bathroom.

Smoke alarm , carbon monoxide detectors did not go off.

He has gone to bed, confident that all is well. Me? I'm worrying.

How can we prevent this from happening again? If we add a rise to the outside vent, would that help?

Never thought twice about leaving the house with both stoves going....

Thanks!!

Kara

 

[Mt Bob]

OAK? Yes,the stove tech guys figured out even just a 3 foot vertical can make a big difference.

 

[pelletmom]

No OAK. Have read about that.

 

[Mt Bob]

I would still add a vertical,that is easy,but be aware,as you are running 2 stoves,no OAK,when one goes out the other can draw smoke into house,even with vertical.

 

[pelletmom]

Ahhhhh. Good to know. We will work on the vertical rise...
Is there anything else we can do to prevent this from happening again? Will the vertical rise solve this issue?
This has never happened with the insert. Is it a draft problem causing this?
I am a little afraid to go to sleep tonight.....he has been asleep for hours!!

 

[Madcodger]

I would still add a vertical,that is easy,but be aware,as you are running 2 stoves,no OAK,when one goes out the other can draw smoke into house,even with vertical.

No idea as to why the stove went out, but it sometimes happens.

Re: smoke... You know that other pellet stove (and to a much lesser degree, the wood stove)? With no OAK, think of them as vacuum pumps, hooked to the inside of your house, Now, you know that horizontal vent on the stove that went out? It now becomes an air inlet pipe for the vacuum pump called "other stove". Unfortunately, there's this smoke in that air inlet pathway...

Best solution? Vertical rise on both pellet stoves, and OAK on both pellet stoves. Vertical rise alone (without OAK) may well have still had a problem due to vacuum created by other stove. Wood stove is much less of a concern as it pumps out far less air to outside.

And fire and CO detectors in rooms with stoves AND bedrooms!

 

[smwilliamson]

OAK? Yes,the stove tech guys figured out even just a 3 foot vertical can make a big difference.

OAK wont do it, Adavantage II had air dump so it mixes with room air. Vertical would do the trick. You mau want to check the POF switch....clean it off or replace it. Should have detected that heat and stayed closed longer.

 

[Madcodger]

OAK wont do it, Adavantage II had air dump so it mixes with room air. Vertical would do the trick. You mau want to check the POF switch....clean it off or replace it. Should have detected that heat and stayed closed longer.

Good point on Advantage II - did not know about air dump, and Proof of Fire switch an excellent thing to check/replace. But OAK on other stove means less negative pressure in house, so less pulling of air backwards through Advantage II vent, even with air dump. Still a good idea, I'd say.

 

[Pellet-King]

once my stove runs out or i turn off auger it will run for 20 mins, once my house filled with smoke long ago, like smwilliamson says your pof switch could be faulty

 

[pelletmom]

Thanks, all.

Some asked: we turned the auger off to shut down the stove as it needed cleaning. Hopper was virtually empty. Auger stopped as it should. Exhaust fans shut off some time later (he wasn't in the room). He noticed smoke smell, turned the corner and saw smoke in the room. There was no flame, but he did see glowing embers in the burn pot. Turned back on the fans and the smoke cleared quickly. Smell lingered...

Our second stove is a Whitfield Quest pellet insert, in a fireplace, vented up the chimney.

Our house is somewhat leaky (brick, built in 1965), and he is doubtful that it would be tight enough to create any sort of vacuum. Does that make sense?

Will investigate a rise, and the POF switch. Going to buy a new fire extinguisher, and talk to the kids about what to do in an emergency (12 & 17) as there are certainly times when they are home alone (with the dogs) with the stoves both on. A reminder to revisit safety procedures in the very least.

Really appreciate the help. This 2nd stove (freestanding) has made made half of our house livable again. The day e installed it, it was 57 degrees in the playroom (where it's installed). Now it's usually 70! Got the freestanding Whitfield at an estate sale, $500 for a stove, hearth and and a ton of pellets. Sweet deal, stove was in pristine condition.

He's replaced augers, combustion fans, etc -this is the first issue like this.

Thanks again,

Kara

 

[pelletmom]

And that begs the question....are all of you running your pellet stoves 24/7?
If you have kids in the house what is your emergency plan?

Of course we want to avoid this happening again. First step in the safety plan.

This was probably more of a nuisance, since there was a only a handful of pellets in the burn pot and the hopper was empty, could something like that start a hopper fire, though, if the hopper was full?

Or would the small amount of pellets just smoulder, til they were gone? I guess I am wondering what would have happened if we weren't home, or awake?

We do have working smoke detectors and a carbon monoxide detector in the playroom (kids room are off the playroom)....smoke detector is just outside their doors.

 

[Mt Bob]

Just write it up to experience.Alarms did not go off,no dangerous levels.Have had similar occurance,ran stove out to clean,high wind day,with stove vented to a chimney.Your incident has nothing to do with a hopper fire.