Ever have fire creep into the hopper?

[tubbster]

I have heard about this happening, and wonder how rare it is.
Does it represent a real risk to the house at that point?
What designs lend themselves to it?

 

[bungalobob]

Check this out-
(broken link removed to http://forums.somd.com/home-garden/127015-my-pellet-stove-up-flames.html)

 

[GVA]

I have heard about this happening, and wonder how rare it is.
Does it represent a real risk to the house at that point?
What designs lend themselves to it?

from what I can surmise improperly operated/maintained stoves will flame up
hopper gaskets that leak or hoppers that are left open are more likely the cause. it gives the fire a new air source to follow

 

[coreystaf]

I think that it used to be much more of a concern with pellet stoves, but not so much now. I've sold, installed, and serviced lots of pellet stoves and its not much a concern unless like said before, you really mistreat the stove, even then, with a good stove its almost impossible. The ones that were most prone to it were the bottom feeders, with one single auger shaft, especially the positive pressure stoves( blower is upstream of the firebox). I am a firm believer in "you get what you pay for". Good quality stoves have about a 1% chance of a burn back. A negative pressure stove has a blower downstream, so that the hopper and firebox are in a vacuum, if you left the hopper lid open, it would pull air in if the pellets were low enough, and air would flow down the drop tube, rather than pushing the fire up. Not much of a worry if you are looking at buying a stove.