Help with Whitfield advantage II free standing hopper issue

[Tiger87kk]

I bought my first house and it came with a whitfield advantage II free standing stove. When I ran it in the spring til it got warm I didn't have any issues course I only ran it for a month. This winter I got it all cleaned up and fired up. I replaced the firebrick recently cause the old was in bad condition and I noticed my hopper was burning the pellets brown/black where it touched the front just above the auger bracket. I thought it was due to the firebrick allowing the flame and heat to get the lid and that hot. If I run the stove above setting 3 on the flame section with blower turned to highest setting for room temperature I've noticed that the hopper is heating up the pellets to where it turns them black or dark brown only where it touches the metal above the auger mount bracket. What is causing this to get so hot and be a fix so it doesn't eventually start a fire as I've caught it with smoke when moving pellets away from the front of hopper prior to changing the fire brick. This is my main heat source for house outside of a 20k btu gas heater in kitchen and I've been running a electric heater in bedroom since the stove on setting 3 or lower doesn't heat much area like if on setting 4 or 5.

 

[zrock]

not sure about your stove but i know on my stove (different brand) it says not to run the stove on 4-5 for more than 20 min and im assuming that would be why.

 

[Tiger87kk]

not sure about your stove but i know on my stove (different brand) it says not to run the stove on 4-5 for more than 20 min and im assuming that would be why.

Couldn't find anything in manual that I downloaded when I figured out what stove was so figured I ask here.