Soooooo - the Quadrafire Mt Vernon E2 just exploded.

[Bioburner]

wood alone is not an explosive material

Your missing one word to that sentence. Commonly. It usually does not come in small pill form and with a heavy dose of fines.

 

[Bioburner]

Fuel oil dosent explode

Tell that to the diesel engine and the rocket motors that took man to the moon.

 

[gfreek]

Again, glad no one was hurt.. be sure your settlement with the manufacturer/dealer you make, you are comfortable with. I'm sure they may try to blame it on operator error, but seeing that you been having problems since install, been in contact with the dealer and a scheduled appointment works to your advantage.. Good luck and keep updates coming.

 

[LordmetalZ28]

Tell that to the diesel engine and the rocket motors that took man to the moon.

Fuel oil dosent explode

 

[LordmetalZ28]

Tell that to the diesel engine and the rocket motors that took man to the moon.

Vaporized

 

[LordmetalZ28]

Unless she had vaporized fuel oil in her stove

 

[sam_m]

A friend had a similar event last month with a PB150 boiler:

http://www.pelletstovefires.com/traeger-pellet-furnace.html

In that case, the blowout was severe enough to bend the metal plate that covers the heat exchanger tubes (on the top of the unit) and blow off the fasteners.

There was no discernible cause. The unit was operating smoothly for more than a year before this, with regular, thorough cleanouts. I think the pellets were TSC branded and at least one ton from the lot had already been burned this season.

Only unusual thing was that the one or two days before, some professional sweeps cleaned the exhaust liner. The metal liner runs about 40 ft up a masonary flue.

The unit was repaired and put back into service and has been working fine since. But, the root cause is a mystery.

 

[Bioburner]

Smoke- to send forth steam or vapor, dust or the like.
Great little device that can be found on youtube that burns pellets, collects the smoke and then used in a small engine
Fuel oil has a lower Explosive limit of .7 and a upper of 5(EngineeringToolBox) Rudy originally got the Diesel engine to run on peanut oil

 

[LordmetalZ28]

Smoke- to send forth steam or vapor, dust or the like.
Great little device that can be found on youtube that burns pellets, collects the smoke and then used in a small engine
Fuel oil has a lower Explosive limit of .7 and a upper of 5(EngineeringToolBox) Rudy originally got the Diesel engine to run on peanut oil

Good for rudy. Did he pull 24 hour emergency service for 15 years In all phases of heat ?

 

[john193]

Glad to hear everyone is ok. I would ask them to take the stove back and refund your money. Find a different dealer. It's absolute non sense you have gotten zero help from your dealer. Make sure to file a complaint with quadrafire. I wouldn't put up with a dealer like that.

 

[rcook430]

I have only had a pellet stove for 2 weeks so no expert here but shouldn't the combustion blower exhaust any smoke or explosive gases out the stove pipe to the outside. I see people on here say occasionally their forebox will fill up with smoke before ignition but mine will blow all smoke out stove pipe (outside ) then ignites and of couse smoke clears up once fire gets going. I dont see how any gases could accumulate in the stove.

 

[MadMax31]

Fuel Oil will explode. In a diesel engine, at around 22,000 psi.... Thats how they run, and run away. Im still on the call sheet, albeit Centrificals these days. Spent near a decade creating fire in 100,000 btu up to 3500 HP boilers, 180 degree water up to 450 psi steam. Ive watched an expired person dissapear in a Incinerator as I tuned the flame. Ive laid my hand on the side of a Forge, it still has no feeling. Hell, I carry 3 welding Certifications- Im comfortable with heat/flame....

After all that, I know first hand- Anything is possible.

 

[alternativeheat]

I have seen the blast with a wood stove, it is called "woofing", but never seen it blow the glass out. That glass is tough stuff.

I had a wood stove that would "woof" if you choked off the air too much, when it got a extra little bit of air the gasses ignited and it "woofed". Even almost a swoosh sound as the smoke came out any crack it could. But it never was close to an explosion. The stove was fine if you cracked the air a little more and the damper cracked a bit open. It only did this when you really choked it up.

I wonder if the glass could have been defective on this pellets stove. Glass can blow out violently and with a wham when it shatters..

 

[Bioburner]

If there is heavy loading of fuel you can get some extra smoke. A choking of the stove with a high EVL you can get smoke. Don't know the loading cycle of that Quad but I have a Ecoteck that does not start the fan till some fuel has loaded. OP had dislodged some pellets from chute leading up to accident.

 

[BrotherBart]

Everything is pure speculation until a post mortem is performed on that busted pellet puppy.

 

[LordmetalZ28]

Fuel Oil will explode. In a diesel engine, at around 22,000 psi.... Thats how they run, and run away. Im still on the call sheet, albeit Centrificals these days. Spent near a decade creating fire in 100,000 btu up to 3500 HP boilers, 180 degree water up to 450 psi steam. Ive watched an expired person dissapear in a Incinerator as I tuned the flame. Ive laid my hand on the side of a Forge, it still has no feeling. Hell, I carry 3 welding Certifications- Im comfortable with heat/flame....

After all that, I know first hand- Anything is possible.

Im talking about fuel oil as It stands. At no time did I say pressurized or vaporized. I simply used fuel oil as a refrence as in if there was a puddle of fuel oil in a system . Ive lit off stuff you have no idea about and it never exploded. Excuse myrefrence maybe I should have elaborated about its temperature pressure and physical state. My bad sorry

 

[alternativeheat]

I have only had a pellet stove for 2 weeks so no expert here but shouldn't the combustion blower exhaust any smoke or explosive gases out the stove pipe to the outside. I see people on here say occasionally their forebox will fill up with smoke before ignition but mine will blow all smoke out stove pipe (outside ) then ignites and of couse smoke clears up once fire gets going. I dont see how any gases could accumulate in the stove.

My Harman P61a smokes up pretty good before ignition but ignition is very calm. It just lights up and then smoke clears both in the stove and out the vent. Depending on the pellets, some really smoke it up in the fire box and a good trail comes out the vent too. Other pellets light off pretty easy with less smoke involved. But ya, I'm thinking more than just smoke there were gasses of some sort building as well in this case of the OP, apparently. I say apparently because we really don't know what happened.

But too, Harman's have the combustion blower going as part of the start up cycle long before any smoke shows up.

 

[Hobokenkitchen]

Wood Heat was closed today (of course!) so I have talked to Quadrafire twice today.

They have been very pleasant and responsive. She asked what our expectations are and I basically told her that it has all been a bad experience so far, but I asked if they had other cases of this happening with the E2 and she said no. So that seems good?

I told her about our experience with Wood Heat and that I had lost confidence in them - both to handle this incident, but also down the line.

She managed to get the serial number and confirmed that the Wood Heat tech is still coming tomorrow morning to try and determine cause.

She said we can touch base after the tech's visit once we know more about what happened.

My concern is that if it was an install issue the Wood Heat person seems unlikely to admit that. I guess we're just going to have to see how it goes tomorrow morning.

I'm just nervous because I had no idea how rare this is and what could possibly have caused it.

 

[SidecarFlip]

All you can do is update what occurs when the technician looks the unit over and asserts his conclusion.

 

[Baroness]

Wow! That's insane! Hope your husband is ok and glad that your child wasn't there like you said. Hope you are able to get another stove soon and that it never happens again. Sounds very scary.

 

[johninwi]

Since the unit was installed by a shop i'm assuming it was inspected, you might involve the inspector if the shop and manufacturer ignore you.

How hard was it to latch the door? If the door or stove had a twist it would add stress to the glass.

If, when it's all said and done and you are trying to decide if your going to keep using a pellet stove you might consider getting a fireplace screen to place in front of the glass at startup, somewhat like a shrapnel shield. Some additional piece of mind.

 

[John Fortier]

If you are that unsure of Wood Heat and you can switch to another dealer try Stoves n Stuff. We had issues with a stove going back to 10/13 they have always been very helpful , tech here 5 times at no charge parts or labor, and we just had the stove pulled and replaced with a new one for price difference and discounted install.

 

[John Fortier]

Some additional piece of mind.

I for one feel I need a blast shield...I will not use the item I need a blast shield for

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Some of you need to sit down with a dictionary in one hand and a book dealing with the chemical decomposition of wood due to heat in the other and do some reading.

There are all kinds of volatile combustible byproducts of the process and a good number of them start forming pre ignition and if present in the correct concentration will light off extremely fast which causes all manner of events to take place including a pressure wave.

It is in everyone’s best interest to understand that a pellet stove system is frequently in anything but a pristine state and the number one thing that is required leading up to safe ignition is proper air flow.

I have a rather long list of questions but enough is enough for now.

Hobokenkitchen please keep us in the loop.

 

[webfish]

Thanks Smokey,

Let this one sit for now and wait for Hobokenkitchen to update. Otherwise it will be locked.