USSC King Stove 5502M _ mini "explosion" ???

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tractorboy924

Member
Hearth Supporter
Jul 7, 2008
77
Western NY
As stated I have a king stove and recently had something I never experienced before. Clean regularly and same with chimney but I heard a POP the other night and it was like all I can describe as a mini explosion in the burn pot area....... It even backfire some small sparks out the fresh air intake on the back of the stove......I verified after the hopper didnt have a fire and all was fine...gonna shut down tonight and do a really super duper clean of it all including chimney.

Does anyone know what this is. or what happened?? I have had about 5 seasons and never experienced this before.

I guess I verify the fresh air intake is clear too tonight when I do a through clean. Happened twice as my wife said happened once during the day too a week or so ago.

Not sure what I can do other than a good deep clean again like I would do in the spring when season over. Ive got to get a new burn pot too as over the years it has warped so it hard to remove. but all openings clear....it happened during the start up cycle actually if that info is relevant.......just after flamed start and about a min after the room fan kicked on.....

Thank you for any input.
 
Have you changed the pellet brand?
This has been reported before. What happens is the
stove fills with smoke just before pellet ignition
apon ignition the smoke does a flame over(Flashover) from the gases in it
which has been described as an explosion
I have had it happen with my Enviro stove and I stopped using
that type of softwood pellet
 
Hmmm ok.... I have changed pellet brand but I find this pellet brand to be the best Ive ever used and heats well!!!!! for a once in a while thing im not gonna stop using this brand..... they put out good heat but atleast that explains whats going on.

Thanks
 
mind me asking what brand?
It will also happen when the burn pot has too many pellets in it at ignition
 
I have it happen from time to time. Sometimes ignition is fairly fast and sometimes it takes several minutes of smoke and sparks. No change in pellets or anything. I always attributed it to the randomness of how the pellets fall. If one lands right at the igniter hole it should start quickly. If it ends up making more air space around the hole then I can see where it would take longer to ignite.
 
Sounds like a temperature inversion in the chimney.
 
My old woodstove did this all the time if I didn't have the air adjusted right. My pellet stove only did it once so far.
 
Not sure if this helps. In 1960s my parents heated with a Kerosene stove in the living room. Basically kerosene would run out onto base of a metal heating chamber. It had an 8 inch stove pipe. What would happen maybe twice in 10 years on a very windy day is the wind would come up over the top of the roof peak and cause an extreme down draft in the chimney , which would blow out the flame. Then the smoke would reignite, explode, and blow the 8 inch stove pipe off the wall in the living room. Very fine soot everywhere.

So when your stove exploded just how windy was it outside?