What kind of hazards to look out for and are they common?

[rehabbingisgreen]

I'm curious what kinds of things can happen with the pellet stoves that are hazardous. I read a little about fires burning into the auger and up into the hopper. Sounds scary. Is there a best way to deal with that if it were to happen and is it very common? I lost my first house to a fire in the attic started while burning a wood stove so I am a little cautious of fire.

 

[jtakeman]

What you didn't read was the care that the owners didn't do to there stoves. 2 bad things you can do to the stove is over fire it and not clean it on a regular basis. The 3rd bad thing is crappy dirty pellets!

Follow the owners manual and you will be ok. Neglect it and your asking for trouble!

 

[rehabbingisgreen]

What is over firing it? :red:

 

[jtakeman]

What is over firing it? :red:

Turning it to the max for days on end. Its Ok for a while(this depends on the stove) But not day after day after day. That would mean the stove is not properly sized for the area you trying to heat.

 

[rehabbingisgreen]

Ah ok, got it. Thanks!

 

[mark d fellows]

The one hazard that comes to my mind is to make sure all of your bushes, sheds, etc are at least 6 feet from the flue output. Sometimes, depending on the pellets you are burning and how many fines are in the bag, you can throw sparks.

The next thing is to make sure you have a vertical rise of at least five feet, so that it the stove shuts off, hopefully the smoke doesn't back up into the house.

For safety, get a C02 and CO sensor. Don't scrape the burn pot with long frilly (pirate shirt like) sleeves on.

Other than that, use common sense. The double walled flue pipe doesn't really get that hot. Most of the time the flue is setup to go straight out the wall, in a short run, so that is so much of an issue. make sure the flue pipe is sealed properly and there is metal flashing going out the wall.

Have it proffesionally installed, or do it yourself and follow code.

Mark

 

[rona]

If you do a proper installation for your situation- Read your manual and follow the instructions, Read the manual learn how to maintain your stove and do what the manual tells you. Use proper fuel. keep junk out of the hopper. If you have questions ask your dealer or post them here just as you did this one.
Basically I would suggest asking friends how they like their stove and if they would buy the same one again. Ask about possible hazards. I would guess you are getting spooked by reading about someone having the problem you described.
Think about two other things.
How many times have you read about a corn or pellet stove blowing up a house??
How many corn and pellet stove owners are out there that have no problems versus the one or two you read about?
There is a saying that goes like this, A happy stove is one that is given clean dry fuel, is cleaned regularly and its exhaust system is cleaned regularly. If you do these simple things you should have no problem
A wood stove with its chimney problems is a different subject completely and you shouldn't compare the two.

 

[mark d fellows]

If you do a proper installation for your situation- Read your manual and follow the instructions, Read the manual learn how to maintain your stove and do what the manual tells you. Use proper fuel. keep junk out of the hopper. If you have questions ask your dealer or post them here just as you did this one.
Basically I would suggest asking friends how they like their stove and if they would buy the same one again. Ask about possible hazards. I would guess you are getting spooked by reading about someone having the problem you described.
Think about two other things.
How many times have you read about a corn or pellet stove blowing up a house??
How many corn and pellet stove owners are out there that have no problems versus the one or two you read about?
There is a saying that goes like this, A happy stove is one that is given clean dry fuel, is cleaned regularly and its exhaust system is cleaned regularly. If you do these simple things you should have no problem
A wood stove with its chimney problems is a different subject completely and you shouldn't compare the two.

I just want to say, I haven't been totally without problems. No hazards, just problems. Of course, I expected an issue from time to time, before I bought the stove.

The problems I had were the following.

1. Last year I had smoke in the hopper. I vaguely remembered someone on here talking about it, and the diagnoses was "gummy stove" So I cleaned the slide plate, and it went away.

2. One night I woke up and the house was cold and the pellet stove was out and I had a blinking code. It turned out that the lignetics I was burning were a little long, and making a "log Jam" Since that happened, I routinely reach in and give the pellets a good stir in the hopper.

I have told you about the above to illistrate a point. That point is, that these devices all though not complicated, are electro mechanical devices with moving parts. This makes them prone to have issues from time to time.

I spent a lot of time on here reading about things, and that has helped a lot, and given me a much bigger comfort zone with working on them. So, thanks to everyone on here for providing me with the knowledge!

Mark

 

[stoveguy2esw]

a clean well maintained stove with a proper installation generally should never suffer a hopper fire, ive investigated a couple in my time and the commonality is sheer neglect. all pellet stoves should be designed i a way that prevents this under most situations, usually through design , sensors built into the system and gasketing which prevents airflow back through the feed system.

as for overfiring a stove when not properly cleaned on the specified schedule can be overfired even in moderate feed rates, here's how it happens;

ash building in channels designed to allow a certain amount of air at a certain velocity will handle the temperatures which are normally reached within them. ash buildup makes these channels narrower and insulates the metal walls of these channels now , air is being pulled so a smaller channel is maintained with more heat concentrated in the exposed steel or cast which isnt coated with ash. this exceeds the temp parameters of the channel and causes metal fatigue. the resulting fatigue along with heating and cooling while in operation causes the metal to flex, each time it flexes it becomes weaker and warpage starts to happen.

other issues which can result from a lack of proper heat transfer is the rasising of exhaust temperatures. as the stove becomes plugged up the exhaust air starts moving more slowly through the exhaust path and with this comes higher internal temps and even more dangerous , exceedingly high temps on the exhaust blower. the exhaust blower is the lynch pin of a pellet stove , everything works off of it. if it shuts down you lose the mechanical draft of the unit. older stoves may not have shutdown safeties to kill the rest of the stove when this happens and fuel is then dumped onto a smoldering fire making a massive amount of smoke. virtually every exhaust blower rated for pellet stoves have a thermal impedance protector which kills the blower if the temperature inside the windings of the blower motor exceed 475F. so higher exhaust temps due to ash insulation can cause major problems.

burnbacks; a hopper fire can occur if a pathway of airflow is established between the burn pot and the hopper, not just the existance of air ,but the flow of it.asealed feed system will not allow airflow so the fire will die from lack of oxygen quickly as the fire consumes the air thats present quickly smothering the fire. this is why most hoppers have a gasket seal to prevent this flow of air. its not there to contain smoke inside the hopper as much as its to prevent it from getting there to start with. in top feeders fuel piling to the feed chute provides a fuse and airflow back through the feed chute and auger allows the burn to work its way back. in a bottom feeder its very similar but the fire is closer to the feed system so these units are usually even more robustly sealed, same things happen , plugged up stove , airflow through the feed system and hopper , the flowing air pulls the fire right back through the feed system. now in a clean stove air isnt as likely to find its way back there as it finds less resistance in its normal flow path, but a dirty stove has the opposite effect. and a leaky hopper makes it that much easier.

bottom line is this , hopper fires are scary to the homeowner, im leary of them myself and ive been around these things for close to 20 years, so i defend myself from this by keeping my stove clean ,changing gaskets on schedule of if i see undue wear, burning quality fuels, and keeping my flue clean. a clean stove thats well maintained is a wonderful thing to have and will faithfully perform for you for years, on the other hand a poorly maintained or neglected stove will let you down when you need it most and in some unfortunate cases , can be a nightmare.

hope this is helpful

 

[smwilliamson]

Plastic pellet bags and hot stoves are not friends. Always empty your pellets into another container first...then dump them into the hopper. Mine it metal in case anything on fire has to come out of the stove unexpectedly. Such as a burn pot during a power failure.

 

[imacman]

The one hazard that comes to my mind is to make sure all of your bushes, sheds, etc are at least 6 feet from the flue output. Sometimes, depending on the pellets you are burning and how many fines are in the bag, you can throw sparks.......

Oh No! Not "Sparks from the Pipe" starring Slickplant again! :ahhh: