Wife almost lost her finger last night in the stove hopper... very close...

[SidecarFlip]

I was letting the unit run out of fuel as I was going to clean it and my sop is run it completely out of fuel and then take the innards apart and clean it. Anyway, my wife got anxious and was scooping fuel out of the hopper and putting it in the every present fuel bucket to expedite the process and lucky I was standing there as she put her index finger in the auger flighting to get a few remaining pellets. Auger started to move and I grabbed her hand and jerked it out of harm's way. I then explained to her that even that little shaded pole motor on the auger drive with it's quadruple reduction has enough power to amputate a finger.

I never stick my fingers in the auger flighting, ever.

My unit came with a wire grid over the auger hole that I removed years ago because I'm the only person who is usually fooling in there. bet my wife don't fool in there ever again.......

Word to the wise and that is, your feed auger is more than capable of performing a slow motion (and painful amputation), should you put a digit in the flighting and your finger comes up against the auger tube. It will not stop and I guarantee you'll cry.

 

[KodiakII]

Worse part would be getting her out if it stopped. I always tell guys at work to never put their fingers where they wouldn't put their Johnson...for a woman maybe say tongue

 

[SidecarFlip]

Didn't have to consider that scenario, glad of that. I was real close however. Then I hollered at her and she got testy until I explained to her what might have happened.

 

[tbear853]

I haven't dug in the hopper to dig pellets out since ... forever. Stove is only 29 years young. If I ever did though, I think I'd have the stove unplugged at least. I remember grinding sausage at my grandma's

 

[SidecarFlip]

You know how women are if you are married....lol

 

[rickwai]

You know how women are if you are married....lol

I dont have to worry about my wife getting injured by my stoves unless she trips and falls into one . She just backs up to them to warm up. Oh she will turn the knob from off to room temp on the Harman.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Amy won't get near it now. The cats don't mind though. All sleeping on the brick hearth pad presently. Got down to -3 last night and it's a balmy 18 right now. 70 inside with 48%RH.

 

[bogieb]

And that is why you should discuss safety for any appliance/machine with your SO and children. That goes double if you have intentionally bypassed a safety feature.

Don't ever assume they will never touch the appliance/machine, regardless if you have TOLD them not to touch said item. What if you end up not being there for some reason and they decide they can take care of an issue and how proud you would be they took care of it all by themselves? Or what if, god forbid, you pass away suddenly and they need to start doing for themselves?

They don't know what they don't know, and don't know what to ask. Ignorance gets more people hurt and killed than we like to admit. It is your task to make sure they are informed about basic safety around such items - and not to depend upon being lucky and be standing right there.

 

[SidecarFlip]

First off, the 'kids' are all grown and on their own. Far as safety features I removed the wire grate a long time ago and I agree I should have instructed my wife about putting her fingers in there but not something I ever considered to be an issue as I'm the person in charge of fueling and care anyway.

Only 'kids' we have are the cats and they aren't getting in the hopper anyway. Perfectly content with snoozing on top or in front of the stove.

Having an empty nest is certainly nice. Besides when the grandkids come to visit and they act like kids, I don't have to deal with it long for they go home...

 

[bogieb]

First off, the 'kids' are all grown and on their own. Far as safety features I removed the wire grate a long time ago and I agree I should have instructed my wife about putting her fingers in there but not something I ever considered to be an issue as I'm the person in charge of fueling and care anyway.

Only 'kids' we have are the cats and they aren't getting in the hopper anyway. Perfectly content with snoozing on top or in front of the stove.

Having an empty nest is certainly nice. Besides when the grandkids come to visit and they act like kids, I don't have to deal with it long for they go home...

I wasn't specifically addressing you, or even this particular instance, just people and machines in general. I was just taking this chance to bring it up and give people food for thought.

I don't have any one else in the house unless it is someone who repars soemthing that broke. Wwhen I had a pet/house sitter for a week a couple of years ago, I gave her all kinds of safety information on the stoves (even thought she "should" have only been filling the hopper) and the snowblower before I instructed her on how to start / keep them running. And I stressed that if any of that made her nervous, just leave it be. The safety aspect was more important in my mind than actually having any of that run. If the propane boiler had run the whole time, and I had to clear 2' of snow once I got home, I would have been just as happy.

I understand the mind set of "I'm the only one that does this or that", because I truly live it. But at the same time, that is is not very consoling that one time that you aren't the only one to do this or that if something happens.

"The talk" should be given before the possibility of something happening