Woke up this morning to the smell of the furnace coming on

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OK; 4:30 this morning awoke to the nice smell of the oil furnace kicking on which I know it does sometimes when it is really cold. But tonight temps are only supposed to be in the mid 20's. 5:00 came down stairs and found the stove off, the hopper was full I had just filled it at 11:00.
Now, it had been off for a while as it was completely shut down and cool. The burn pot was over flowing with pellets. I just took it apart on Saturday and cleaned it like I always do; vacuum and brush every thing I can get to plus I clean the burn pot every 1-2 days (which was this afternoon).

Any clue as to what made the stove go out and just fill the burn pot up with pellets. Wife said maybe a power surge/ outage but none of the clocks were off time or needed to be reset.

I restarted the stove and every thing is working normal.

Thanks
 
Don't know about your stove, but if you can SMELL the furnace coming on, you got some issues.
 
You could smell the dust from the fire lighting. It has always done that when first lit, been off for over a month. Last time it was on was back in Dec/ Jan one day when I waited to long to for the stove to cool off so I could clean it out. ^_^
 
hossthehermit said:
Don't know about your stove, but if you can SMELL the furnace coming on, you got some issues.

Furnaces always stink when they have been off for awhile. Corrosion and lint on the heat exchanger burns off and makes a hot smell.
 
I have an Englander 25, it doesnt fire on auto 1 time out of 50. Its probably one of those things. I wait till I see fire before I leave.
 
Canada mine is the one is my sig, no auto ignition.

J - you think? Enough to make the fire go out and then let loose and fill up the burn pot? I mean the burn pot was overfilling into the ash trays with un burnt pellets. Just weird, never seen this happen since we purchased in Nov.
 
Its possible, Happened on my old quad a few times. Usually with long pellets. Pulled my hair out until I saw it first hand.

Another(which happened on my Omega) was vacuum switch cutting out with wind blowing. Lost vacuum just long enough on low to have the fire just about out and it would catch. Next pellet drop smothered the fire. Kept dumping pellets until POF cooled off. My stove never dies so I was assuming it was the high wind blowing. Next windy day I was on stove watch. Sure enough I could hear the switch cut out(auger stop) and click back on. I'll be trying out another cap as soon as it arrives.
 
I shut my oil furnace off, the pellet stove is just as reliable as my furnace.
 
J - the wind was kicking last night, not as bad as I have seen it over the past couple of weeks though. But I will keep an eye on it. I lit it back up at 5:30 or so and it has been burning ever since!

slls - I never turn off my primary heat just in case something like this happens. Stove quits working in the middle of the night, run out of pellets, what ever. You never know. Keep the T stat at 69, just for emergencies.
 
I too awoke at 4:30am hearing the furnace kick on, quickly got up and cranked the stove up to a 3, had it on a 2 and it must have got down to 64 degree's, I started the season with the same 1/2 tank of oil I still have now.
Few year's ago had a oil fume smell when starting, found a rusted thru exhaust pipe that goes thru the return side, check yours please, now i have ZERO smell even off for months.

Hate my forced air system cause my bedroom is directly above the furnace and the duct's are 1952 and it's very loud to me, foreced air comes on/off every 20 mins and not good for sleeping.
Cause of a return and heat ducts in my room, I installed a plate i made from a computer case in the duct right above the furnace to block most of the air/noise to that room.
Anyone know of a good duct person?, would like a opinion on how to redirect/replace the ducts if needed.
 
I have a different spin on this. Because I get propane once a year in the summer at 50% off regular price, and I have a minimum yearly purchase, I have been running my gas furnace instead of burning this past week to help bring the level down. I woke to the smell of my *electric* heat at 4:30am, because it turns out my furnace thermostat's batteries were low and couldn't operate the relay.
 
I do not know what happened or why. Just that one time and ever since I re lit the stove it has been running normal.
There is no T stat hooked up to my stove, so I know that was not the problem. It is either on or off.
 
I don't shut my furnace off, but I do set the t-stat (furnace) as low as it will go (45 ish) and just let the stove run.
I haven't used my furnace for heat since december, with the exception of 2 days when my wife had my daughter.
I just set the tstat to 60, then came home before we brought the baby home and fired the stove back up.
 
TLHinCanada said:
I have an Englander 25, it doesnt fire on auto 1 time out of 50. Its probably one of those things. I wait till I see fire before I leave.

check you iginter port for ash ream it out with a straightened paper clip the vac aggressively at the port, if it still balks at starting , go to the back of the igniter, loosen the lock nut and move it BACK just a wee bit to open the airway up some, should go to lighting consistantly
 
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