Can hot embers come out of your pellet stove and burn your house down

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Snowy Rivers said:
What sort of heat did you use before you got the Pellet stove ??


Snowy

Nat gas steam.
 
OOK

next time your wife gets nervous, just mention that the steam boiler can go whacky and blow the house off into the next county, or a natural gas leak and KAAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOM house spread all over the neighborhood ! ! ! ! !

Not that it will ever happen, but anything that brings fire or ???? into our home, brings with it some risks.

Driving the car is about the same, Blow a tire at 70 MPH and wind up sailing off the interstate end over end and landing in a Pig pen upside down.

Just far too many more realistic things for us to worry about.

Just tell Missy to take a deep breath and relax, all is well.

Snowy
 
Snowy Rivers said:
OOK

next time your wife gets nervous, just mention that the steam boiler can go whacky and blow the house off into the next county, or a natural gas leak and KAAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOM house spread all over the neighborhood ! ! ! ! !

Not that it will ever happen, but anything that brings fire or ???? into our home, brings with it some risks.

Driving the car is about the same, Blow a tire at 70 MPH and wind up sailing off the interstate end over end and landing in a Pig pen upside down.

Just far too many more realistic things for us to worry about.

Just tell Missy to take a deep breath and relax, all is well.

Snowy

Now thats funny!
 
The "Bouncing Betty" pellet thing is due in part to more airflow through the grate than is needed.

If you can throttle the airflow some, it will help with the bouncing stuff.

My Quad will blow/bounce a pellet or two out once in a while and lay next to the pot and then smolder after the fire goes out.

have fun

Snowy
 
Snowy Rivers said:
The "Bouncing Betty" pellet thing is due in part to more airflow through the grate than is needed.

If you can throttle the airflow some, it will help with the bouncing stuff.

My Quad will blow/bounce a pellet or two out once in a while and lay next to the pot and then smolder after the fire goes out.

have fun

Snowy

That is why I mentioned closing the damper a little bit more.

As for gas fired steam systems you don't have to even go so far as a gas leak or the steam plant going boom due to overpressure. Just have the low water shut off fail along with the auto fill. The unit will continuously fire and eventually you have a nice glowing boiler which can start any nearby combustibles burning.
 
Since you were asking for this blanket product, that thing is actually not a bad thing (not for the stove really, but in general). I have used these before when chemical experiments went wrong and they are pretty good to put out fairly normal fires (meaning normal combustion rates using air oxygen - not stuff that deliveres its own chemical oxygen).

I was somewhat uneasy when leaving the house with the stove on as well for the first couple of times, but really after a while you get very used to it and it is a pretty safe form of heat (not sure if I feel the same about my hundred of gallons of oil in the basement !).

As mentioned before, the pellets just bouncing off the rim of the burnpot. Whenever I have that I can usually push the burnpot in a slightly different position or give it some angle towards the auger chute, so they land safely inside the pot. Restricted air flow should reduce the chance of them getting pushed out again. sparks flying up should also be fairly small items and before they make it up the stove, around the heatexchangers, down the backwall of the burn chamber and up through the two story flue to teh outside....I kind of doubt that could possibly cause an issue.

The biggest thread seems to be the cleaning of the stove and getting rid of the ash if it is still hot. Especially true when you vacuum the stuff out. Its really worthwhile waiting until the thing is cold (I managed to melt a dust broom because it was still too hot). Hearthpad might also help if stuff falls on the floor sourounding the stove (and I think its building code to have a hearthpad or similar).

And then of course there is insurance...after all you are covered as long as the thing is professionally installed, you let the insurance know in wrinting that you have a stove now and you do yearly maintenance on it. Well, I guess they find a reason not to pay, but in principle you are covered....kind of....
 
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