Soooooo - the Quadrafire Mt Vernon E2 just exploded.

[Bioburner]

Did you also get the pellets from the installing dealer? ? will be asked as to shift blame to somewhere else. We have seen some other stuff put into pellets that is not wood was why I questioned pellets used.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

H turned off the stove poked the blockage and a bunch of pellets came pouring out. He cleaned up the stove and then turned it back on.

Did he remove those pellets that poured out before hitting the run button on the stove?

I've seen videos of this happening with a pellet stove and have watched a flue plug get blown out of the chimney of an oil fired hot water system. The pellet stove one didn't break the glass but it did send smoke into the room as the door seal parted company with the stove's frame.

 

[acammer]

Was it a start-up like this?

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Sounds like it must have been way overloaded on fuel, and smoldering like crazy when it finally popped on. I can't imagine how scary that must be, I'd definitely get your dealer involved to find the issues at hand here, and hold the accountable to getting this resolved - you spent to much money to have something you can't trust threatening your well being in your own home.

 

[tjnamtiw]

It sounds like either you are getting bridging at the top of the chute because of long pellets or something is jammed up at the end of the auger. In either case, get a flashlight and a small mirror and look up the chute. You should see a bare auger but twice in my pellet stove 'career' I've had things jammed at the very end of the auger causing those pellet jams. Once was a crumpled up aluminum warning label from SOMEWHERE and once a piece of wood was riding around with the auger taking up space. If you had a bridging of pellets and a huge amount dropped when poking at start up, I can see that a large whoosh would have happened but the glass still should not have broken. Had to be like I said earlier > glass under stress or defective.

 

[meisen]

Was it a start-up like this?

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Sounds like it must have been way overloaded on fuel, and smoldering like crazy when it finally popped on. I can't imagine how scary that must be, I'd definitely get your dealer involved to find the issues at hand here, and hold the accountable to getting this resolved - you spent to much money to have something you can't trust threatening your well being in your own home.

Unmm so many problems there....

 

[SidecarFlip]

Was it a start-up like this?

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Sounds like it must have been way overloaded on fuel, and smoldering like crazy when it finally popped on. I can't imagine how scary that must be, I'd definitely get your dealer involved to find the issues at hand here, and hold the accountable to getting this resolved - you spent to much money to have something you can't trust threatening your well being in your own home.

Hope thats not yours, thats a P*ss poor install right between 2 windows and sheer nylon (flammable) curtains in close proximity to the stove.... Wow, as bad as the blonde in Maine with the wood skid hearth pad.....

I'd be embarrassed to post that video.....

Too much hand sanitizer and too many pelllets. USSC states in their instructions (a small handful of fuel to start the fire)...............

On the intellegence scale of 1 through 10, I'd give it a 1.

 

[webbie]

A wood gas explosion - definitely somewhat rare to this degree in a pellet stove.....was just some kind of a "perfect storm".
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/harman-p61-explosion-during-startup.41552/

Regular wood stoves probably have enough room in the flue and firebox to take the pressure of. Gas units actually have pressure relief valves and flaps to prevent a delayed ignition from blowing out the glass (it happened many times over the years).

I think this is just one of those one in a million bad luck occurrences.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Sounds plausable to me. The perfect internal atmosphere for a big poof and out goes the weakest link...the glass.

I have to still go back to too much fuel in the firepot post ignition as a major contributor.

 

[kinsmanstoves]

Do you know the diameter and length of liner they used? How many tons have been through it?

Eric

 

[Bioburner]

Human factor is working here.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Elimination of the human (fiddle factor) eliminates 99% of issues. real or imagined.....This isolated incident would not impact my desision to buy a quad at all. (if I was in the market for one).

 

[MacGyver]

I'm glad to hear nobody was seriously injured.

What a bizarre thing to happen.

I'm way out of my element in discussing this, but is it possible a blockage in the exhaust could cause a build up that could explode?

 

[heat seeker]

I often watch my stove start up. Because I enjoy watching it, but also to make sure it starts okay. Fortunately, I've never had any kind of "poof" when starting. The pellets may smoke a while, and then the flame just quietly takes over. Any smoke gets drawn out right away, so very little is in the stove at any time during startup.

I'd investigate the airflow through the stove and venting, in case a blockage allowed the gasses to accumulate.

 

[heat seeker]

I've seen that video before. Note there is so much smoke it's getting into the room. Hope they have a good fire department nearby!

 

[chken]

The stove was installed just before Christmas. I think the 16th and the chimney was cleaned and liner changed out at that time.
I started a thread about it recently in that it has been inexplicably shutting down off and on and the dealer was not being responsive about it.

We finally drove up there and spoke to them face to face and the tech visit was set for tomorrow (this was two weekends ago).

The stove had been running around 24 hours but had just inexplicably shut down and was making the whirring sound which in the past has indicated a block in the feed tube.

H turned off the stove poked the blockage and a bunch of pellets came pouring out. He cleaned up the stove and then turned it back on.

The stove has been doing this since install and in the absence of a tech from the store this is what we have been doing to get it started again and before yesterday it seemed to work fine.

It started up (stove was still hot) and filled up with smoke. My husband was sitting watching it start. Does anyone else do this? I know it sounds odd, but we both seem to enjoy sitting and watching the flame take hold.

That's when it exploded.

I have been using the Barefoot pellets since it has been colder, but yesterday was milder so I think I grabbed a bag of O'Malleys. These were sold to us as premium pellets but I don't think we will ever use them again. Assuming we keep using a pellet stove.

So, the pellets were blocked. Could be bridging due to long pellets, or it could be fines. If it's fines, and then a bunch of pellets and fines came pouring out, the fines could have ignited into an explosion. Dust, any kind of dust, and in particular wood dust is highly explosive. There are probably 10 industrial dust explosions a year in the US, from wood dust to paper dust, do corn dust to sugar dust, etc.

 

[Hobokenkitchen]

Do you know the diameter and length of liner they used? How many tons have been through it?

Eric

I think I remember 3 inch? No idea on the length though.

 

[Hobokenkitchen]

Human factor is working here.

This is definitely possible. We have thoroughly read the instruction book and watched countless YouTube videos, but we've been asking the dealer for help since the day after we bought it.
I suspect an install issue myself.

 

[acammer]

Hope thats not yours, thats a P*ss poor install right between 2 windows and sheer nylon (flammable) curtains in close proximity to the stove.... Wow, as bad as the blonde in Maine with the wood skid hearth pad.....

I'd be embarrassed to post that video.....

Too much hand sanitizer and too many pelllets. USSC states in their instructions (a small handful of fuel to start the fire)...............

On the intellegence scale of 1 through 10, I'd give it a 1.

Yea, definitely not mine, just something I stumbled across on YouTube. Looks really scary - it pushes the door open enough to blow sparks/ash down onto the floor. Surprising that the glass remained intact. I've never seen a startup like that personally, my Englander starts pretty quick, you can see it glow/smolder just a bit, smokes/sparks a little, and then goes right to flame. I've tried "helping" it along by preloading the pot with some pellets, that tends to make it a smokier startup, and no quicker. So I just let the stove measure out the fuel and it works best.

I never had anything like that with manual starting my old stove - I put in a very small handful of pellets and a little bit of starting gel and it would always take off immediately, no smoke at all. I agree there may be some human factor involved here, either in the install, deferred maintenance or some bizarre fueling issue.

 

[kofkorn]

Something like this could easily happen if starting gel was used but not lit by a match or torch. The heat from the ignitor would evaporate the alcohol, waiting for one spark to light the whole thing. Not much different than using lighter fluid on hot coals.

 

[Hobokenkitchen]

Something like this could easily happen if starting gel was used but not lit by a match or torch. The heat from the ignitor would evaporate the alcohol, waiting for one spark to light the whole thing. Not much different than using lighter fluid on hot coals.

This stove starts automatically. No gel or lighter fluid.

 

[LordmetalZ28]

Brand new. It's had a couple of issues and the tech was meant to come on Thursday. Lolololol.

Dealer installed.

I am pissed because we have no heat, there is glass everywhere, my husband is covered in tiny shards of glass and well it's a bit worrying isn't it?!

I'm just glad it wasn't our toddler standing there. I've sat in front of it with her watching it start up many times.

(broken image removed)

Did the furnace explode also? How do you not have heat In 2015?

 

[Hobokenkitchen]

Did the furnace explode also? How do you not have heat In 2015?

We have electric heat which is very inefficient in low temperatures.

We use the pellet stove to heat our home.

 

[tanyaad138]

if that thing has a burn pot then i certainly hope you're not filling the burn pot by hand and then turning on the stove. It auto feeds on startup. also..... pellet stoves require zero chemical starter (new stoves... most models) so where it's getting the energy buildup to burst through fire rated ceramic like that (your "glass" is actually clear ceramic) on startup no less is bewildering. This kinda explosion on startup had to of had a chemical/inorganic component ... wood alone is not an explosive material. The glass didn't just shatter ... but EXPLODED you said...

Too bad you didn't catch the start up on cam... because im willing to bet there may have been some tell tale signs that something was wrong then (and if you're new at this you probably wouldn't have realized)

Lastly, crazy question ... but you didnt' forget a magetic light in there by chance while you were cleaning and then turn on the stove with it still in there did you? I ask because i almost did that once myself ... then realized the stove looks awfully illuminated when it's off...lol (NOOOO i did NOT run the stove with it in there!)

 

[Hobokenkitchen]

No adding of pellets, fluids or anything else.

I had an 'OMG' moment when you mentioned the magnetic light because we do have one, but I just went to look and it's where it should be (not inside the stove!).

This was definitely not a shattering incident. The glass burst outwards. My husband had a hot piece of glass on his chest and all over his face and there were glass shards a fair distance from the stove. Over a meter.

The pic shows some of the glass on the ground. That's how it fell. My H said it was such a loud explosion that his ears rang.

 

[LordmetalZ28]

No adding of pellets, fluids or anything else.

I had an 'OMG' moment when you mentioned the magnetic light because we do have one, but I just went to look and it's where it should be (not inside the stove!).

This was definitely not a shattering incident. The glass burst outwards. My husband had a hot piece of glass on his chest and all over his face and there were glass shards a fair distance from the stove. Over a meter.

The pic shows some of the glass on the ground. That's how it fell. My H said it was such a loud explosion that his ears rang.

Take a scoop of those o malleys and store them In a zip lock. There maybe something strange in them you never know. Something isnt adding up. Fuel oil dosent explode let alone wood. This is something I would expect from ng or gasoline.