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[blwnsmoke]

New here, wanted to both post to get info from other members as well as educate those who may have the Maxim Pellet/Corn furnaces.  I have a M250 that I bought a little over a year ago and used it during the 2010/2011 winter without issue.  I started the furnace back up on 10/2 of this year to heat my house and hot water.  This weekend we had a major snow storm and lost power at approximately 9pm 10/30.  It wasn't until around 9am on 10/31 that I hooked it up to my generator and got it fired back up.  It was at that time that I checked the pellet hopper only to find that the pellets had some smoke coming from them.  I felt the batch (approx 550lbs inside the hopper) and they were warm to the touch.  At that time, I decided to pull the side panel off and look through the window of the auger to see what's going on.  It was then I noticed the glass was completely burnt black and couldn't see through.  I then removed 3 of the screws (1 was missing from factory apparently) so I could look in the auger compartment and I saw pellets were as black as could be and were on fire.   I then shut the unit off, pulled the fan plug and powered it back up so I could run the auger without the fan kicking in so I could get the burnt pellets out of the hopper and dumped into the burn chamber. 

I was able to get all the pellets out or so I thought.  I ran it for 5-6 minutes and at that point it was only dumping normal colored pellets.  Throughout the day, I had checked several times and still continued to feel heat coming from the hopper.  I figured it was still heat just trapped since there was so many pellets in there.  I then decided to start digging and found more black pellets working it's way up the side of the hopper.  I then started bailing pellets out with my ash scoop and throwing them on the snow until I couldn't find anymore.  Let it continue to run and checked back again a few hours later.

Note during this whole process the fire box always looked normal and the temperature of the water was around 182-185*.

It was around 9pm that I checked again (3rd or 4th time) and found MORE burnt pellets digging with the scoop.  This time I grabbed a 5 gallon bucket and filled it halfway with water and dumped the water in the hopper to put the pellets out once and for all.  Also touched the control panel and it was way to hot to even keep your hand on it so clearly this was a fire going on inside the chamber.  After dumping almost 3 gallons of water in the hopper, seemed to put the fire out and stopped the pellets from burning (smoke disappeared).  I then checked back around 11pm and all seemed ok.

4am - My 1 year old wakes up screaming (her room is next to the furnace) which wakes us up.  As soon as we woke up, we immediately smelled smoke, the entire house smelled of smoke on all floors and rooms.  I ran outside in the dark and the pellet chamber was smoking like I've never seen before, it was smoking like a coal train.  I opened up the cover and the burnt pellets had risen to the top, the control panel was completely melted (no power, buttons melted), the seals on the furnace were melted and dripping down the side and the coating had melted in the hopper.

I then filled up another 3 gallons of water and dumped it in the hopper and then started emptying the remaining 500lbs of pellets bucket by bucket as clearly this fire was not going out no matter what I did. 

[blwnsmoke]

I contacted my dealer around 9am and he said that it sounds like a Back Burn.  He explained that because the stove works on a draft system, when we lost power the burn basically reversed itself and started burning the pellets in the hopper.  He stated that basically it is operator error and not a manufacturer's issue and that this can happen anytime we lose power.

I 100% disagree. 

If this can happen any time one can lose power, that means that we can never leave the house, can never go to work, can't go to the store, can't go away for a weekend.  One must always be home to insure we don't lose power???

I pulled the instruction book out and nowhere in there does it state that you can't leave with it running.  There is no "warning" or "caution" advising us as consumers that this can happen if we lose power.  There is nothing in the paperwork, manual or brochure that states what to do if we do lose power (ie: dump water inside the furnace, keep an eye out on the hopper etc).  Infact, the manual says that if a back burn happens, the control panel will show "b b" and will turn the stove off exccept for the auger and will feed the auger for 2 minutes at a time at 10 minute increments until the temperature drops.  I'm assuming it's job is to feed the burnt pellets out of the hopper to prevent a fire. 

Not once during the 14 hours that I kep checkin on this stove, dumping water, bailing pellets out did this "b b" show up.  When asked why, I got a "I don't know".

I contacted CB around 10am Monday morning and left a message stating that my furnace caught on fire and I would like a call back promptly.  It has now been 2 days.  My dealer sent them an email yesterday stating I haven't received a call back yet and still NOTHING from Central Boiler.

I can't believe that if something like this can happen by losing power, that CB puts in their specs that the furnace can be within 2 ft of your house.  If I wasn't woken up by my daughter screaming, I have no doubt anothe hour or 2 would have ingulfed the furnace and caught our house on fire.

Please be warned that apparently power outages can cause this.  I'm not sure yet what is going to happen, whether CB will cover this or if I will need to take legal action.  I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else out there.

[Ridgekid]

That was scary! Glad no one was harmed. Since the damage was originally caused by the power failure I wonder if your homeowners insurance will cover repairs/replacement of the unit?

[blwnsmoke]

Fire/smoke from pellets


Fire crawling up side by electrical panel


Seals melting and dripping


Control panel burnt as well as corner of hopper.


Control panel melted, orange/red spots burnt into unit from heat.

[blwnsmoke]

That was scary! Glad no one was harmed. Since the damage was originally caused by the power failure I wonder it your homeowners will cover repairs/replacement of the unit?

If CB won't cover replacement under their 5 yr warranty, I will be consulting with an attorney.  The fact that the unit failed to go into Back Burn mode tells me it is either flawed or defective.  There is no doubt in my mind that if the pellets were smoking, burning and flaming at the bottom, it should have gone into this mode which it never did.

1) CB should have a warning, caution or disclaimer stating this can happen if you lose power.
2) CB should state in the manual what to do IF you lose power (steps/precautionary measures).

What's funny is the only part in the manual under "if you lose power" states that the stove will power up and return to the state it was prior to losing power.  Why are they not listing this in the manual??  I for one would have never bought this unit if I knew this was a possiblity.

The wood units have an actuator that will close IF they lose power which will put the fire out, the pellet units do not.

How is a consumer to know this can happen if it is not documented in any form to the consumer?  I could have gone away for the weekend, lost power and come home to a home in rubble.  I could have lost our house, I could have lost our lives!! 

[blwnsmoke]

Bottom of hopper - Can see the coating on the right side of pic that melted.


Metal rippling from the heat - no alarm??


500lbs of pellets dumped out

[martyinmi]

CB has been doing quite a few things lately that are out of character for them. I'm wondering if their claims against them for their early 2300 gassers being defective are starting to hurt them monetarily. It will be a shame if they don't make you whole for whats happened to you. So many people out there own their OWB's, including many of my friends and even a few relatives. I believe they build one of the best products on the market.
   It appears as though you have a very good friend upstairs. You are so fortunate that the fire didn't make it's way to your home. I can still remember when my daughter was 4(26 years ago). What a set of lungs she had when she had a bad dream at night. I'm happy for you that you are all OK.

   Marty

[jackel440]

WOW!  Man that sure is scary.I am glad your family is safe and you got it put out before your house caught on fire.
I had heard of these pellet and corn stoves burning back through the auger before.Thats one of the reasons I didnt go that way.No real good way to control things like in your situation with a power failure.
I hope that CB makes it right.

[blwnsmoke]

Marty & Jackel, thank you for your kind words.  One of the first things my wife said to me was "it's as if our daughter had a guardian angel looking over her".  I don't really want to "lawyer up".. that's not who I am however I don't feel that this unit is safe (even repaired).  I think every single person who owns one of these should get a notice from CB stating this can happen and the steps to take to prevent it.

I would have a totally different attitude if this was stated in the manual.  I was out plowing for 13 hours in that storm, I would have went home immediately after my wife said that we lost power and hooked it up to the generator.  The unit holds heat for 24 plus hours so I figured who care about 10 hours down, i'll hook it up when I'm done.  If this was made public and published in their materials, this would have never happened. 

I've seen a picture of one of these unit completely burned down on the net.  I searched and searched and can't find it anymore.

To add insult to injury, I just had to spend $700 in propane now because I can't use my pellets just to buy time till I know what's going to happen.  Money I feel I should be reimbursed by CB.  And I have 9 tons of pellets in my yard I can't use.  I hope they step up, I don't see any way they would win in court.

[rosewood]

thats one of the saddest story i have read on hear,im sorry for your loss. thank god it was just the furnace and not any thing else.your so right that should of never happened,cb will probably someday have a recall or more warning labels on their product.in the meantime i would treat that like a crime scene. if you get thru to someone important let him know how you suffered smoke and minor burn injurys, and your famlily may be going to theropy to deal with all the emotional stress it has caused you. let them know your story has attracted a couple of attorneys willing to represent you.a new furnace and all expences is a small price for them to pay considering . if they decide to fight, it will take some time but dont give up on that.

[muffin]

This is really scary.  I am surprised at thier lack of response though.  I had to call them about a thermostatic valve and left a message, thinking I would not hear back for a coupel days; but they called me right back in under 15 min.  I would keep calling, couple times a day.  They definatly owe you big time.  I do not think the propane reimbursment is out of line.  Especially since they are dragging thier feet.  They should have been right on top of this.

Perhaps if they do not respond soon we could all call in and complain?  I would sure hope if anything happened to mine they would be prompt.  Not sure if this would help at all.

[blwnsmoke]

Figured I'd post an update.  I finally spoke to the manufacturer today.  I spent about 20 minutes on the phone explaining the whole chain of events.  To sum it up, my dealer has a delivery truck coming next week so I'm dropping my stove off to him to put on the truck and the truck is going back to the factory.  They are going to investigate what happened, tear it down and rebuild it back to original condition.  Anything that is not 100% will be replaced.  They did say "pending we don't find anything that is operator error ie: too much soot, not cleaning it out etc) which isn't the case and I'm not worrying about it.

I did question them on why none of this is in the manual and they really didn't answer me on it.  He did say that there is a backup to he Back Burn system.  Apparently there is a thermostatic valve that if for some reason the back burn doesn't work, it actually takes the storage water and dumps water into the auger area even if there is no power.  After describing it to me, I found out that it is the plastic tube that is connected to the glass window that you look through to see the auger.  This tube however was clogged with a burnt pellet that took a couple minutes of picking at to finally get it out.  There were also 2 other pellets sitting in the tube that weren't burnt.  I have a feeling that is why it got as bad as it did, because it couldn't send water in.  However, I did take the tube off after this happened to get the pellets out and there was no water in the tube sitting so I don't know.

My dealer is letting me use his demo unit until mine comes back so I can continue to use my pellets instead of propane. 

The cost to me, approximately $260 for delivery fee from the factory back to my dealer.  It's not worth argueing over $260 so I'm going to eat that and just be happy that they are going to go through it and repair anything that is wrong. 

At this point I'm satisfied with there response.  It will take 6-8 week to get the stove back so I will report back then with an update on the final resolution.

[martyinmi]

Man, that is awesome. It's great to know that there are still OWB company's that honor their warranty's. I'll bet that's a huge relief for you. Keep us posted.

   Marty

[willieG]

dont count it "taken care of" yet..the old "operator error" is still an ace in the hole for them. now if they choose to use it (i hope they don't" they have your 260 bucks plus they have your stove. i do hope they treat you fair, good luck

[Scott7m]

Gotta agree with willie, let's not get to excited here!  Let's see what they determine as there cause.  They may be tearing it apart to build there side of the case if need be. 

Best of luck buddy!