Pellet stoves offer much greater heating automation compared to many other forms of fireplace or wood stove.
This high level of automation allows pellet stoves to control both the air and fuel supplies to the fire, helping to provide the most efficient burn and also reducing the need for much of the manual input required with other forms of wood stove.
Pellet stoves still use a real fire inside the combustion chamber to produce heat and so can pellet stoves be left unattended even through the whole heating process can be automated?
In the majority of circumstances it can be fine to leave a pellet stove operating unattended. However, pellet stoves should always be installed, used, cleaned and maintained as per the manufacturer’s guidelines to ensure the highest level of safety possible offered by pellet stoves.
We regularly leave our own pellet stove unattended while it heats our living room but for the first few weeks of ownership we did feel a bit anxious about doing so.
So that we’re always feeling confident in our pellet stove we always ensure to clean it out regularly and to have it checked over by a certified technician every season.
We’ve explained in more detail below whether you should be leaving your own stove unattended and what you can do to help ensure that your stove remains operating as safely as possible while you’re not there.
Can You Leave A Pellet Stove Unattended?
Pellet stoves are highly automated forms of home heating appliance and almost all of the work is done for you thanks to a range of electronic and mechanical components keeping the fire going and the heat coming.
In order for pellet stoves to be so automated they require electricity. Plugging a pellet stove into a nearby electrical outlet will allow it to turn on and provide power to all of the electrical components.
More modern pellets stoves will be controlled by a central control unit that takes information from a range of sensors across the stove and continuously analyses and optimizes the fire for the most efficient burn.
A pellet stove will do this by using an auger to control the rate at which pellets are fed to the fire and also using a combustion blower to adjust the airflow in and out of the stove.
A pellet stove will therefore automatically provide heat through every fire with no manual input required.
The only things we need to do for our pellet stove to automatically heat our living room is to ensure that:
- The stove is plugged in and turned on.
- There are enough pellets within the hopper to last the duration of the fire.
- The stove is set up to automatically turn on and the desired room temperature is set.
Our pellet stove will do everything else for us. Thanks to the glass panel on the front of our stove we can enjoy the flames while the stove is on.
However, we don’t always want to be in our living room throughout the duration of a fire and may simply want to warm the room up for us to enjoy at a later time.
So can we leave our own pellet stove unattended while we’re off doing other things?
Although it can seem unusual to leave a fire burning in your home without you watching over it (as commonly required or highly recommended with other forms of fireplace such as open wood burning fireplaces) it can be fine and very safe to leave a pellet stove unattended.
Thanks to pellet stoves being so automated, pellet stoves can have the ability turn themselves off if there’s any form of problem.
In the rare case that there’s a serious problem with a pellet stove, it can shut the whole burning process down so that the fire is put out.
Although it didn’t feel quite right at the beginning leaving our pellet stove operating while we weren’t around, we’ve learnt to be comfortable with leaving it unattended for longer periods of time and just let it do its thing.
Home heating appliances such as pellet stoves can never be 100% safe but the risk of any serious problems occurring can be extremely small as long as the stove is looked after.
Many of the issues caused with pellet stoves can be due to a lack of cleaning or maintenance of the stove, or incorrect installation.
To ensure that a pellet stove remains working as safely as possible while left unattended it’s always important to:
- Have the stove installed and setup by a professional.
- Understand how your particular model of stove works and how to use it.
- Clean the stove regularly in line with what the manufacturer of the stove recommends.
- Have the stove inspected and serviced by a qualified technician at intervals set out by the manufacturer in the instruction manual.
- Have the chimney flue swept at least annually, and ideally before the main burning season.
Although pellet stoves can be very safe to leave unattended, ensuring that the above are followed will give you peace of mind that your pellet stove is operating as safely as possible while you’re not there to keep an eye on it.
Be sure to check the manual of the particular model of stove you’re using for any mention of leaving the stove unattended or contact the manufacturer if you’re not sure.
Further Reading
Can A Pellet Stove Heat A Whole House?