Pellet stoves are similar to wood burning stoves in that they’re both forms of solid fuel appliances and burn fuel in order to produce heat.
The bodies of wood stoves are designed to get extremely hot and radiate heat out into a room. However, pellet stoves have a number of electronic components that won’t be found in a wood stove, and so does this mean that pellet stoves also get hot to the touch?
Pellet stoves may not typically get as hot to the touch compared to traditional wood burning stoves but can still be hot to the touch depending on the model of stove. Pellet stoves will typically have an internal blower that helps to make the stove more efficient at dispersing heat and rely less on radiating the heat.
Our own pellet stove gets hot to the touch during use, but not as hot as our wood burning stoves.
We’ve explained in more detail below using our own pellet stove as an example:
- Whether all pellet stoves get hot on the outside.
- Why pellet stoves are hot to the touch.
- Which parts of a pellet stove get the hottest.
Do Pellet Stoves Get Hot On The Outside?
Pellet stoves can get hot on the outside as the body of a pellet stove is typically made from metal which is a good conductor of heat. Areas around the combustion chamber and flue may get the hottest but how hot a pellet stove gets on the outside can differ between each model.
Pellet stoves are a home appliance that burn fuel in order to produce heat and can be one of the more efficient forms of fireplace.
Traditional open wood burning fireplaces can be extremely inefficient at producing heat for a room, with much of the heat being lost up the chimney.
Solid fuel burning appliances, including wood burning stoves, multi fuel stoves and pellet stoves, help to overcome this problem by burning the fuel in a cleaner, more efficient way, and this includes the ability to transfer that heat from the appliance to the room more effectively.
Stoves such as pellet stoves are able to achieve high efficiency ratings by allowing the body of the stove to get hot and radiate the heat out into the room.
Wood burning stoves don’t typically have an integrated blower to disperse heat and have no other electrical components and so don’t require a source of electricity like pellet stoves do.
Wood stoves therefore use processes such as secondary combustion to generate more heat from firewood, and the use metal body of the stove to absorb and then radiate that heat out into the room.
However, pellet stoves differ to wood stoves in that they have a large number of electrical components that may become damaged if a pellet stove gets too hot.
While the firebox of a wood stove takes up the majority of the unit, the combustion chamber on a pellet stove only take up a small area of the stove. The remaining area within the body of a pellet stove is full of open space and electrical components.
The area on the outside of a pellet stove where the combustion chamber is located will be the hottest during operation.
Other areas around the outside of a pellet stove may not get as hot as the combustion chamber but may still be very hot depending on the model of stove. A pellet stove will not be hot when it’s not in use, but the body of a pellet stove may still be hot for a while after a fire has finished.
Pellet stoves also typically have integrated blowers that allow heat to be transferred to the room more easily through convection rather than simply relying on radiating the heat through the body of the stove like wood stoves do.
Our own pellet stove has a blower located within the middle of the unit and forces air around the combustion chamber which heats up as it passes by and comes out the front of the stove.
Thanks to blowers, the outside of a pellet stove doesn’t need to get as hot as traditional wood stoves because much of the heat can be released into the room through movement of air.
Do Pellet Stoves Get Hot To The Touch
The outside body of a pellet stove still typically gets hot to the touch, particularly in the area of the combustion chamber including the glass door and door handle. Other areas of a pellet stove may not be as hot but may still hot to the touch.
Areas around the combustion chamber, including the glass door, may be too hot to touch during afire. Other parts of a pellet stove such as the top or back may not get as hot, but can still be hot to touch.
The instruction manual for our particular model of pellet stoves explains that:
- During operation the stove gets hot.
- Children must not be allowed to touch the stove as there is a danger of burning.
- The door and the flue pipes are particularly hot during operation.
- The handle on the stove door gets as hot at the door and so a heat resistant glove should be used.
- A blower helps to disperse the heat into the room.
- Flammable objects should not be placed on the top of the stove.
For our particular model of pellet stove, the combustion chamber (where the pellet fuel is burnt) is located at the central front area of the stove. Much of the space inside the stove is taken up by the hopper for storing the pellets and other electrical components including the blower, fume extractor, pellet auger and control panel.
Therefore, this area located at the front of the stove where the combustion chamber is located gets the hottest and will typically be the hottest area on the stove to touch.
The manual for our pellet stove states that this combustion area, including the glass door and door handle, get particularly hot during operation.
The guide also states that heat resistant gloves should be used to open the door at the front of the stove when still hot. As the door on a pellet stove doesn’t need to be opened during fires because pellets are fed automatically, we’ve haven’t personally needed to open the door to our pellet stove when it’s hot.
However, our particular model of pellet stove came with a set of heat-resistant gloves in case we needed to open the door to the combustion chamber when hot.
Waste air from a pellet stove leaves a home via a flue, which is typically made from a metal such as stainless steel.
This air from the combustion chamber will be extremely hot and so, as mentioned in the manual to our pellet stove, the flue, along with the combustion chamber, will be the hottest parts of a pellet stove and the flue will be far too hot to touch during operation.
The manual for our own particular model of pellet stove also states that no flammable objects should be placed on top of the stove.
We therefore don’t place any objects on our pellet stove, whether it’s on or not, as we found that in the case of our own stove the top area still gets very hot to the touch.
Furthermore, our pellet stove has an integrated blower that helps to spread the heat around the room and increase the efficiency of the stove.
The blower forces air up around the combustion chamber and out the top front of our particular model of pellet stove.
This area where the hot air comes out therefore can get very hot to the touch during operation.
All models of pellet stove are designed and operate differently and so check with the manufacturer’s guidelines for your particular model of stove to find advice on the hottest areas of that pellet stove that may be too hot to touch during operation.
Further Reading
Things To Know About Pellet Stoves