Can't Seem to Get a Hopper Fire Going?

Let me explain. Last yeat I installed a Channing III stoker. I let the hopper get real low and to my chagrin I discovered a small coal fire inthe bottom of the hopper. Luckily there wasn't any damage or warping. Although it did fry my timer box which I had mounted on the hopper. It was a bit scary and made we rethink safety issues with this stove. I spoke with Jerry from Leisure who unoffically suggested a barometric damper on my direct vent. Apparently when the stove idles there isn't a lot of fumes to be expelled but the direct vent unit is still pulling hard as if the stove was at full tilt. Anyway, I installed a baro as suggested and let the stove run down until I could practically see the feed machanism from the hopper and couldn't generate a fire. Also, it seems that I'm burning less coal. Now my stove only pulls what it needs. I set the baro as suggested from Jerry. If you look at my pic you'll see that the Baro is connected directly to the back of the stove and sealed with aluminum tape. I also taped the direct vent unit to the Baro. This may be an alternative to those of you with the same stove who have had a hopper fire. These stove are awesome but I believe that there needs to be more thought put into safety. Every stove should have a sensor (snap disk maybe) on the hopper to turn the stove off if there is a hopper fire and also there should be a safety incase the manual feed rate goes haywire and starts spilling the coal on the grate. I do however have a fume switch that does work.