Gas Fireplace mysteriousy shuts itself off ... ?

Hi,

I've a VM single family with a gas fireplace. House is about 3 years old.

Gas fireplace worked fine last winter and the winter prior. I've used it several times this late fall/winter with no problems. Now, in the past two times its been used (last week and tonite) it will shut itself off after about 20 min. Any ideas what's going on? Anyone else experience this?

I have not had it inspected, but I suppose that's what I need to do ... so any recommendations for an inspector that is trustworthy and good?

Thanks much!

 

I have had the rare occasion when the wind has actually managed to blow it out. If it was not windy though I would definitally turn the gas to it off and call the manufacturer to take a look at it. At 3 years old it might even still be under warrenty if you can find that information.

 

I assume you have a remote control gas fireplace? If so we had the same problem, had to call Eternal Flame out of Winchester to look at it. The remote control reciever went out, and it would sometimes it would shut itself off. then one evening it would not go off. I had to manuelly shut it off. then we noticed one afternoon, it would not come on at all. We called to have it serviced.

 

Ours goes out also. I had assumed it was overheated and it was a saftey cut off, but I really don't know. I turned up the pilot and it helped a little. It doesn't help that the fireplace is on the side of the house that gets all the wind. So maybe it is just getting blown out too. With gas prices the way they are, I'm not using it too much anyway!

 

FWIW ... you can adjust the amount of gas being fed to the fireplace by adjusting the 'Red' valve you can find under the front panel. We have ours set to provide a low flame, and it still heats up the living room and kitchen area fine.



Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

Our started shutting off (or not turning on at all) this winter, too. Fortunately, we're still under warranty so we'll have M&S check it out.

 

I am sure I have different fireplaces from those noted, but I had a similiar problem and it was dirt. Canned air cleaned it out, and problem went away.

 

I had a problem with my furnace that sounds similar. The furnace has a sensor that sits in the flame and will cut the gas off should it extinguish. Over time that sensor (ceramic or steel) will build up a coating impacting its performance. A simple wire brush cleaned it up and all is working well again.

Robert Glass