I have it set on standing pilot, which stays lit. The unit is only 2 years old and was working fine a few weeks ago. Temperature outside is above 50 degrees, and our main gas hot air heat is working fine. No soot build up around thermocouple which was my first guess. The remote control does not seem to be sending out any signal when this is happening either. The fire seems to go out at random times, sometimes after 15 seconds or less, or after several minutes, but will come back on after less than a minute later usually. Any other ideas?
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Is the gas valve closing when the flame goes out, or is it staying open?– ThreePhaseEelNov 5, 2015 at 0:17
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I do not hear the solenoid click off and on, so it seems to be staying open. Flame still cycles off then on with the interval shortening as the fireplace heats up. When the flame is on, I can remove the batteries from the remote and it stays on until about 45 seconds then goes out again. After it warms up, the flame may come on then go right back off again a few seconds later. Seems like a flaky control board or connection may be the issue here.– henlopenNov 6, 2015 at 1:51
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It sounds like you'll want a HVAC tech to look at it then -- have them put a gas detector (sniffer) wand next to the burner when the flame goes out.– ThreePhaseEelNov 6, 2015 at 1:57
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I have one coming out on Monday. Since there is a motorized pressure regulator attached to the gas valve body to modulate the flames in a more realistic fashion, I'm wondering if the control module is telling it to shut off for some reason? Thanks for all your interest and help, BTW.– henlopenNov 7, 2015 at 3:00
2 Answers
If remote is in 'smart' mode, it will cycle the flame to maintain the selected temperature. If remote is too near the fireplace, it will heat up quickly, turn off, cool and turn back on for a little while until it heats back up. Try moving the remote further from the unit while it's lit.
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1Thanks, the problem turned out to be a partial blockage in the pilot light tube which caused the pilot flame to just touch the thermocouple and when the main flame solenoid kicked in, the pilot diminished enough to cause the unit to think that the flame had gone out and the main solenoid would close whereas the pilot flame would go back up, and a few seconds later the main flame would come back on and the cycle would keep repeating.– henlopenFeb 4, 2016 at 15:39
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2Henlopen, be sure to write that as an answer and then mark it as accepted so people from Google can find it more easily! Aug 3, 2016 at 23:08
I took 6 years for my unit to start acting up, this is what I did. Remove the log set and with a small wire brush clean the flame sensor loop or post just to the right of the pilot, the powdery residue impedes the sensors ability to detect a full flame and so the unit shuts down as a safety feature. Brush the sensor post or loop until you see bare metal , it doesn't take much to clean it. Brush the burner ports in the area a little to remove any deposits as well. Test it to make sure it lights and holds, when it cools put the log set back.
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