Fall is in the air and the phone begins to ring with calls from customers asking why their fireplace won’t turn on. The answer to this in a moment.

Modern gas fireplaces and inserts are typically worry free but there is some maintenance required. How much varies from unit to unit. – take a look at the manual left with your unit. Manual? Can’t recall where that particular document is? Most manufacturers have a website and offer you the ability to download the manual for your unit. Details on the specific tasks you’ll want to have done will be in the manual.

Back to why your unit won’t light. The truth is it could be any number of things but the most common reason we’ve found is spider or insect eggs in the valve orifice. Insects tend to like these areas and a fireplace left idle for several months is likely to have enough insect debris to cause the flame not to light.

Much of the annual maintenance can be performed by the homeowner. A few things you should be careful of:

- don’t move the logs. Log placement isn’t a random thing. The entire unit is designed for the logs to be in a specific orientation. If they are moved you may have sooting, flame impingement, or other issues.

- don’t cover burner holes. Even the small ones contribute to the overall performance of the fireplace.

- use a non-abrasive cleaner on the glass. Be sure to clean any reside from the glass before you use the unit.

The Energy House is available for service calls for fireplaces and inserts we installed. Unfortunately we are not able to perform service on units we did not install.