Archive for the ‘Fireplace repair and components’ Category

Should I Turn Off the Pilot Light for My Gas Fireplace in the Spring?

Tuesday, May 31st, 2022

Most people in the Puget Sound region don’t use their gas fireplaces during the warmer months of the year in spring, summer, and early fall. So, it’s a common question – should you turn off your pilot light during those months? Is it dangerous or wasteful to leave it on?

The short answer is – you do not need to turn off your pilot light, and there is little risk in leaving it on all summer. Leaving it on is the simpler way to go. But, if you want to turn it off, you can, and there’s no harm in that either.

For more details about shutting off your pilot light, keep reading.

What Is a Pilot Light?

photo of a fireplace pilot light burning

Your gas fireplace is never actually ‘off’ in the usual sense of that word. For most fireplaces, there is a very tiny flame that is always burning, and that’s called your pilot light. Some newer fireplaces feature a standing pilot system with an ‘intermittent pilot,’ where the pilot isn’t actually on all the time. But in general, when you flip the switch that turns ‘on’ your gas fireplace, what you’re really doing is just increasing the flow of gas and enabling the larger fire to burn.

The pilot light is what makes the gas fireplace so easy to use.

Compare it to a gas barbecue. For a BBQ, you have to ignite the flame every time you use it. There is no flame always burning. But with a gas fireplace, and other gas elements in your home, the pilot light never stops burning, unless you have a standing pilot system, as mentioned. Either way, everything lights when you turn it on, every time.

What Happens if I Leave My Pilot Light Burning All Year?

In theory, nothing happens, and there’s nothing wrong with doing this. And in fact, it has a couple advantages. If you were to turn off your pilot light, there’s always a small chance a spider will crawl in there and build a web. That will greatly complicate the process of turning the pilot light back on in the fall. Leaving it on ensures this won’t happen.

It’s also true that there is a small cost to leaving the flame burning year-round. Costs vary depending on the price of natural gas in your area. The cost works out to around $5 per month in most places, give or take.

Hiring a technician to re-light your pilot light in the fall will surely cost more than that, so turning off your pilot light to save money doesn’t really make sense.

If your pilot light is off for some reason and you need help turning it back on, we recommend calling your gas provider. B&C Comfort generally doesn’t make house calls just to turn on pilot lights, and we would also charge you to service the unit for maintenance.

As for safety, yes, turning off your pilot light will reduce the likelihood of experiencing a gas leak during the spring, summer, and early fall. But those are just as likely in the winter as in the summer – which is to say, gas leaks are very rare. Plus, there are built-in safety mechanisms that shut off the flow of gas if the pilot is leaking.

However, if you ever do smell gas, shutting off your gas valve and turning off the pilot light is the first step to take. Then, call your gas company.

What If I Can’t Figure Out How to Turn On or Off the Pilot Light?

If you can’t figure it out, that’s a good reason to leave it on and not worry about it. Or, you can call a professional and have them take care of it.

Is Turning the Pilot Light Back On As Easy As Turning It Off?

No. Turning off the gas is relatively easy. You just turn the valve and shut off the flow of gas. This extinguishes the small flame that is the pilot light.

Turning it back on is more complicated. If you just turn the valve back on, all this does is resume the flow of gas. But the pilot light is a flame, and it must be relit. As you can imagine, there are some safety considerations here.

That’s why we recommend having a professional from your gas company come in to re-light your pilot light. Again, if you ask B&C Comfort to do it, we will charge you for and perform a full service and maintenance call.

If you don’t want to pay for that, then the simple solution is to leave your pilot light on continuously through the summer. But if for any reason you’d rather turn it off for the warmer months, then make it a habit to book your appointment right then to have it turned back on in the fall.

If you live within our service area in and around Snohomish County (see the complete list of zip codes at the very bottom of our home page), our schedule fills up months in advance.

So if you want to turn off your pilot light in the spring, get on our fall schedule now so you can have it turned back on before the cold weather returns!

Tags: fireplace maintenance
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Do I Really Need to Clean My Gas Fireplace?

Thursday, April 18th, 2019

Do I Really Need to Clean My Gas Fireplace?

Image by Sophie Janotta from Pixabay

It’s a good question. After all, your gas fireplace is a lot simpler than a wood-burning fireplace. No chopping, no carrying wood inside on a freezing day. No spiders in the woodpile. No ash. No hot coals to worry about. And best of all – no trouble starting the fire. Just flip a switch.

So there’s a lot to love about gas fireplaces, and it’s easy to get lulled into complacency and believe you don’t need to clean your gas fireplace either.

The truth is, you do need to clean it, just a lot less often than a wood-burning fireplace. The recommended frequency to clean and maintain a gas fireplace is once per year. If you want to use B&C Comfort and are in our service area (click here and scroll all the way to the end), we are regularly booked out several months in advance, so get on our schedule today.

Schedule my fireplace cleaning

Why You Need to Clean Your Gas Fireplace

But why must we clean our gas fireplaces if they burn so cleanly and make no visible mess?

Here’s the simple answer: all fire (combustion) produces waste products.

In general, the products of combustion are water vapor and carbon dioxide. But it’s not that simple. Water can react to metals and form rust, or combine with certain other chemicals to form corrosive acids, even very mild ones that take years to be noticed (see this article from the Chimney Safety Institute for more) Carbon dioxide is one of those chemicals – it can combine with water to produce carbonic acid. Your fireplace can also create other waste products such as carbon monoxide, which is a deadline odorless gas.

if you don't clean your gas fireplace water vapor and carbon dioxide can form acid and form rust

Image by Gerhard Gellinger from Pixabay

So regardless of what else might be crawling around in your chimney, venting system, and in the components of your fireplace, over time you will build up soot and other residues.

These residues will collect on the glass doors, the internal fireplace parts, the walls, the fake logs, and in the chimney/venting.

They will affect performance.

They will affect visibility.

They will affect safety.

Over time, an uncleaned gas fireplace will develop clogged or partially clogged gas lines and air passages. The motion of your fans will become inhibited. Small leaks can form.

Nothing works forever without ongoing maintenance. And let’s not forget, you are using this fireplace to burn a fire in your house. So, once a year, it’s a pretty smart move to make sure everything is cleaned and in working order.

Additional Gas Fireplace Maintenance Issues

Besides just the residues and soot collecting on everything, your annual fireplace cleaning is the perfect time to make sure everything else is working properly. Here are a few other items a professional can look at while they’re cleaning your fireplace.

Check functionality of thermopile and thermocouple, as applicable
Check that venting system is working properly (a major safety issue)
Look for chipped or cracked glass doors
Evaluate status of ceramic or faux logs – these too wear down over time
Do a carbon monoxide test

It takes a trained eye to quickly evaluate the quality and functionality of these and other gas fireplace components.

But in addition to cleaning, it’s very important to keep your fireplace working in perfect shape. It maximizes your energy efficiency, maintains optimal safety, and keeps your fireplace looking great.

If you live in our service area (scroll to the end of this page to find out) and haven’t cleaned your fireplace in a long time (or ever), now’s a good time to get on our busy schedule.

Schedule your next fireplace cleaning

Tags: fireplace cleaning, fireplace maintenance, fireplace repair, fireplace safety, fireplaces, furnace maintenance
Posted in Fireplace repair and components, Fireplace safety, Fireplace service, maintenance | Comments Off on Do I Really Need to Clean My Gas Fireplace?

Did Your Fake Logs Fall Over?

Wednesday, September 14th, 2016

Read This Before Buying or Re-arranging Fake Logs In Your Gas Fireplace

Some Tasks are Do-it-yourself. Not This One.

The internet loves to give advice. When it comes to fake logs in your gas fireplace, you should ignore and run the opposite direction from most of it. Why? Three reasons:

1) Safety – it’s your life
2) Functionality – how long do you want your fireplace to last?
3) Compatibility – round pegs don’t fit in square holes

(Note: if this video is sideways – try viewing in Chrome, or update your Firefox to the latest version. Or just turn your head to the side 🙂 )

Fake gas fireplace logs are made of ceramic or a similar material. These absorb high amounts of heat without being damaged. Without them, most of the heat from the burning gas would just escape out the vent. By retaining more heat, the ceramic provides warmth and comfort for your home. They also look nice.

But sometimes the logs fall over or have other issues, and need to be replaced or put back in position.

Let’s take a closer look at the three reasons you should never arrange your own ceramic gas fireplace logs.

1. Fireplace Safety – avoid the silent killer

This is pretty serious stuff, and we can talk about it in common language or with science, but the conclusion is the same: Incorrect or improper log placement can lead to higher levels of carbon monoxide from your fireplace.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is known as the “silent killer.” This is the gas you’ve heard about that kills people just by putting them to sleep. It has no odor, so there’s no warning unless you have a CO detector.

CO deaths are more common in winter, when storms knock out the power. Someone figures they can heat their house by bringing their barbecue inside the home. Burning the coals or the gas produces excess CO. If too much fills the house, it puts everyone to sleep, and they never wake up. It’s a tragic and totally preventable situation.

What does this have to do with fake fireplace logs?

Logs are designed by the manufacturers of each fireplace brand. They give specific recommendations for how they should be arranged so they don’t interfere with the flow of gas. The right gas flow prevents what science calls incomplete combustion. With complete combustion, you produce carbon dioxide. But with incomplete, you get CO.

So if the gas flow is interfered with too much, you are potentially producing deadly amounts of carbon monoxide.

If you go in there and place the logs yourself, just purely based on how it looks, you are unlikely to place them how the manufacturer says they should be.

Too many websites out there tell you fake logs are only for “aesthetics” – for a visually pleasing fireplace since you aren’t using any wood.

Not true. They are also there to provide heat while improving safety. Place them incorrectly, and you risk unnecessary danger.

2. Fireplace Function – save money, make it last

Another consequence of incorrect log placement is the increase in sooting. Too much soot decreases the functionality of your fireplace and shortens the life span. It clogs the gas flow, reduces the heat output, and requires more frequent cleanings than should be necessary.

If you’re paying someone to clean your fireplace (and you should be), you’ll be paying them a lot more often if your aesthetically pleasing but wrong log placement makes your fireplace get covered with soot.

Why hire an expert cleaner? Because they know all the places to clean without damaging the components and will extend its useful life.

(If you live in the Snohomish County, Monroe, Lynnwood, Kirkland, Mountlake Terrace or surrounding areas and need a fireplace cleaning and maintenance, now’s a good time to make an appointment with B&C before the winter hits).

3. Fireplace Compatibility – any ol’ set of fake logs won’t do

Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is a science safety testing nonprofit. They test and certify all sorts of products for safety and functionality, including gas fireplaces.

Their testing standards and results are based upon specific arrangements of the fake logs. This is why the manufacturers have the recommended arrangements. It’s not just for how it looks. They consider that too. But the safety and compatibility standards are based on rigorous testing by UL that presumes the logs are arranged in a certain way.

If you rearrange them how you want, you are deviating from the tested and proven standards. Any problems you face after that will likely be blamed on you if you were to try the lawsuit thing, should anything go wrong with your fireplace.

The bottom line is – logs sets are designed by each brand to fit that specific fireplace a certain way. That’s why you can’t just go buy any ol’ set of fake logs and assume they will work in your fireplace.

But What If My Ceramic Logs Keep Falling Over?

That can happen. If so, you’re best option is to have a professional come out and arrange them back in the proper way. If it’s been a while since your last cleaning and maintenance, your fireplace repair technician will probably fix the logs at no extra charge if you do it all at once.

Again, if your logs fall over, you should not use your fireplace. And you should not try to place them back the way they were. Have a professional come out and make sure it gets done according to UL standards and brand recommendations.