Gas Fireplace Repair

[Dennisfly]

I have a Heatilator propane fireplace that is about 5 years old. It has always worked fine, just flip the switch on the wall and it lights. The other day, it had been burning for an hour or so, and just quit. I didn't have time to deal with it at the time, so I didn't do anything immediately except turn it off. I noticed that the pilot wasn't burning.

The propane tank is full, the valve is on, and the BBQ that uses the same propane tank works fine.

A day later, I re-lit the pilot and turned the fireplace on. It burned for maybe 10 minutes and then quit, incuding the pilot.

Any ideas on the problem or trouble shooting procedures?

 

[Wayne County Hose]

I'm having a similar issue. Next to the ignitor is a little thing called a thermocouple. Mine died like yours did. I cleaned the surface of the thermocouple and it worked great for a while. Now it quit again. Cleaning it might work temporarily. Hopefully a good HVAC guy on here will know.

 

[Cocre]

I think Wanye County is right. The thermocouple senses heat from the pilot and allows the main gas flow to turn on when the thermostat calls for heat. No pilot, no gas. Often just replacing the thermocouple will resolve an issue of the pilot not staying lit. If you can light the pilot, but it goes out immediately upon releasing the "Push down to light pilot button", then I would suspect the thermocouple. They are generally not expensive.

 

[kenmac]

Most of those have an ODS pilot assy. As the pilot burns it brings in air to mix with the gas. It will also bring in any dust & clog the air intake. this causes the pilot flame to lift off the tip of the t.couple making it go out. Most of the new style pilots use small holes for this air intake. You can take 1 of those small air cans & blow those holes out & u should b ok

 

[ragkar]

Funny that you should ask now as my propane logs failed last night and I fixed the problem in ten minutes. The symptoms were that the flame and pilot light went out. I could relight it but it would go out a few seconds later.
Tools - a smoking pipe cleaner and about two feet of quarter inch tubing.
Procedure - use the pipe cleaner to agitate the edge and inside the pilot light gas outlet. You might notice that the pilot flame looks unusual before you try this. Then use the tubing and your breath to blow it out.