Gas fireplace repair for Boggy Creek homes

Control module fault codes and lights

Electronic controls on the models we have read report their own faults with a light and sometimes a beep. Heat & Glo's IntelliFire Touch module, for example, blinks a red and green code with a beep when it locks out.

Each maker prints its own chart, so a code is read only against the chart for that exact control. A code also narrows the fault without finishing the job, since a spark fail still needs the wire, electrode and module checked.

Our technician notes the code at your Boggy Creek home, confirms the cause behind it and lists that cause on the estimate. One maker's command center flashes its LED in a different pattern for faults such as these.

• Spark fail
• No sensor signal
• Pilot lockout after a failed trial or a lost flame
• Low battery or low thermopile power

Battery backup and power outages

An IPI fireplace needs power for its module, so an outage can leave it dark. Some systems carry a battery backup. Heat & Glo's IntelliFire Touch, for example, takes a battery pack that lets the fireplace run during an outage.

Makers do not treat those batteries alike. Heat & Glo says they are for emergency use and has the technician confirm on the yearly service that they were removed, to prevent early failure or leaking. One Heatilator manual likewise says to install them only when needed because they may leak. A command system from another maker instead keeps its batteries in as backup and asks for them to be replaced when the light shows low or at least once a year.

Which arrangement your fireplace uses is checked first, along with the battery holder. Damage from leaked batteries is noted on the estimate with the part it affects.

When the remote and the fireplace stop talking

A remote control is two parts, the handset you hold and a receiver at the fireplace. On a Heat & Glo IntelliFire Touch system the receiver is built into the ignition module. On the Signature Command system in two Vermont Castings Group manuals, an RF receiver sits on the control board with its own on and off button. When the handset seems fine but nothing happens, either side can be at fault.

Some causes are not faults at all. Heat & Glo's remote guide lists a child lock that has been switched on and a touchscreen that needs recalibrating by the dealer. Pairing is another. A receiver has to learn each handset, and on one module the selector switch must sit in the remote position before pairing can work.

Our technician first runs the burner from the controls at the fireplace itself. If it answers there, the fault is in the remote path, and the estimate names the handset, the receiver or the pairing. If it does not, the remote was never the problem.

A new deck, fence or addition near the vent cap

A vent cap that met its clearances when it was installed can lose them later without anyone touching the fireplace. A seasonal owner task in one manual is to verify the termination cap's clearance to later construction, naming building additions, decks, fences and sheds. Makers publish those clearances in the installation manual, and they differ by model and by what sits near the cap.

A natural vent manual lists related causes of poor draft in its troubleshooting table, including a cap obstructed by a decorative enclosure and buildings, trees or roof lines interfering with the venting. A privacy screen built around a cap to hide it can create exactly that problem.

If you have built near the cap since the fireplace went in, mention it when you arrange a visit to your Boggy Creek home. Our technician looks at the new work against the cap, and any clearance question goes to our gas vent service with the model named, so the right clearance table is used.