Gas fireplace pilot working but fire not lighting

Elfish

Hi all,
I was in this house and the gas fire in the fireplace wouldn't light. I presume the setup is the same in every gas fired house in Ireland.

What happens is that the pilot light will light (ie sparks and lights the gas coming out of the pilot) when you push in the control knob but as soon as the control knob is turned further to the large flame, the pilot goes out as if it the gas supply was cut off. Tried moving the control knob around to the big flame and lighting the gas with a match but no luck.

There is also a little brass screw on what I think is the main gas flow coming into the fire (under the grate). The fire did start before and I don't think the screw would have been fiddled with since that.

Could it be that the system cut off valve is not working properly - I think this is unlikely as the pilot gas flame DOES light?

Any ideas appreciated

Avns1s

Its gas so you should call a gas engineer unless you want your next post to be from Norway or some such distant place. Gas fires are not for DIY!

GreeBo

we have an old gas fire that can be a bit fiddly, the step on the knob from pilot to lighting the whole fire can sometimes just put the pilot out and not light the rest of it, sometimes you have to do it slowly.
However if you are saying that you cant even light it with a match then you are not getting gas to the fire and appear to have a blockage of some sort.

Can you hear/smell the gas when you turn it on fully?

dingding

had the same problem. I use 2 gas tanks with an auto change over valve. I replaced the auto change over valve and that solved the problem.

Elfish

GreeBo wrote:

However if you are saying that you cant even light it with a match then you are not getting gas to the fire and appear to have a blockage of some sort.

Yes, main fire will not light with a match. Unless blockage is between main fire flow and the shut off valve (the main flow from the shut off splits into pilot and main -will try post pics for clarity soon), I don't understand why the gas will reach the pilot but not the main?

Regarding possible blockage, I thought gas was clean and would not "gum up" or block pipes? Anyone any input on gas blockages due to dirt in pipes as opposed to faulty valves?

Could it be that the main shut off valve is faulty, but will still allow enough gas thru to supply the pilot, but not the main fire?

GreeBo wrote:

Can you hear/smell the gas when you turn it on fully?

No.

Elfish

dingding wrote:

had the same problem. I use 2 gas tanks with an auto change over valve. I replaced the auto change over valve and that solved the problem.

This is a natural gas system - there isn't a gas tank as far as I know. It sounds to me like you are talking about an oil fired system with 2 diesel tanks?

Heres the pics - to the earlier poster talking about blockages, any idea if I could take out the unit in the gas.jpg picture and clean the internal channels with compressed air or something?

Thanks!

crosstownk

Have you tried it with the cut-off the turned the other way?

I'm no plumber or gas expert, but usually, when the lever of a valve is perpendicular to the pipe flow it means the valve is turned off. The valve in the picture (cutoff.jpg) appears this way. It's not like a valve I've seen before, so I could be mistaken.

JamesM

Elfish wrote:

This is a natural gas system - there isn't a gas tank as far as I know. It sounds to me like you are talking about an oil fired system with 2 diesel tanks?

Thanks!

He is talking about 2 gas tanks with an auto change over valve. But that is different to yours. Yours is mains.
Jim.

Ruu_Old

I have a gas fireplace and had the problem a few times and the problem was simple. I wasn't holding the pilot button down long enough to let the gas clear out of the pipes.

Elfish

crosstownk wrote:

Have you tried it with the cut-off the turned the other way?

Yes, nothing.

Thanks Ruu and James, tried Ruus suggestion but no go. Going to take off the unit under the fire and see if there is anything obviously wrong. Will post up if solution found.