# Gas fireplace won't stay on



## catskills23 (Jan 9, 2020)

Hi everyone,

We have a cabin we've owned for about a year that came with a ventless gas fireplace. The previous owner mentioned it was temperamental and we had problems with it about a month into owning where it would go on for a few minutes and then shut off and not turn back on without being relit. We paid our propane company, which also does some basic fixes, $140 to replace the thermocouple (the bulk of the cost was the visit). This fixed the problem and it was fine, but we rent out our place on the weekends and believe our most recent guests did something to the fireplace as we found burned matches inside and the logs were in the wrong position. After their visit, it would only stay on sporadically, and only when in a low setting. It also stopped working at all when the logs are in it so we took them out and it seemed to be working okay for about a week, but now it is not staying on, even though the pilot light is on. We cleaned the thermocouple with steel wool and vacuumed the area out per suggestions we found online, but it's still not on. We're also noticing that the pilot light seems to be tilted up, whereas our manual says it should be straight across instead of veering up and to the right. The pilot light appears to cross the thermocouple properly when it's just the pilot light, but when the entire fireplace lights then the pilot light pulls up and away from the thermocouple. Also to note, our guests who used the matches coincided with our propane company refilling the tank, and we're wondering if they could've done something in refilling the tank that affected the pressure as from what we've read up on this seems to be a pressure problem. If anyone has any ideas we'd be grateful for advice. We have the propane company coming out tomorrow for another $140 to see what they can figure out, but are not confident they'll be able to fix the issue as they seemed to be guessing about the thermocouple last time and even then they didn't have the part and it took several days to order and we have long term guests coming soon and don't want them to be without a fireplace. Thanks in advance for any insight! The model number is VFS-PH30DT and the brand is Pleasant Hearth.


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## DAKSY (Jan 9, 2020)

Try blowing compressed air thru the pilot tube. 
It's a very small diameter & it doesn't take much
to block the flow.  You might be able to turn the pilot up.
Is there a pilot adjustment knob on the valve?


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## catskills23 (Jan 9, 2020)

DAKSY said:


> Try blowing compressed air thru the pilot tube.
> It's a very small diameter & it doesn't take much
> to block the flow.  You might be able to turn the pilot up.
> Is there a pilot adjustment knob on the valve?


Thanks, we tried to get compressed air but our hardware store was out, may try another spot tonight though since we read about it and now you're mentioning it. No adjustment knob on valve.


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## catskills23 (Jan 11, 2020)

DAKSY said:


> Try blowing compressed air thru the pilot tube.
> It's a very small diameter & it doesn't take much
> to block the flow.  You might be able to turn the pilot up.
> Is there a pilot adjustment knob on the valve?


The compressed air seems to have solved it, thank you!


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