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My Hearth and Home direct vent gas fireplace is not working.

1658 Views 14 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  jagans
I purchased a Hearth and Home BE36-C from an ad on craigslist. Maybe not a good idea, but I did. I have a general handyman's level of skill by trade. I installed the fireplace in a room I added to my house. It is connected to a wall switch. The pilot light is not intermittent. I can get the pilot light lit easily, but when I turn on the power to the fireplace, nothing happens. It is getting power to the gas control valve, but not from the gas control valve to the thermostat. Does this fireplace require a remote control to operate? My gut tells me the valve is bad. Is it dangerous to test the valve by momentarily bypassing the valve by jumping the power straight to the thermostat? I have plenty of experience with 120 and 240, but none with micro-voltage systems. Any troubleshooting tips anyone can suggest before I pony up the money for a heating and cooling professional that I can't afford right now?
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Are you sure you turned the pilot to ON? You can light the pilot on most of these, but then you need to turn to on, not pilot. Also make sure the chamber behind the pilot light is clear of spider webs dirt etc. Turn off pilot, clean with electronic spray, clean orifices, wait, turn on pilot, turn to on. Hit wall switch.
Hearth and Home fireplace

Yes, I did turn the knob from pilot to on. I will double check to ensure that it is clean.
What do you mean when you "Turn on the power to the fireplece" This is a minivolt system isnt it? You arent putting 120volts into the system are You???

I assumed you were just using a typical wall switch to complete the circuit coming from the minivolt system?

Can you eleborate?
possible oops

The person I bought it from had a 15 amp wire coming from the box so I put power to that.
Yes it is minivolt, but I assumed there was some kind of step down from the 15 amp. If it doesn't get power from that, where does it come from?
The instructions are very confusing to me about that. The instructions say that it can operate on battery power (3 volt) in the case of a power outage, but to disconnect the battery when power is available to save battery life. I don't see a battery holder anywhere anyway.
Did I fry the control valve? If so, are they expensive?
By the way, thank you so much for helping me.
With my milivolt system, power (Milivolts) are generated by the thermocouple, which is heated by the pilot light. The obvious beauty of this system is that if the power goes out, you still have heat.

The seller may have used no. 14 Romex? because that's all he had on hand. You cant determine what the unit requires by looking at the wire.

The instructions you allude to are very confusing, and I would call the manufacturer to get clarification on your particular unit, which frankly, does not sound like it is too well thought out.

What gage are the wires coming from the unit? Mine are thin, like thermostat wire, 22 gage maybe? I used a regular mercury thermostat in parallel with a wall switch so I have the option of thermostat control, or just plain on, which my wife uses in the AM to take the chill off.

I don't know of any gas log sets that take raw 120V AC. You would have thought that the seller would have given you more info.
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It is confusing

It has telephone line sized wires coming from the valve assembly that lead to a braided no. 14 line with a plug on the end. The plug plugs into a an outlet inside of the fireplace that looks like it has some kind of fuseable link leading from it it external power. Very weird. Totally confused.
Can you send us some pictures?

If you jump the two telephone sized wires do you get ignition?
Google Hearth and Home and your moddle number. I bet the no 14 is for the optional blower kit, and has nothing to do with the FP igniter function. Post some pictures.
Here is a diagram of a milivolt system on a pool heater.



The theory is the same. The powerpile generates a voltage that controls the gas valve. The safety switches are a bit different but do the same thing. They shut off power in case of a problem. The wall switch you have can be hooked the same as the safety switches.

Edit
5a is the powerpile. 5d,e,f,g is the spark ignitor.
8,9,10 is a dual thermostat setup which is not on a gas log heater.

6,7,13 are safety switches that do not exist on a log heater.
11 is a thermal rollout switch that can be on a log heater.

The power pile supplies power to the d terminal on the gas valve, goes out thru the wires thru all of the switches and back to the f terminal. As long as there is no break in that wire (tripped switch, thermostat turned down, Etc) the gas valve will open
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As Dan shows, no AC incoming. His diagram is more complicated than a simple gas log set, but the principal is the same.
Thank you to Dan and Jagans. I have been so busy I have not been to this site since my last post. I wish I had found this post before I hooked anything up. I suspect I must have damaged something by hooking up household current to this thing. What have I most likely damaged? Also, when I first hooked this up to the gas and lit the pilot to it and turned the knob to "on", nothing happened. I had not yet put power to it. Should it have ignited?
I have the same fireplace but my problem is I cannot keep the pilot when I flip the knob from pilot to On. Flame goes out every time. I replaced the flame sensor/tc and now will get the gas valve. Anything else to check? He'll, those are the only two possibilities but the tc was the cheaper first shot. There are two identical systems in my vacation home in the mountains and I only get up there once a month so it's not that critical anyhow.
No, I dont think so. Mine has the two thin wires coming from it like T-stat wires. Once those are shorted (Switch on) that opens the gas valve, and the fire will ignite. I installed a simple mercury t-stat on mine in parallel with a simple wall switch so I have T-stat control, or on.
Volvo probably has dust or spider webs in the small air intake hole behind the pilot light. Usually Brass in color. No air, pilot starves for oxygen.
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