I just changed the pilot light assembly on my gas fireplace. In the attached photos there is a hard black substance at the bottom of the assembly on the old part that is used to seal the holes where the lines go thru. There is a photo of the holes after it was removed. I put the new assembly in. I'm wondering if it's necessary to reseal them and if so what is used to do that? It looks like it used to be some sort of putty.
Second issue! There is a photo of the brass tip that inserts into the burner assembly. On the burner assembly tube that goes over the brass part you will see an open slot. There is one on the other side also. That tip can be rotated so that the holes are covered or closed. What is the purpose of having those holes there? The brass part doesn't go very far into the burner tube so it seems to me that there would be gas escaping before it went into the tube. When I turned the fireplace on to test it, it seemed like the gas wasn't immediately spreading throughout the burner assembly. Any help or a bit of education on this would be appreciated.
Last edited by PJmax; 01-17-23 at 01:15 AM.
Reason: resized/labeled pictures
It looks like electricians putty but that is only rated to approx 120f.
I have silicon seal on a roll similar to this high heat putty.
I also use Permatex red high heat silicone. permatex red
You can get the red Permatex in many home improvement and auto parts stores.
You don't need a lot. Just a thin amount to seal the holes.
Do you know what a venturi is ?
In the picture is the brass orifice.
It has a tiny hole in the end where the gas comes out under high pressure.
As the gas passes thru the burner it picks up air thru the shutter.
That's the venturi effect.
Your stove top, oven, etc all work the same way.
The shutter is adjustable to get just a bit of orange in the flame. You want mostly blue.
PJMax,
After getting everything back together and turning the gas on I have a slight leak somewhere that I can't pin down. When the main source of gas is on and the gas for the fireplace itself is off there is no detection of gas anywhere, so I can eliminate the leak at the supply side. When I turn the gas on at the fireplace my detector beeps and I do get a scent of gas when I put my nose close to the area. Question! Of the three connections I made--would it only be the thermocouple and pilot light connections that could be the source of the leak? I bought the Permatex red along with some liquid leak detector and after putting that on I haven't seen a bubbling that would tell me anything. I can't imagine it would be normal to have any amount of gas leakage, even low, so I'll ask, "is it common or do I continue searching?"
When the main is off..... all ok.
When the main is on but the off-on-pilot is off ..... all ok.
When you turn the off-on-pilot control on.... there should be no gas smell.
There should not be any gas flow to the pilot until the valve is in pilot and you are holding the pilot button down. If you light the pilot and it's lit.... and you smell gas.... it's the pilot tube gas line where it connects to the valve.
Forgot about the off-on-pilot. It has been in the off position.
I'm assuming by main you mean the on/off for the fireplace itself and not the on/off in the wall. When the main is on but the off-on-pilot is off ..... I get the leak.
When the main is on and I turn the off-on-pilot to on ----I get the leak
When I turn it to pilot and hold the button in I detect the leak.
I have lit the pilot and I detect the leak.
I suspect it is the fireplace side of the on/off valve because the detector doesn't take long to beep when I hold it there. If there shouldn't be any gas flow to the pilot until the button is pushed would that confirm that the leak is right there in that on/off valve? I was disappointed that the liquid leak detector didn't bubble anywhere.
Then the leak is between the service valve(s) and the fireplace valve.
It would pretty rare for the fireplace valve (off-on-pilot) itself to leak gas in the OFF position.
Sorry PJMax, it must be a trial talking tech to a layperson. I'm going to replace the service valve because I place my gas detector tip right next to the valve and as soon as I turn it to on it takes about three seconds to beep. That is with the fireplace valve in the OFF position. Thanks for your patience. I appreciate the education at your expense.
It was a flexible gas line, with good movement on both sides. I bought a new shut-off but decided to try the old one with some new sealant. It worked, so it was a leak thru the threads on one side. I know too well the issues with repairing plumbing pipes when they are inflexible. Good old sharkbite! Again, thanks for sharing your expertise in this.
My home has a York Diamond 80 furnace and has a history of intermittent no heat or blowing cold air for sometime. It flashes code 4 most of the time when it fails. But it also has symptom of flames goes out after ignition. So I have replaced new frame sensor, high limit switch and pressure switch and the code is still coming once every few heating call. HVAC technician is called and was not able to discover the issue. I finally found the problem seems around the big white connector to the control board at the top right corner.
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When I wiggle the wires or the connector, the flame and furnace may shut off. If heating is called by thermostat and the furnace has no action and no code. Wiggle wire bundle or the connector will trigger the furnace to start its heating process. The control board is attach to a base that attached to the blower and small vibration can be felt. So the issue may be related to the connector or something near the connector on the control board.
I have tried to clean the female and the male pins to make sure they have good contact. But the problems persisted. My problem is that I do not know if the bad contact is in the connector or on the control board. Does anyone experience similar issue and how do you fix it?
By the way, the furnace can shut off in the middle of blowing warm air without any code. If wiggle the connector or wires bundle it will start the ignition process and produce heat again.
Everything I mention below is all on the first floor.
So, yesterday we noticed what we'd describe as a "burnt rubber" smell coming from JUST the guest bath vent. It was there for maybe 10 minutes then went away. We didn't smell this smell out of any other vents.
Today we smelled the same smell again coming from just one vent in our dining area. We have a pretty open floor plan including the dining area, kitchen and living room. Again, the smell only came out of this single vent in the dining area. We checked vents in the living room and a "dining nook" by the kitchen and didn't smell a thing. This time, the smell went away for a while, but then it would come back. At one point I noticed the smell from the couch (just out of the blue) and checked all the vents. Once again, the smell was only coming from this vent.
The vent in the dining area is maybe 15' from the HVAC unit, while the one in the guest bath is maybe 25' from the hvac unit.
Because it happened two days in a row, we called the HVAC people out. We explained what had happened to the tech and he thoroughly checked out the unit. This included looking for burnt wires, overheating motors, the transformer, circuit board, gas packs, etc. He showed us multiple pictures and there are no signs of anything being burnt or melting.
Despite 16 years as an HVAC tech, he was stumped by this one. Has anyone ever ran into this oddball problem before? If so, any tips to tshoot or fix would be appreciated. Our unit will be 7 years old this year. It's an Amana (model# APG1442080M41).
thanks,
Andy
01-16-23, 07:55 PM
