How to Light a Propane Fireplace Pilot Light

If you have a propane fireplace, the pilot light should be on all of the time. However, there are many things that can cause the pilot light to go out. A draft from the chimney can blow it out, or a problem with the pilot light may cause it to turn off. You may even need to turn off your own pilot light to clean your fireplace. No matter what the reason for your pilot light being out, you will want to turn it back on as soon as you get a chance. What follows should give you all of the instructions that you need to do it.

Step 1 - Shutoff Valve

Before you attempt to turn the pilot light in your propane fireplace on, you must make sure that the shutoff valve connecting your fireplace to your propane tank is fully opened. If it is not, no amount of fiddling with the controls on your propane fireplace will help you turn its pilot light on.

Locate your shutoff valve and check to see if it is open or closed. If it is closed, set it to open as far as it can go.

More likely than not, if your pilot light has only been out briefly, your shutoff valve will be open. However, it is good to check every possible problem.

Step 2 - Control

Now that you know your propane fireplace's pilot light has a supply of propane to fuel it, you can proceed to turn it on. Press down on the knob that controls your propane fireplace. It should be labeled with the words "on," "off," and "pilot." Turn it past the first two settings to the one labeled "pilot." Once the controls are set to "pilot," wait five seconds.

Step 3 - Ignite

Once you have waited five seconds with the control knob held down on the pilot setting, you can press the ignitor button and release it. This should cause your pilot light to start up and catch. However, it is possible that the pilot light will not catch successfully. This is fine - simply press and release the ignitor button again. It may take multiple tries.

Even after the pilot light catches, you are not finished. Before you can consider yourself completely finished, you must hold the control knob down and at the pilot setting for another 30 seconds. Failing to do this may cause the pilot light to go out. You can tell that the pilot light is ready when it turns a dark purple color, or when the light on the ignitor button turns bright red.

Step 4 - Finish Up

You can now operate the propane fireplace as you normally would. Use the control knob that you used to light the pilot light to turn the fireplace up and down.

If you cannot get the pilot light to turn on, something is probably wrong. You can try cleaning out the pilot assembly yourself before doing anything else. However, if this does not fix the problem, and you have checked all of the other connections, you will need to call in a professional.