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Why is my brand new ventless natural gas fireplace now working?

I have a brand new house. This is the first cold season to use our natural gas fireplace. Once we turn the fireplace on, it stays on for maybe 1 minute or less and then completely shuts off (including the pilot light). We have already had our control valve and pilot light/thermocouple unit replaced and still it doesn't work. The repair man (who has came out to our house 3 times already) says that he has replaced everything on the unit and it now HAS to be a gas pressure issue from the natural gas line and that I need to have the gas line guy come out and test the pressure to the right specifications of the fireplace. Does this make sense? It's getting really frustrating to say the least. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Public Comments

  1. Wow, that sucks. Yeah, I'd call out the gas company. They will run out right away when they think something in the gas line is not right. I love my gas fireplace. It heats my entire house.
  2. It could have a safety shuttoff feature that is turning it off and have nothing to do with the gas presure.
  3. That sounds reasonable. One important note, make sure you have at least one working carbon monoxide detector in the room with the fireplace. Ventless ones burn oxygen from the house air, and if used a lot, it is possible that the oxygen level will decrease to a level where the burning cycle will produce CO (which will cause sickness or death if enough concentration.) Read AND FOLLOW the instructions carefully. They will tell you the unit is not for fulltime heating, and to open a window when you burn the unit (sorta defeats the efficiency of ventless doesn't it?) If you can't tell, I'm not a believer of unvented gas appliances.
  4. hire a different repair guy. doubt its the gas
  5. if it was a gas supply problem, all gas appliances in the house would have the same problem. i seriously doubt its a pressure problem. it sounds like the pilot is pulling away from the thermocouple when the burner is turned on, thus allowing the thermocouple (or thermopile generator, depending on model) to cool off and the safety to trip. when you light the pilot, will it stay on if you don't fire the burner? also, is the pilot all blue? or does it have a wavy yellow or orange tip? this is the most common problem with gas logs and is usually due to the primary air intake on the pilot being stopped up. its usually not a problem on brand new units, but your symptoms sound the same.