Fixed our gas fireplace insert
We had a gas fireplace insert installed in our living room fireplace a few years ago. A Valor G3.5. We all love it. Except for the part where it stopped lighting after the first year. It would click repeatedly, and I could smell gas, but no spark would fly.
I searched the web many times for clues on fixing it. The typical advice was to clean the lighting assembly, which I did repeatedly to no avail. Our installer’s advice was, in addition to cleaning it, to manually light it and keep the pilot light going throughout the cold season, so we did that last year.
We are once again into fireplace season, so I renewed my search for a fix. I asked Gemini this time, and it gave me a list of things to try. The first suggestion was to look down below the unit and see if it was sparking somewhere else, which would indicate a short. Lo and behold, it was! I had to disassemble the interior to pinpoint it, which involved removing the logs and a couple base plates, but fortunately that was straightforward.
Once I got into the lower back of the unit, I saw that the wire carrying the spark charge was indeed shorting out against a metal base plate. In fact, the insulation around that wire had completely baked off, so the bare wire was resting against that plate. Not great.
When I reached down to inspect the wire more closely, I realized the tail end (a female quick-connect) wasn’t even connected to anything. It had fallen off the lighting-assembly terminal.
This wire had seen better days.
I added a layer of heat-shrink material around the bare wire as a short-term fix, crimped the quick-connect end back onto the terminal, and it’s been working like a charm for the past few weeks. I ordered a new OEM wire, which is now sitting on my desk, and which it’s entirely possible I’ll get around to installing before I die.