Servicing Gas Fireplaces Across Highland

Altitude is part of the set-up, not a detail

Gas appliances are rated at sea level and manufacturers publish derate figures and, in many cases, high-altitude orifice specifications above a few thousand feet. Highland is comfortably into that territory. An appliance installed without regard to it burns a little rich, which shows up as lazy yellow flame tips, soot on the log tops, and a white film on the inside of the glass. None of that is catastrophic and all of it is fixable, but it needs someone to actually check the orifice against the manual rather than assume the box arrived correct.

What we do on a service visit

Gas off, glass out, burner and pilot assembly removed and cleaned, thermopile and thermocouple output measured with a meter, valve and safety shutoff tested, glass gasket inspected and replaced if it has gone hard, logs reset to the manufacturer's placement diagram, blower cleaned, and the vent termination checked from outside. Then we run it and watch the flame pattern settle, because a flame that looks right cold can look wrong once the firebox is up to temperature.

Log placement is not decoration

Every log set has a diagram, and the positions on it are engineered. Move a log an inch and flame impinges somewhere it was never meant to, which produces soot and, over time, carbon build-up on the burner ports. If somebody has rearranged the logs to look more natural, that is very often the whole explanation for a fireplace that started sooting.

Multiple appliances, one visit

Houses in this city routinely have two, three or four gas fireplaces. Booking them together is cheaper and it means all of them are on the same annual cycle, so no single unit becomes the one that gets forgotten for a decade. Tell us how many when you call so we bring the right parts stock.

The one symptom not to postpone

Sudden heavy sooting, a smell of exhaust in the room, or a carbon monoxide alarm sounding. Stop using the appliance and get it looked at. Everything else on this page can wait for an appointment. Those three cannot.