My gas fireplace pilot is lit but the main burner won't come on — what's wrong?
Many Arden homes in Royal Pines and Skyland run gas log sets in open 1980s-90s masonry fireplaces, and on those the millivolt system is the whole story: a pilot that lights but won't fire the burner is almost always a worn thermopile in that log set, occasionally the switch or valve. It's an inexpensive, single-visit Buncombe County fix.
Gas logs in tired open masonry
Arden's established 1980s and 90s neighborhoods were built with open masonry fireplaces, and over the years a lot of them got gas log sets rather than sealed inserts. Those log sets run on a millivolt valve: the pilot heats a thermopile that makes a few hundred millivolts, and that voltage alone opens the main burner when you flip the switch. There's no circuit board to blame — which narrows things nicely. When the pilot holds but the burner won't light, the aged thermopile has almost always dropped below the voltage the valve needs. We read it in seconds.
The switch and valve round out the list
Since these are switch-controlled, a corroded wall switch or a loose wire will produce the same cold burner as a dead sensor, and now and then the valve itself has failed internally. All three are diagnosable in one visit. In Skyland and Glenn Bridge we find a lot of these log sets that were never serviced, so alongside the sensor we clear the burner ports of a season's spiders and dust, which on an open masonry firebox collect faster than in a sealed unit. If your open masonry firebox is pulling heat out of the room, by the way, a sealed insert turns it into a real heater — but that's a separate conversation from this repair.
Fifteen minutes south, on the gas main
Arden sits on the natural-gas main, so fuel isn't the issue — the valve just isn't opening. Repairing it is licensed gas work in North Carolina, our lane and never DIY; if a fix reaches the piping we pull the Buncombe County permit. We're 15 minutes south. Call (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Arden
We install and service fireplaces throughout Arden and the rest of Buncombe County — just 15 minutes south from our Asheville-area showroom.