My gas fireplace pilot is lit but the main burner won't come on — what's wrong?
Mars Hill has two housing worlds, and the diagnosis follows which one you're in. In easy-use gas units around the university, a dead burner usually means a switch, receiver, or wiring fault; out in the rural Spring Creek and Gabriels Creek valleys, where propane and wood rule, it's more often a worn thermopile or an LP fuel-delivery problem.
Campus rentals versus the rural valleys
Near Mars Hill University the demand runs to simple, switch-operated gas fireplaces that tenants light and forget, so when the pilot holds but the burner won't fire, we look hard at the control path first — a corroded switch, a receiver with a dead battery, a loose wire. Out in Spring Creek, Gabriels Creek, and Forks of Ivy, homes lean on propane and wood, the units are often older, and the thermopile — the pilot-heated sensor that makes the voltage to open the valve — has simply worn down. Same lit-pilot, dead-burner symptom, two different first suspects.
On propane, check the fuel side
For the rural propane homes, a pilot sips very little gas, so a low tank or a regulator that isn't holding pressure can keep the pilot proved while starving the main burner. We verify the LP side with your supplier and confirm the orifices are set for propane, since a wrong-fuel setup soots and stumbles the same way. It's one of the colder spots we serve, so you want this right before the deep freeze. Because the academic year concentrates demand on the easy-use campus units, we keep the common switches, receivers, and thermopiles for those on the truck, and for the Forks of Ivy propane homes we bring the LP-side tools as well.
Madison County, 30 minutes north
Propane and natural-gas valve and line repair is licensed work in North Carolina — not a DIY job, not a handyman's. If the fix reaches the piping we pull the county permit and meet the inspector. We're 30 minutes north with common parts stocked. Call (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Mars Hill
We install and service fireplaces throughout Mars Hill and the rest of Madison County — just 30 minutes north from our Asheville-area showroom.