Why won't my gas fireplace light after a power outage?
In Mars Hill, a lot of the fireplaces are the easy-use, push-button kind favored around the university's rental housing — and those are electronic-ignition units that light on demand and lean on backup batteries. After an outage, drained batteries or a control board stuck in lockout is the most common reason one won't fire.
Easy-use units mean battery-dependent units
The convenience of a flip-a-switch gas fireplace comes from electronic ignition, and that convenience needs power or a battery pack to spark the pilot. Two battery sets matter — one at the receiver inside the fireplace, one in the remote — and a weak set in either fakes a total failure. Swap both, then give the ignition board a minute to clear the lockout that repeated failed sparks during the outage can cause. Most healthy units come right back.
Out in the valleys it's propane or wood
Beyond the university, rural homes up Spring Creek and Gabriels Creek run on propane or heat with wood, and the logic shifts. A propane unit with a standing pilot shouldn't mind an outage at all — a no-light points to the pilot, thermocouple, or regulator. And wood, of course, needs no ignition system and no grid, which is why it stays popular in these colder outlying hollows.
When it's ours to repair
If batteries and a reset don't do it, the electronics likely took a hit, and repairing a connected gas appliance is licensed work we permit through Madison County and quote before starting. Mars Hill is about 30 minutes north of the Asheville showroom. 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.
Related questions
- Do gas fireplaces have batteries, and can dead batteries stop the fireplace from working?
- How do I tell whether my gas fireplace has a standing pilot or electronic ignition?
- Why won't my gas fireplace turn on at all?
- How do I reset my gas fireplace's ignition control module?
- Why won't my fireplace light even after I changed the batteries in the remote and receiver?