Gas Fireplace Service near you

Each model has its own service procedure in the installation and owner's manuals, and a good technician follows it. Most visits cover the same broad steps.

Get to know how your fireplace looks and sounds when it works well, so changes stand out. Many decorative units are designed to show yellow flames on the logs, so compare with that normal pattern rather than with a textbook blue flame.

If you smell gas, don't try to light or switch off the fireplace, don't use light switches or phones near the smell, and leave the house. Call your gas utility's emergency line or 9-1-1 once you are outside.

Never run the fireplace with cracked, chipped or missing glass. On a direct-vent unit, the glass is part of the sealed firebox that keeps combustion gases out of the room, so any damage calls for a technician and the replacement glass and gasket the manufacturer specifies.

Natural Resources Canada suggests a carbon monoxide alarm near any fireplace that isn't a sealed direct-vent unit, and Health Canada considers the hallway outside the bedrooms the most important location for one. If the alarm sounds, get everyone outside right away, call 9-1-1 or the fire department from there, and don't use the fireplace again until a technician has found the cause.

Servicing a gas fireplace means opening the burner compartment, removing and refitting gas components and testing for leaks, which is work for a qualified gas technician. In Ontario, hire a fuels contractor registered with the TSSA; in Quebec, a contractor holding the appropriate licence from the Régie du bâtiment du Québec. In other provinces, the provincial safety authority can confirm which licence applies.

Homeowners can wipe the glass once it has cooled, keep the outdoor vent clear and replace the remote's batteries. Adjusting the pilot, the burner or the gas valve, or taking apart the controls, is not a do-it-yourself job. Keep every service report, since some warranties and insurers ask for proof of regular servicing.

The glass front of a gas fireplace gets very hot while the fire burns and stays hot for a while after it is turned off. Health Canada advises putting up a barrier around a gas or wood-burning fireplace so children can't touch hot surfaces and be burned, and warns that fireplace doors can become very hot during and after use.

A standing pilot burns gas around the clock, whether or not the fireplace is on. Natural Resources Canada suggests turning it off during the summer, and during the heating season when you aren't using the fireplace often, and notes that electronic or other intermittent ignition removes the need for a continuous pilot. Some owner's manuals give their own advice for the off-season, so check yours first.

If you turn the pilot off, relight it in the fall by following the lighting instructions on the unit, or have the technician do it during the pre-season service, and stop trying if it won't light. Book that service in late summer or early fall, before the first cold snap, and keep the outdoor vent clear of snow and ice all winter.