Avery is now nine and she understands the concept of “danger” and “don’t touch that” and “it’s hot” so it’s safe to turn the gas back on and fire it up!
When we flipped the switch this season, nothing happened. It’s was all very anti-climatic.
My husband examined the fireplace innards which involved head scratching, random grunting noises, followed by some cursing—fun to watch, but not effective in terms of igniting my flame. My man is a lot of awesome things. A fireplace repairman is not one of them.
On this quest for fire I hired a company take a look. The service guy arrived promptly and was polite and seemed efficient.
He removed a decade’s worth of nasty spider webs and crud from the fireplace and cleaned the glass on the door. I paid for him to do this not knowing how easy it is to do myself. Dammit.
He claimed the pilot assembly part was corroded and pointed to where the flame was struggling to ignite.
He searched the database for the part and sent me a quote. A HEFTY quote. The amount was shocking so I emailed the manager at the company directly and asked for more details—including a break down of the cost. He sent me this:
So $630.50 on top of the $200.00 for the original service/cleaning?! A total burn if you ask me.
I asked the company to send me the serial number for the part and I gave this info to a new company who came back to say the part was for a propane unit. Propane? It’s not 1962. We don’t use propane, we use natural gas.
So Paradigm Venture (a local company who I would recommend without hesitation) sent out a heating and cooling expert who determined within minutes that the pilot assembly was in perfect working order—NOT corroded AT ALL. The issue was a spider’s nest plugging the gas line. *um shriek* This is what happens when you keep your fireplace off for several years—Charlotte and her brood move in.
Once removed, the gas flowed and the problem was solved. For $150.00 thankyouverymuch.
So like our cavepeople ancestors before us, we finally succeeded in our quest for fire. We got our happy ending BUT…
….it’s infuriating to me that the original company tried to take us for a ride. So not cool. Or hot. Bottom line, always always always trust your gut, do the research, ask ALL the questions, and if possible, shop around.
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