# gas fireplace smoking?



## cbzdel (May 11, 2010)

We have a natural gas fireplace in our house, it did not work when we moved in. The thing looks to be brand new and unused, even the home inspector said it looks unused.

We just had a fireplace guy come to check it out, he said a valve is busted so we had him replace it. He gave the whole system a once over and says it working and ready to go. So he leaves. Night time comes and we flip the fireplace on, after a couple minutes it really starts to stink, and it just kept getting worse, it smelled like an electric heater fan that has not been used in a long time if you have ever smelled that. (this unit does not have an electric fan, just a vent to outside). I figure its because it appeared to have never been used before so I kept it going. After a couple more minutes it actually started to have a light smoke come out of the front grill. I quickly turned it off and the smoke stopped. But I do not understand this, how would a gas fireplace smoke? Is there a break in period? Maybe there are parts covered in oil and such that need to be burned off??

I am going on vacation so I just want to give this a though while I am gone so I am talk to the repair man as soon as I get back.

(I would of fixed the problem myself but we just bought the house and it was in the contract to have the fireplace fixed)


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## Ron6519 (Mar 28, 2007)

Gas fireplaces need to vent to the exterior. You need to hire someone competant to fix this or you will end up dead.
Ron


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## firehawkmph (Dec 12, 2009)

CB,
If the fireplace had never been fired up it may have been just burning off a light coating of oil from the factory. I am just kind of surprised the service man that looked at it didn't fire it up for a short period of time while he was there. Then at least he could have verified what it was. You might want to call him back and ask him to check it out once more and see if the smoking subsides in a short amount of time, and also as mentioned above, make sure it is vented properly.
Mike Hawkins


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## cbzdel (May 11, 2010)

i ended up firing it up before I left on vacation.. the problem was it actually was brand new, it smoked like heck for about 15 minutes then cleared right up :thumbsup:


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## Tremaine (Nov 23, 2011)

Unfortunately, we have the same problem with our gas fireplace. We turned off the gas in summer. (Why heat the house with the pilot light when it's hot outside?) We turned it on again now that it is cold and it smokes and stinks up the house. We have left it on for some time and it just smokes. The flue is open. We dusted and vacuumed the fireplace thinking it had accumulated dust that was burning. Nothing worked. Do the jets need adjustment? The flame is yellowish - perhaps we have incomplete burning. Our gas fireplace is not new but was tested out by our contractor and worked all last winter. What do we do now?


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