Gas fireplace will not turn on

When a gas fireplace will not turn on at all, the cause is usually something that tells it to start rather than the burner itself: dead batteries in the remote or receiver, a wall switch, a control module set to the wrong position, a lockout after a failed ignition attempt, or no gas reaching the unit. Several of those you can sort out in minutes. When it is a part, a typical Sioux Falls repair is a $150 to $300 service call plus $150 to $400 for a remote receiver, wall switch or wall thermostat, or $350 to $700 installed for an electronic ignition module or control board. The firm number comes after we have seen the unit.

Check this first

• Batteries. Replace the batteries in the handheld remote. On many remote systems the receiver near the valve takes batteries too, and those are easy to miss.
• The wall switch. Make sure it is on. If the fireplace answers the wall switch but not the remote, the remote or receiver is the likely culprit.
• The control module. Many electronic units have a selector on the control module, often marked ON, OFF and REMOTE; Heat & Glo’s TRUE manual describes all three positions. If someone bumped it to OFF while dusting, nothing upstream will start the fireplace. On a Napoleon B36 a switch also chooses between continuous pilot and intermittent pilot ignition.
• A lockout. Napoleon’s B36 manual says the ignition board starts sparking after about 4 seconds and keeps trying for about 60 seconds. With no flame proven, it stops and locks out. Heat & Glo’s manual says not to reset its module more than one time within a five minute period, because gas may accumulate in the firebox. Reset once. If it locks out again, call.
• Power. An electronic fireplace needs house power. Heat & Glo offers a battery backup on IntelliFire Plus, but its manual says to use the batteries only as a power source in an emergency such as an outage.
• Gas. Check that the shutoff near the fireplace is open and that other gas appliances light. On propane, read the tank gauge.

If you smell gas at any point, stop and follow our gas smell steps.

What it usually is and what it costs

On a millivolt fireplace with the pilot burning but no main flame, Napoleon’s chart points at the wall switch circuit: a faulty switch or thermostat, a weak thermopile, or switch wire run too long, which adds too much resistance. Its manual caps the run at 100 feet of 14 gauge, 60 feet of 16 gauge and 40 feet of 18 gauge. That matters most when a switch was added or moved after the fireplace went in. Our remotes, thermostats and blowers page covers that work.

Why newer suburbs see more of this

Housing in the Sioux Falls suburbs is young. The Census puts the share of homes built in 2000 or later at 70.8% in Harrisburg, 52.7% in Tea and 51.1% in Brandon, against 39.5% inside Sioux Falls. Fireplaces in houses of that era often have electronic ignition, a control board and a remote, which means more ways for the start signal to go missing before the burner is ever involved. That is house age, not a count of fireplaces. If you are in one of those towns, our Harrisburg page has more on the local housing.

When to call us

Call after one reset if the fireplace locks out again, if it sparks with no flame, or if the control board shows no sign of life with power and batteries confirmed. To see a range before we come out, try the repair cost estimator.