Posts Tagged ‘fireplaces’

Do I Really Need to Clean My Gas Fireplace?

Thursday, April 18th, 2019

Do I Really Need to Clean My Gas Fireplace?

do i really need to clean my gas fireplace

Image by Sophie Janotta from Pixabay

It’s a good question. After all, your gas fireplace is a lot simpler than a wood-burning fireplace. No chopping, no carrying wood inside on a freezing day. No spiders in the woodpile. No ash. No hot coals to worry about. And best of all – no trouble starting the fire. Just flip a switch.

So there’s a lot to love about gas fireplaces, and it’s easy to get lulled into complacency and believe you don’t need to clean your gas fireplace either.

The truth is, you do need to clean it, just a lot less often than a wood-burning fireplace. The recommended frequency to clean and maintain a gas fireplace is once per year. If you want to use B&C Comfort and are in our service area (click here and scroll all the way to the end), we are regularly booked out several months in advance, so get on our schedule today.

Schedule my fireplace cleaning

Why You Need to Clean Your Gas Fireplace

But why must we clean our gas fireplaces if they burn so cleanly and make no visible mess?

Here’s the simple answer: all fire (combustion) produces waste products.

In general, the products of combustion are water vapor and carbon dioxide. But it’s not that simple. Water can react to metals and form rust, or combine with certain other chemicals to form corrosive acids, even very mild ones that take years to be noticed (see this article from the Chimney Safety Institute for more)  Carbon dioxide is one of those chemicals – it can combine with water to produce carbonic acid. Your fireplace can also create other waste products such as carbon monoxide, which is a deadline odorless gas.

So regardless of what else might be crawling around in your chimney, venting system, and in the components of your fireplace, over time you will build up soot and other residues.

These residues will collect on the glass doors, the internal fireplace parts, the walls, the fake logs, and in the chimney/venting.

They will affect performance.

They will affect visibility.

They will affect safety.

Over time, an uncleaned gas fireplace will develop clogged or partially clogged gas lines and air passages. The motion of your fans will become inhibited. Small leaks can form.

Nothing works forever without ongoing maintenance. And let’s not forget, you are using this fireplace to burn a fire in your house. So, once a year, it’s a pretty smart move to make sure everything is cleaned and in working order.

Additional Gas Fireplace Maintenance Issues

Besides just the residues and soot collecting on everything, your annual fireplace cleaning is the perfect time to make sure everything else is working properly. Here are a few other items a professional can look at while they’re cleaning your fireplace.

  • Check functionality of thermopile and thermocouple, as applicable
  • Check that venting system is working properly (a major safety issue)
  • Look for chipped or cracked glass doors
  • Evaluate status of ceramic or faux logs – these too wear down over time
  • Do a carbon monoxide test

It takes a trained eye to quickly evaluate the quality and functionality of these and other gas fireplace components.

But in addition to cleaning, it’s very important to keep your fireplace working in perfect shape. It maximizes your energy efficiency, maintains optimal safety, and keeps your fireplace looking great.

If you live in our service area (scroll to the end of this page to find out) and haven’t cleaned your fireplace in a long time (or ever), now’s a good time to get on our busy schedule.

Schedule your next fireplace cleaning

 

Gas vs Wood Fireplaces – Which is Right For You?

Thursday, February 15th, 2018

How to Choose Between Gas and Wood for My Fireplace and My Home

Gas or wood? That is the question that divides us. Forget cats vs dogs, coke vs pepsi, or whether you roll your toilet paper over the top or under the bottom. None of that stuff affects your life the way the decision to use gas or wood does.

The gas vs wood decision affects your wallet, your air quality, and the world around you. (Okay, maybe cats vs dogs does too).

If you’re looking to upgrade your fireplace or are home-shopping, and don’t want to regret your fireplace of choice after owning it for several years, here’s your guide to choosing between gas and wood fireplaces.
when choosing gas vs wood fireplaces gas is simpler and easier to manage

Gas vs Wood? Choose Gas If…

  1. You Are Too Busy to Mess with a Fireplace

Gas fireplaces take way less time out of your life than wood ones. You just flip a switch, and the fire’s on. No finding wood to buy or chop. No lugging it in the house. No kindling to deal with, or matches, or newspapers. And little to no cleaning – in your home or in a chimney (and you don’t even need a chimney for gas, just a vent – more on that in a bit).

So if your life is very busy and you just want the warmth or beauty of a fireplace without the hassle, gas is a no-brainer.

  1. You Love Trees

No trees were harmed in the making of or use of your gas fireplace. Simply put, to use a wood fireplace, you have to cut down trees. And so does everyone else using them. If that bothers you or you feel it’s a waste of a hard-to-replace natural resource, then wood fireplaces are not for you.

  1. Energy Efficiency Is Your Middle Name

 Gas fireplaces are more energy efficient than wood. There’s no comparison here. To get the same amount of heat from a wood fireplace costs much more than for gas (unless you have a free wood supply), and you lose a lot of heat up the chimney too. So you’ll have to burn a lot more wood to get the same amount of heat as you would from a gas fireplace.

  1. You Hate Cleaning

 Cleaning a wood fireplace takes a lot of work. After every fire, you have to clean out all the ash and dispose of it. It’s dusty. It’s dirty. It makes you cough and sneeze. If you have glass doors, you have to clean those. And the hearth. And every so often, the chimney itself, or your risk of a chimney fire from creosote increases with each passing year.

You do have to clean a gas fireplace too, but not after every fire. Very little debris or residue shows up. And what cleaning does need to happen, about once a year, is best done by a professional. So in effect, you never have to clean your gas fireplace. But you always have to clean your wood one. Never or always. That’s your choice.

  1. You Like Money

This one isn’t so simple, so bear with us for some explanation. In general, a gas fireplace will be about three times cheaper to use than a wood one. Paying for the amount of gas it takes to heat your home with a fireplace is much less than the cost of paying for wood. It goes back to the efficiency question, as well as the simple cost of these resources. Wood is expensive, for how much you need for consistent fires.

That said, there are some variables that can make this swing a lot of directions, so consider the following:

  • If natural gas is very costly in your area, the cost of using your gas fireplace will go up
  • If wood is very expensive to purchase where you live (like in Seattle), the cost of a wood fireplace will be even higher
  • If your home has no gas lines in the street, you’d have to get a tank and pay for all the installation. That greatly increases your setup costs, and invites a new set of issues you have to deal with
  • If your street has gas lines, but your home isn’t set up with a gas fireplace, your cost of installation will go up substantially
  • If you have an inside track on free wood and don’t mind chopping it yourself (or know a friend who knows a friend), your cost of wood burning will go way down

So – the cost question really depends on a lot of factors. You’ll have to figure out what applies to your situation.

  1. You Like Clean Air

Wood burns much dirtier than gas, and pollutes the air at a far higher rate – 99% more according to this article.

  1. You Like Freedom

If you live in certain places, sometimes poor air quality makes the government put out a “burn ban.” In those situations, you will be fined if you light up a wood fire – no matter how cold it is outside. And there’s no hiding your smoke.

When there’s a burn ban in place, where there’s smoke, there’s a hefty fine from the government. A gas fireplace gives you the freedom to have a fire when you want one, no matter what.

  1. You Hate Spiders

    choosing wood vs gas means having a woodpile and a woodpile means spiders

Don’t laugh. That wood pile sitting in the backyard for the past year (because you want to be sure your wood is nice and dry before burning it)? It’s spider heaven. If you don’t want to deal with spiders, you can always send your teenager out to bang the bugs off the wood in the dark and cold. But then you run the risk of traumatizing them for life when they walk back in the house with a big black spider crawling up their leg.

And, you’ll have created a new gas fireplace customer for life…

Gas vs Wood? Choose Wood If…

  1. The Cost Works Out In Your Favor

See Reason #5 up above in the gas section. If natural gas isn’t available in your home, then wood is probably going to be cheaper. Or, if your living situation is such that you can get free or very cheap and consistent supplies of wood, then wood will be less costly.

Again, the cost question depends on a lot of variables. Look at your situation to see if wood works out in your favor.

  1. You Like the Beauty of a Wood Fire

Fake logs have come a long way, and from a distance, it can be hard to tell the difference if you don’t stare at your gas fireplace for too long. But in reality, there’s no replacing the beauty of a wood fire.
wood coals and smells are one advantage of wood vs gas

If you own a gas fireplace and like to curl up in front of the fire, you’ll be staring at the exact same configuration of logs for years. Get used to it.

  1. Nothing Beats the Sounds and Smells of a Wood Fire

Gas doesn’t crackle. The flame generally looks about the same. There’s no interesting or unexpected coals or colors. And, gas can smell – if you’re not venting properly – but it’s not a nice smell in that case. This is a rare and unlikely problem that can be fixed. But, wood burning smells great (as long as you use the damper properly).

If you like having the campfire effect in your home, then wood fireplaces are the way to go.

  1. You Enjoy the Labor of Love that is a Wood Fire

If you enjoy making a fire and the work that goes into it, and that’s more important than the convenience of gas, then that’s a lifestyle choice you will want to consider. Chopping wood can be gratifying. Arranging logs and getting it to light can be a fun accomplishment and something to teach your kids. Pushing them around as it burns down and adding more wood to the fire is fun too.

The experience of a real wood fireplace can’t be replicated with gas. If that experience has value for you, then go for wood.

 

Should You Choose Gas or Wood for Your Fireplace?

Hopefully you’ve had fun reading this and have what you need to make your decision.

Gas vs wood is a big decision that will affect your life, your time, and your budget for years to come. If you have more questions about gas fireplaces, you can always give us a call and we’ll be happy to answer!

But one more word about gas venting. If you want to avoid the ‘smell’ problem of gas, you want direct vent fireplaces, not B-vent. Even with B-venting you shouldn’t have a smell problem. If you do, that means you have either an improper combustion situation or a venting flaw. Neither of these are common. B-venting was more common in years past, but few new fireplaces use it today.

More than the smell though (which again is a rare problem), direct venting is more efficient than B-venting. That’s the main reason most of the industry has switched to direct venting.

 

Learn more about direct venting and other fireplace installation questions.

Wondering about ventless gas fireplaces? We recommend against them. See why.

 

Why We Don’t Install or Service Ventless Fireplaces

Monday, January 9th, 2017

Risks of “Vent-free” Fireplaces not Worth the Benefits

Ventless fireplaces are simply too unsafe for us to work on and still stand by our commitment to your safety. While it’s true there are no documented deaths from ventless fireplaces, it’s also true that many people report headaches and other health problems that seem to be caused by them.

But if that’s all true, why are ventless fireplaces even allowed to be sold?

A Quick Guide to Vent-Free Fireplaces

Just like the name implies, ventless fireplaces have no vents. A typical fireplace has either a flue or a chimney. Why? Because fire is a combustion reaction, and it produces gases and other waste products that have to go somewhere. But with a chimney you also lose some of the desirable heat.

The theory behind ventless fireplaces is that if we can burn the fire clean enough and minimize the gases produced, we can reap the benefits of having more heat come in the home.

Also, they are less expensive and easier to install, and they can look nice as part of a room in places you don’t normally see a fireplace, such as the side of a wall.

Ventless fireplaces burn natural gas or propane, and they get their oxygen fuel from the air inside your house. They can be powered by electricity, or alcohol gels.

They typically come with carbon monoxide detectors that will automatically shut off the fire if the CO levels get too high.

And therein lies the main reason we don’t do ventless at B&C Comfort.

Are You Comfortable Trusting Your Life to a CO Detector?

We aren’t. With a ventless fireplace, you are knowingly producing deadly (and odorless) carbon monoxide and letting it into your home, as well as carbon dioxide, which is harmful too if you get too much of it in a closed room. At the same time, you’re using up the oxygen to burn the fire.

So, you’re reducing the oxygen you need to breathe, and you’re increasing the gases that can harm or even kill you.

Is that a comfortable way to live? Not to us.

Gas has to go somewhere. It doesn’t matter how clean the fire burns. It will produce carbon dioxide and water vapor – guaranteed. And if the combustion process becomes more inefficient, such as from a buildup of soot on the logs, then more deadly CO will also be produced. That’s basic science.

So if your CO detector fails, you are putting yourself at serious risk.

Some states and countries have even outlawed them because of these risks. And even businesses who continue to install ventless fireplaces agree that people with asthma or other respiratory illnesses shouldn’t use them.

If there were no risk at all, then their proponents wouldn’t agree even with these exceptions.

4 More Reasons to Remove a Ventless Fireplace If You Have One

  • They smell bad. Why? Because other waste products from combustion also get sent into your home.
  • They still require maintenance and cleaning. If soot builds up in your regular gas fireplace, you just lose some efficiency. That’s not good, and it’s why fireplace cleaning is one of our main services. But if soot builds up in a ventless fireplace, you’ll produce more carbon monoxide, and it will come into your home. That’s life-threatening. Cleaning now becomes about saving your life, rather than just keeping the fireplace working right.
  • Log placement is equally vital, for the same reasons as maintenance and cleaning. Again, this matters in regular gas fireplaces too. Click here for more information about gas fireplace log placement.
  • Ventless fireplaces also produce a lot of water vapor – another byproduct of combustion. Again, you can’t avoid this. It will happen, and it means your house will be more humid. Depending on where you live, some people want more moisture. But here in the northwest, more moisture usually means a greater risk of mold.

While ventless fireplaces certainly have some benefits – less cost, attractive appearance, easier to install, more heat – the risks they carry are simply too great.

We aren’t willing to risk the health and safety of our customers. For that reason, and all the others you’ve just read, we don’t install or service ventless fireplaces. And if you do get any health problems from a ventless fireplace, your cost savings have just gone up in smoke.

If you have a ventless fireplace and want it removed – contact us today and we’ll schedule an appointment.

For more about our award-winning fireplace repair and maintenance service, or to make an appointment:

Visit our fireplace services page

 

Did Your Fake Logs Fall Over?

Wednesday, September 14th, 2016

Read This Before Buying or Re-arranging Fake Logs In Your Gas Fireplace

Some Tasks are Do-it-yourself. Not This One.

The internet loves to give advice. When it comes to fake logs in your gas fireplace, you should ignore and run the opposite direction from most of it. Why? Three reasons:

1) Safety – it’s your life
2) Functionality – how long do you want your fireplace to last?
3) Compatibility – round pegs don’t fit in square holes

(Note: if this video is sideways – try viewing in Chrome, or update your Firefox to the latest version. Or just turn your head to the side 🙂 )

Fake gas fireplace logs are made of ceramic or a similar material. These absorb high amounts of heat without being damaged. Without them, most of the heat from the burning gas would just escape out the vent. By retaining more heat, the ceramic provides warmth and comfort for your home. They also look nice.

But sometimes the logs fall over or have other issues, and need to be replaced or put back in position.

Let’s take a closer look at the three reasons you should never arrange your own ceramic gas fireplace logs.

1. Fireplace Safety – avoid the silent killer

This is pretty serious stuff, and we can talk about it in common language or with science, but the conclusion is the same: Incorrect or improper log placement can lead to higher levels of carbon monoxide from your fireplace.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is known as the “silent killer.” This is the gas you’ve heard about that kills people just by putting them to sleep. It has no odor, so there’s no warning unless you have a CO detector.

CO deaths are more common in winter, when storms knock out the power. Someone figures they can heat their house by bringing their barbecue inside the home. Burning the coals or the gas produces excess CO. If too much fills the house, it puts everyone to sleep, and they never wake up. It’s a tragic and totally preventable situation.

What does this have to do with fake fireplace logs?

Logs are designed by the manufacturers of each fireplace brand. They give specific recommendations for how they should be arranged so they don’t interfere with the flow of gas. The right gas flow prevents what science calls incomplete combustion. With complete combustion, you produce carbon dioxide. But with incomplete, you get CO.

So if the gas flow is interfered with too much, you are potentially producing deadly amounts of carbon monoxide.

If you go in there and place the logs yourself, just purely based on how it looks, you are unlikely to place them how the manufacturer says they should be.

Too many websites out there tell you fake logs are only for “aesthetics” – for a visually pleasing fireplace since you aren’t using any wood.

Not true. They are also there to provide heat while improving safety. Place them incorrectly, and you risk unnecessary danger.

2. Fireplace Function – save money, make it last

Another consequence of incorrect log placement is the increase in sooting. Too much soot decreases the functionality of your fireplace and shortens the life span. It clogs the gas flow, reduces the heat output, and requires more frequent cleanings than should be necessary.

If you’re paying someone to clean your fireplace (and you should be), you’ll be paying them a lot more often if your aesthetically pleasing but wrong log placement makes your fireplace get covered with soot.

Why hire an expert cleaner? Because they know all the places to clean without damaging the components and will extend its useful life.

(If you live in the Snohomish County, Monroe, Lynnwood, Kirkland, Mountlake Terrace or surrounding areas and need a fireplace cleaning and maintenance, now’s a good time to make an appointment with B&C before the winter hits).

3. Fireplace Compatibility – any ol’ set of fake logs won’t do

Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is a science safety testing nonprofit. They test and certify all sorts of products for safety and functionality, including gas fireplaces.

Their testing standards and results are based upon specific arrangements of the fake logs. This is why the manufacturers have the recommended arrangements. It’s not just for how it looks. They consider that too. But the safety and compatibility standards are based on rigorous testing by UL that presumes the logs are arranged in a certain way.

If you rearrange them how you want, you are deviating from the tested and proven standards. Any problems you face after that will likely be blamed on you if you were to try the lawsuit thing, should anything go wrong with your fireplace.

The bottom line is – logs sets are designed by each brand to fit that specific fireplace a certain way. That’s why you can’t just go buy any ol’ set of fake logs and assume they will work in your fireplace.

But What If My Ceramic Logs Keep Falling Over?

That can happen. If so, you’re best option is to have a professional come out and arrange them back in the proper way. If it’s been a while since your last cleaning and maintenance, your fireplace repair technician will probably fix the logs at no extra charge if you do it all at once.

Again, if your logs fall over, you should not use your fireplace. And you should not try to place them back the way they were. Have a professional come out and make sure it gets done according to UL standards and brand recommendations.

Need some help with your gas fireplace logs?

Call B&C and tell us what’s wrong, or have us come out to take a look!