Episode III
The service guy came out and did a complete inspection of the unit. After about an hour, they figured out that the pan where the flame comes out was incorrect. The manufacturer had installed a pan for a Propane unit instead of Natural Gas. So, now they have to order a replacement pan and then come out to install it once it arrives.
I seriously hope this is the last issue we have with the unit... Next episode hopefully airing next week.
So I've been deficient in my updates but really didn't want to post anything again until the unit was either fixed or they gave me a refund...
Visit 4 from the fireplace installers consisted of them coming back on Friday of last week with the replacement burner pan and it still wasn't producing the proper flames. When that didn't work, the manufacturer then recommended additional gas line replacement. So visit 5 had them doing addition pipe replacement from the one inch trunk line pipe that they replaced a few weeks ago. There was about 15 feet of half inch pipe that still led to the unit, so they replaced all of the half inch pipe with one inch pipe on Tuesday and low and behold, it still wasn't producing the proper flame height. So the manufacturer finally agreed to send out one of their own people to replace the entire valve assembly (gas flow regulator and pilot light assembly). Visit 6 occurred this morning.
They came in and disassembled the valve assembly from the unit. As soon as they had the assembly off, they compared all of the parts to the new assembly they were going to install today. They could see immediately what the problem was. The opening on the valve from the old assembly was about half the diameter of the one from the new assembly. Even though the valve was identity stamped with the right diameter number, you could see with the naked eye that it wasn't the right size. Once they put the new assembly on and fired the unit up we could all see that the flames were about 6-7 inches in height. They let it run for about 20 minutes and the flames were nice and orange/yellow and the heights were perfect. Once we have performed the 'burn-off' of all of the residual oils and paints tonight, I need to clean the glass and then I'll be able to take pictures and post them.
So after 6 visits from the installers and finally the manufacturer, the unit is finally looking like it was in their brochures and on-line. I also received a call from the tile distributor and our order is ready for pick up. I'm going this weekend to get the tile and will start sealing right away. I will be putting up the rest of the cement board and running the electrical this weekend as well and will hopefully start the finish tile next week. I have 15 days until my wife's family is coming over for Christmas so I need to get cracking!