Hey all. Sorry if this is the wrong sub-forum I wasn't sure if this belonged in appliances or this one. I'm ideally aiming at gas fitters please.
I inherited a Firecraft FF7700 coal effect gas fire with my house, so it's at least 10yrs old but could be 20-30.
This winter it has started turning itself off after anywhere from 10mins to an hour, though as time goes in it's running time seems to becoming shorter and shorter. You can here a quiet thunk when it goes off as the gas safety mechanism kicks in. What it strange though is that the control dial feels spongy if you try to re-light it straight away, instead of a nice firm mechanical click to ignite the pilot, and the pilot won't hold. After a cool down it's back to normal. Can't figure if that's bad, or that's some kind of safety thing to prevent a re-light before it's cooled down?
I've had a gas safe engineer take a look, a little wishful thinking on our part that a good hoover out might be all it needed. Unfortunately it wasn't. In good faith, he's resistant to try any advanced diagnostics which will mean a lot of labour and disassembly, to perhaps be no further on anyway due to lack of parts availability. The horizontal flue seems OK from an in-situ inspection, but it would take the equivalent labour of a full install to check that any further.
He is torn whether it is the pilot/thermocouple assembly that's gone, or it's the gas valve itself. A replacement "Oxy Pilot" is still available for this model, but unless anyone here knows any specialist suppliers of out of production spares, the gas valves are out of production.
So I'm now facing whether to gamble approx £150 on having the Oxy Pilot replaced, and still have a faulty fire, or spend £700-£1000 on a brand new fire. Except I simply don't have the funds right now for a new one. I can afford £150 though, yet that might just be flushed down the drain. After that I would just have to write it off until my bank account is in better shape. The CH is fine but I sure miss a toasty fire.
Could anyone please help with the below?
1] Any voices of experience with these fires?
2] Does the manufacturer still exist? There are several Firecraft's out there but none appear to be gas fire manufacturers. (was thinking a chat to technical support might help).
3] Any trade secrets on sourcing a gas valve?
4] Any diagnostic tips?
Thank you so much for reading!
I inherited a Firecraft FF7700 coal effect gas fire with my house, so it's at least 10yrs old but could be 20-30.
This winter it has started turning itself off after anywhere from 10mins to an hour, though as time goes in it's running time seems to becoming shorter and shorter. You can here a quiet thunk when it goes off as the gas safety mechanism kicks in. What it strange though is that the control dial feels spongy if you try to re-light it straight away, instead of a nice firm mechanical click to ignite the pilot, and the pilot won't hold. After a cool down it's back to normal. Can't figure if that's bad, or that's some kind of safety thing to prevent a re-light before it's cooled down?
I've had a gas safe engineer take a look, a little wishful thinking on our part that a good hoover out might be all it needed. Unfortunately it wasn't. In good faith, he's resistant to try any advanced diagnostics which will mean a lot of labour and disassembly, to perhaps be no further on anyway due to lack of parts availability. The horizontal flue seems OK from an in-situ inspection, but it would take the equivalent labour of a full install to check that any further.
He is torn whether it is the pilot/thermocouple assembly that's gone, or it's the gas valve itself. A replacement "Oxy Pilot" is still available for this model, but unless anyone here knows any specialist suppliers of out of production spares, the gas valves are out of production.
So I'm now facing whether to gamble approx £150 on having the Oxy Pilot replaced, and still have a faulty fire, or spend £700-£1000 on a brand new fire. Except I simply don't have the funds right now for a new one. I can afford £150 though, yet that might just be flushed down the drain. After that I would just have to write it off until my bank account is in better shape. The CH is fine but I sure miss a toasty fire.
Could anyone please help with the below?
1] Any voices of experience with these fires?
2] Does the manufacturer still exist? There are several Firecraft's out there but none appear to be gas fire manufacturers. (was thinking a chat to technical support might help).
3] Any trade secrets on sourcing a gas valve?
4] Any diagnostic tips?
Thank you so much for reading!
