2 years ago I bought a condo built in the mid-80s, with a Marco gas-starter fireplace (Marco is no longer in business). The fireplace can in theory burn wood as well as a gas insert. Before I moved in I had a chimney inspection and some work done to the chimney cap and minor repair work around the fireplace itself (new starter pipe, sealing etc). Instead of using a gas insert, I wanted to install a burner for fireglass, but the repair company refused because they said the FP was not "technically approved" for fireglass, though they all said they thought it was probably fine its just because they didn't have fireglass when it was built and since Marco is no longer in business they couldn't technically validate the fireplace was OK for that. But they said they really thought it would be fine they just coudn't do it themselves.
So, I ended up doing what one of my neighbors did, which is simply put the fireglass in covering the starter pipe, and lighting the starter pipe whenever I use it. I know this is not "ideal" and the fireplace guys said I "shouldn't" do that, but they also weren't willing to install a fireglass burner so it was either do that, or start all over again with another vendor which I didn't want to do. I don't use the fireplace often (I live in Los Angeles) but I do enjoy it when I use it. However, there's the part of me that alway is concerned that this is not the correct set up. So my question is: is this just not "ideal" but OK for occasional use, or is it so bad I'm actually at risk of blowing up my townhouse? Or some level of "mildly bad" in between. I would ideally like to keep the situation as I have it but I need to do an assessment of how risky this REALLY is (as opposed to what the guy trying to sell me a fireglass burner or will tell me).
Thanks in advance for any advice...
So, I ended up doing what one of my neighbors did, which is simply put the fireglass in covering the starter pipe, and lighting the starter pipe whenever I use it. I know this is not "ideal" and the fireplace guys said I "shouldn't" do that, but they also weren't willing to install a fireglass burner so it was either do that, or start all over again with another vendor which I didn't want to do. I don't use the fireplace often (I live in Los Angeles) but I do enjoy it when I use it. However, there's the part of me that alway is concerned that this is not the correct set up. So my question is: is this just not "ideal" but OK for occasional use, or is it so bad I'm actually at risk of blowing up my townhouse? Or some level of "mildly bad" in between. I would ideally like to keep the situation as I have it but I need to do an assessment of how risky this REALLY is (as opposed to what the guy trying to sell me a fireglass burner or will tell me).
Thanks in advance for any advice...