New to older gas fireplace

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Army1rob

New Member
Nov 18, 2018
1
Riverton Ut
I just bought a home and it has an older manual gas fireplace. I figured out how to open the flume but there is another handle that I have no idea what it does. Can anyone help me please? I attached a photo.
 

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If I'm recalling correctly, that lever has two functions:

1. It opens and closes a damper of the top of the fireplace

2. When the damper is closed, a switch prevents the fireplace burner from turning on.


The idea with #1 is to prevent the loss of heated room air up the chimney when the fire is off and #2 is to prevent the fireplace combustion gasses from coming out into the dwelling space by allowing the burner to operate when the damper is closed.


You can confirm this by turning the fireplace on with the wall switch. Then try turning the lever one way and the other. If the burner turns off, the damper is closed in that position. Turn the lever the other way and the damper opens and the burner turns on.

You don't want to use the lever to turn the fireplace burner on and off, though. Use the wall switch for that. But you can close the damper to reduce the room heat that otherwise would go up the vent pipe.
 
Last edited:
There's a rating plate just above that handle, which is probably for combustion air.
Can you tell us what's on that rating plate?
Manufacturer & model of the unit is all we need.
 
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