Hello - new member here - our Radiance fireplace (natural gas) runs well after starting but will shut off after a while. I've read some other posts and my guess is that maybe the thermocouple needs to be repositioned or perhaps replaced. Anyone had a similar experience? Thanks.
Vermont Castings Radiance - shuts off unexpectedly
- Thread starter mqmurphy
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Does the pilot go out, or just the burner? The pilot is controlled by the thermocouple. The burner is controlled by the thermopile. If the pilot stays lit, then I’d suspect the thermopile may be failing. You need to take measurements on the thermopile mV output at the valve terminal block with a multimeter. Set the meter to VDC, & touch the meter’s probes to the TP & TP-TH terminals. Light the pilot & take a reading. Light the burner & take another reading. Keep the probes in contact with the terminals & watch your meter. If the mV numbers begin to drop, that will let you know it’s the thermopile.
A question for you, Daksy - though I have a multimeter I am not familiar with its settings - which VDC setting should I set the meter at? I see 200m and 2000m and then 20, 200, 600.
My guess is probably the 200m setting? 'm' for milivolts?
The readings on the meter rose as the pilot heated up - the readings stayed constant after the burner was lit - when the burner and pilot shut off the readings started to drop.
With meter set to 2000m I get a steady reading of 257+/- but here's something odd - anticipating that some disassembly was coming I removed all the "logs" - and restarted the flame - it isn't shutting down now.
Is it possible that somehow misplaced "logs" were interfering with the thermopile ?
At loss here - runs fine with "logs"out - reinstalled them bit by bit, still ran - reinstalled front screen, runs and shuts off.
Now screen off and most "logs" out, it runs.
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What does the multimeter tell you when it shuts off? Do the mV numbers drop slowly, or is there a rapid drop?
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Are you sure meters probes are still contacting the terminals on the valve with that second reading? That's unusual for the voltage to drop after you shut it off. But anyways if it is an old thermopile I would replace the thermopile anyways and I would check all wiring for damage and tight connections. Also how do you turn the stove on? Switch on it, remote, wall tstat?
Hi - yes, probes are on TP TP-TH trerminals. Only doing one reading - stove is started up with knob on front of stove. It ran for about 5-8 minutes, shut itself off. Reading started dropping rapidly from 252 +/- to zero. Probes in contact the whole time.
It just started behaving this way recently - we bought it used, it has worked okay for at least a year.
It just started behaving this way recently - we bought it used, it has worked okay for at least a year.
