Replies

1. 
   shelternerd | Sep 10, 2007 03:24am | #1

   Done it a few times. There is a gas shut off with a long key that gets buried in the front of the fireplace. and black iron to an eight inch burner that gets buried in the ashes under the logs. to light it you toss on a burning piece of newspaper and cut on the gas. No safety. just a decent valve and black iron pipe. you can remove the key if you have the kind of kids who would play with gas in the living room fireplace but my clients have left the key in place.

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   "You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."

2. 
   junkhound | Sep 10, 2007 03:24am | #2

   There may be products, I dont know.

   I do know it is not something I would ever do, but then I've had some pretty hot heating fires. Melts amuminum, de-brazes copper, acids in wood ash eats holes in black iron over time, etc. 

   Maybe for just an "atmosphere" type F/P? 

1. 
   Pertz | Sep 10, 2007 04:02am | #4

   No, I expect to use this regularly. Was hoping somebody made something that would live through it (perhaps a way to funnel gas through firebrick).

1. 
   shelternerd | Sep 10, 2007 07:21am | #5

   << No, I expect to use this regularly. Was hoping somebody made something that would live through it (perhaps a way to funnel gas through firebrick).>>I did have to go back and replace one that had burned out after about seven or eight years. We pulled up the firebrick and stripped back the pipe to the valve. The black iron was pretty worthless on the fire side of the valve and the burner head was corroded to bits but we were able to pull up enough firebrick off the floor of the fireplace to get in and replace the valve (there was nothing wrong with the valve except that we torqued it up a lot getting to it and it was cheap to go ahead and replace it since we were replacing all the black iron between it and the burner head)We just get the kits from our local gas fireplace supplier. Main thing is if you dope those fittings together and then heat them up good the dope will seize. But if you have it doped up good to the valve and keep the valve in a place that will stay cool then it doesn't matter how well or not you dope the pipe between the valve and the burner head (since the burner head is just a chunk of cast iron with a bunch of holes drilled in it there is no pressure to cause the pipe to leak between the valve and the burner) so you can put the pipe between the burner and the valve together with teflon tape and just plan to replace it in five to ten years. ------------------

   "You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."

2. 
   junkhound | Sep 10, 2007 08:18pm | #6

   funnel gas through firebrick

   That would work, not much detail on the internet (just looked), go get a library copy of some 'combustion engineering' type books, there are hundreds of schemes for firing power plant boilers, all deal with the same situation.

   Probably more work than lighting a fire which is often part of the 'joy' of heating with wood. 

   When we heated with wood (1971 to 2002), we gave the kids (12 YO and up) 50 cents to$1.00 for starting the fire. 

   Even in the summer the 5 YO grandkid wants to start a fire everytime.

1. 
   Pertz | Sep 10, 2007 08:46pm | #7

   well, at those rates, of course he would...thanks.

3. 
   DanH | Sep 10, 2007 03:52am | #3

   These log lighters used to just consist of a piece of black iron pipe with holes in it, running the width of the fireplace a few inches off the bottom. Haven't seen one in a long time, though,

   So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin