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Your thermopile should put out 400 to 750 mv. Most fireplace circuits have an on off switch on them. The first thing I would check is the quality of the pilot flame, the pilot could be weak.
Most manuals that I have read have a chart. something like this. up to 40 feet 18-2 up to 80 feet 16-2 up to 100 feet 14-2
It has to be a larger than 18-2 wire, read the manual but it will work on small wire for awhile but eventually have issues. I had one that had same issue, pulled new wire and worked great! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
FYI, thermopiles very seldom fail, looks for excessive millivolt losses in the circuit as cjpwalker has stated.
thanks cjp I'll check that out.
Make sure all of your connections are tight. Check your milivolts - needs to be over 400 unloaded. Check the resistance across your thermostat -- bad contacts or a heat anticipator can cause problems when you are dealing with less than half a volt. Maybe it's time for a nice remote?
Thermopile Question ??? I realize every manufacturer has their own spec's but with that said here are some of my questions: How long of T-stat wire is too long of a run when using a thermopile? What's the best size of wire and type of wire to use for the stat wire? Would it hurt my gas valve if I replaced my thermopile with a larger millivolt one? I've had my fireplace for 15 years now and it's pretty much been inconsistent when it comes to the flame signal producing enough "umph" to kick on the main gas. That's why the questions. Occasionally I'll clean up the thermopile hoping that might help. I've even thought of just putting a switch in parallel with the t-stat so I could override the t-stat. I can't remember the millivolt signal I'm getting. Should have measured it again before I posted this... sorry. Any tips for me, the guy who bought a fireplace and wishes he had paid enough more to get a nicer one? Thanks!
Thermopile Question ???
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