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OT - gas fireplace question (kinda long)
I am coming to the group of all knowledge with a question. I have
limited experience with gas fireplaces, mostly with the newer ones. A friend of mine recently had an unfortunate learning experience with the fireplace in his apartment, and I'm trying to figure out just how much of a dunce he had to be. 1) Gas fireplaces with a "key" to turn on the gas - are these mostly the older models, or do the newer ones also have these? 2) Is there an obvious lever, pull-chain, or other mechanism to use for opening the flue in the chimney? 3) Don't the fake logs come standard with gas fireplaces? Here's what happened. Friend decided that it would be romantic to have a fire in the fireplace. His gf was in the kitchen making cocoa to sip by the romantic fire. Suddenly she heard a "whoomp" in the living room. Upon entering, she found him sprawled out on the floor, his glasses on the other side of the room (broken), and a Prestolog (!!!) burning in the fireplace. He instructed her to turn the gas off at the "key". She did. As the room started filling with smoke (he failed to open the flue) the smoke alarm went off. She went to remove the battery to make it quiet. Learned that the smoke detectors are hard-wired into the electrical system. She threw water on the Prestolog to try to extinguish it. Learned that water does not extinguish burning Prestologs. He told her where to find the fire extinguisher. She used it to put out the fire. Now they were sitting in a room partially filled with smoke and fire extinguisher residue. He went upstairs to clean up and see how badly his face was burned. Came back down and said he couldn't feel parts of his face. They now know where the closest Emergency Room is in their town. They also learned that the ER is in teaching hospital in a neighborhood where blond, blue-eyed white people are in the extreme minority, and that the ER has a metal detector at the door and bullet-proof glass at the desk. Also that injured people do not necessarily have to stop and empty their pockets at the metal detector. Turns out that he has first and second degree burns on his face - and will be quite embarrased when he hears from all of his friends about this. ;-) For those not familiar with Prestologs, they are compressed sawdust logs. - Denise (owned and manipulated by Brenna) |
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"Denise VanDyke" wrote in message ... I am coming to the group of all knowledge with a question. I have limited experience with gas fireplaces, mostly with the newer ones. A friend of mine recently had an unfortunate learning experience with the fireplace in his apartment, and I'm trying to figure out just how much of a dunce he had to be. 1) Gas fireplaces with a "key" to turn on the gas - are these mostly the older models, or do the newer ones also have these? Many years ago we had a gas log and you turned a lever and then lit the burner. Only lost my eyebrows once. 2) Is there an obvious lever, pull-chain, or other mechanism to use for opening the flue in the chimney? IF the fireplace has a flue and a chimney. And in ours it isn't so obvious. We have a hard time remembering from season to season which is on and which is off. A fireplace for a gas log only does not smoke and is vented differently to clear out fumes. So it depends. If it was designed for gas only he was a huge idiot to try to burn anythin in it. If the gas was intended to use to start a wood fire he was only a major idiot. 3) Don't the fake logs come standard with gas fireplaces? No. And the might have been there once and been removed. Question, was there a grate for logs in the fireplace? Here's what happened. Friend decided that it would be romantic to have a fire in the fireplace. His gf was in the kitchen making cocoa to sip by the romantic fire. Suddenly she heard a "whoomp" in the living room. Upon entering, she found him sprawled out on the floor, his glasses on the other side of the room (broken), and a Prestolog (!!!) burning in the fireplace. He instructed her to turn the gas off at the "key". She did. As the room started filling with smoke (he failed to open the flue) the smoke alarm went off. She went to remove the battery to make it quiet. Learned that the smoke detectors are hard-wired into the electrical system. She threw water on the Prestolog to try to extinguish it. Learned that water does not extinguish burning Prestologs. He told her where to find the fire extinguisher. She used it to put out the fire. Now they were sitting in a room partially filled with smoke and fire extinguisher residue. He went upstairs to clean up and see how badly his face was burned. Came back down and said he couldn't feel parts of his face. They now know where the closest Emergency Room is in their town. They also learned that the ER is in teaching hospital in a neighborhood where blond, blue-eyed white people are in the extreme minority, and that the ER has a metal detector at the door and bullet-proof glass at the desk. Also that injured people do not necessarily have to stop and empty their pockets at the metal detector. Turns out that he has first and second degree burns on his face - and will be quite embarrased when he hears from all of his friends about this. ;-) For those not familiar with Prestologs, they are compressed sawdust logs. - Denise (owned and manipulated by Brenna) Sending purrs for the injured. And cat box scooping for whoever rented him the place without explaining how things worked. Jo |
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Denise VanDyke wrote in news:405F3166.3020504
@NOSPAMopen.org: I am coming to the group of all knowledge with a question. I have limited experience with gas fireplaces, mostly with the newer ones. A friend of mine recently had an unfortunate learning experience with the fireplace in his apartment, and I'm trying to figure out just how much of a dunce he had to be. 1) Gas fireplaces with a "key" to turn on the gas - are these mostly the older models, or do the newer ones also have these? 2) Is there an obvious lever, pull-chain, or other mechanism to use for opening the flue in the chimney? 3) Don't the fake logs come standard with gas fireplaces? Geez...while very funny, the guy is an idiot. keys are typical of OLD gas fireplaces if the fireplace is NOT ventless, there is a vent that goes to outside. Sometimes turned on manually which is what I suspect given the key Gas logs always come with the grate. My ventless gas fireplaces are turned on by remote. Sorta cool if I'm sitting across the room. BTW, Bonnie loves to lie in her kitty bed right in front of it when it's on. -- StocksRus® |
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StocksRus® wrote:
Denise VanDyke wrote in news:405F3166.3020504 @NOSPAMopen.org: I am coming to the group of all knowledge with a question. I have limited experience with gas fireplaces, mostly with the newer ones. A friend of mine recently had an unfortunate learning experience with the fireplace in his apartment, and I'm trying to figure out just how much of a dunce he had to be. 1) Gas fireplaces with a "key" to turn on the gas - are these mostly the older models, or do the newer ones also have these? 2) Is there an obvious lever, pull-chain, or other mechanism to use for opening the flue in the chimney? 3) Don't the fake logs come standard with gas fireplaces? Geez...while very funny, the guy is an idiot. keys are typical of OLD gas fireplaces if the fireplace is NOT ventless, there is a vent that goes to outside. Sometimes turned on manually which is what I suspect given the key Gas logs always come with the grate. My ventless gas fireplaces are turned on by remote. Sorta cool if I'm sitting across the room. BTW, Bonnie loves to lie in her kitty bed right in front of it when it's on. Thanks for the info. Normally, he's fairly intelligent, but sometimes he isn't very bright. I'm kind of hoping that the next time he comes back to town to visit is in the summer to we have plenty of chances to tease him. "Hey, want some charcoal for that gas grill?" ;-) - Denise |
#5
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Geez...while very funny, the guy is an idiot.
Weeelll, I wouldn't say he's an idiot. He probably just didn't have any experience with gas fireplaces. I don't either, and I know that "whump" sound very well from a terrible experience with a real fireplace/Christmas tree mistake. I wasn't an idiot, really, I just had no idea that Christmas trees exploded. Nobody got hurt, but I cracked the whole firelace. Just like our "mistake", it sounds very lucky nobody got hurt. Sherry |
#6
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Jo Firey wrote:
"Denise VanDyke" wrote in message ... I am coming to the group of all knowledge with a question. I have limited experience with gas fireplaces, mostly with the newer ones. A friend of mine recently had an unfortunate learning experience with the fireplace in his apartment, and I'm trying to figure out just how much of a dunce he had to be. 1) Gas fireplaces with a "key" to turn on the gas - are these mostly the older models, or do the newer ones also have these? Many years ago we had a gas log and you turned a lever and then lit the burner. Only lost my eyebrows once. 2) Is there an obvious lever, pull-chain, or other mechanism to use for opening the flue in the chimney? IF the fireplace has a flue and a chimney. And in ours it isn't so obvious. We have a hard time remembering from season to season which is on and which is off. A fireplace for a gas log only does not smoke and is vented differently to clear out fumes. So it depends. If it was designed for gas only he was a huge idiot to try to burn anythin in it. If the gas was intended to use to start a wood fire he was only a major idiot. 3) Don't the fake logs come standard with gas fireplaces? No. And the might have been there once and been removed. Question, was there a grate for logs in the fireplace? Here's what happened. Friend decided that it would be romantic to have a fire in the fireplace. His gf was in the kitchen making cocoa to sip by the romantic fire. Suddenly she heard a "whoomp" in the living room. snip story for brevity For those not familiar with Prestologs, they are compressed sawdust logs. - Denise (owned and manipulated by Brenna) Sending purrs for the injured. And cat box scooping for whoever rented him the place without explaining how things worked. Jo Thanks. He'd appreciate the purrs, as he is fond of animals. I don't know for sure what kind of prior experience he had with gas fires, but he's sure learned a few things from this experience. - Denise |
#7
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Denise VanDyke wrote: I am coming to the group of all knowledge with a question. I have limited experience with gas fireplaces, mostly with the newer ones. A friend of mine recently had an unfortunate learning experience with the fireplace in his apartment, and I'm trying to figure out just how much of a dunce he had to be. 1) Gas fireplaces with a "key" to turn on the gas - are these mostly the older models, or do the newer ones also have these? Not sure what you mean by a "key" - something detachable, or just a key-shaped switch? (Theres got to be SOME sort of "handle" for turning on the gas, doesn't there?) 2) Is there an obvious lever, pull-chain, or other mechanism to use for opening the flue in the chimney? I think that rather depends upon whether it was a gas fire originally, or was converted from a functional fireplace. (Although, IIRC, the only two places I've lived that had fireplaces, there WAS no damper, the flue was permanently open.) 3) Don't the fake logs come standard with gas fireplaces? Not neccesarily - in any case you can purchase them separately, and one place I lived had only the gas-pipe and a sort of burner arrangement - the "logs" I had to buy for myself. They can be quite elaborate and realistic, so prices vary enormously. (hilarious story snipped) For those not familiar with Prestologs, they are compressed sawdust logs. .....And are NOT for use with a gas fire! The "logs" for those are artificial, fireproof look-alikes - you aren't supposed to BURN anything but gas in a gas-fireplace - at least not if the gas is turned on! (Although some orignally functional fireplaces can still be used with wood, you have to be careful to clean out the ashes before you use them with gas.) |
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