Yellow flickers in gas fire flame

[foxhole]

Blue flame good, yellow/orange unburnt gas, potential for dangerous gases.
Gas appliances should be checked annually by gas safe engineer .
If we don’t hear from you again we will know why .

 

[Lucky Luke]

you do realise a jackdaw can fill a chimney with twigs in the matter of weeks birds /Squirrels quite often build nests in chimneys something as simple as spiders cobwebs can stop a chimney pulling not mention other debri etc that falls down . And as your not able to get it to burn properly your obviously missing something very basic ,
But dont worry its only been 12 years

Gas12, I take your point about even spider webs reducing the draw of a chimney (it's a metal tube inside the brick chimney). Thanks for pointing that out. With regard to birds, there is a cowl on the top of the stack that would prevent birds from doing something really drastic.

My original posting was to ask whether the momentary flickers of yellow show that something is wrong. Now, it seems that you are of the opinion that those flickers do indeed show something wrong. On the other hand, Harry Bloomfield tells me that this is perfectly normal. The result of these conflicting opinions is that, because of what Harry says, I shall tend not to worry about them. However, because you seem to think differently, I shall probably have it serviced next summer, just to be on the safe side.

One final observation: In the past, months after my annual amateur's "service" I would notice that yellow flames were starting to appear. These were big enough, and persistent enough, to indicate (even to me) that all was not well. Accordingly, I would do my own "service" again by washing the burner-tube, also the radiants. After that had been done, the yellow flames would always cease — for several months. It's only since I stopped washing the burner-tube (because it started to show rust) that I have merely vacced the burners, and the subsequent persistence of small yellow flickers had caused doubts to arise. I find what Harry said is reassuring (he must have had some basis for saying what he did), but next summer, I shall do a service all the same, but with my concern having been greatly reduced.
L.L.

 

[Madrab]

The baseline with gas fires and appliances should always be - if there is ever any concern then get a GSR engineer in to check the fire and flue. That way ambiguity is removed and the fire and flue is certified as safe to use.

An online forum is just that, a remote forum that isn't actually there onsite therefore can only give best guess advice. Never take chances with your health and safety and always have any gas appliances checked regularly - yearly is strongly advised.

That and always use a certified CO detector that is suitably placed (I have forgotten how many CO detectors I have come across are on top of a mantlepiece hidden behind a picture or clock rendering them practically useless) as an early warning system.

 

[gas112]

Yep great decision to get it serviced when your not using it in the summer and carry on using it when its not right even with your amateur eye and 20 odd years of observing how it usually burns telling you its not right

 

[Diver Fred]

Have you considered that you could be invalidating house insurances if you have a fire that is attributed to your gas fire?

 

[Lucky Luke]

Have you considered that you could be invalidating house insurances if you have a fire that is attributed to your gas fire?

No, Fred, that has not occurred to me. However, if you saw the way the fire is burning, you would see why I'm not in the least concerned about that.
L.L.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

No, Fred, that has not occurred to me. However, if you saw the way the fire is burning, you would see why I'm not in the least concerned about that.
L.L.

A short video might set minds at rest.

 

[gas112]

A short video might set minds at rest.

that
would mean he is telling truth and not on a windup

 

[Lucky Luke]

A short video might set minds at rest.

Harry, such is my mind-set, that a video would never have occurred to me! (It didn't occur to anyone else, either, did it?) They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and in a case like this, it is worth many more than a thousand. I did take a short video and tried to upload it to this reply, today. Unfortunately, when I try to select it on my desktop, after clicking on "Attach files" (bottom left-hand corner, here), the file is greyed-out and cannot be selected for uploading. It's an mp4. With still images, there has been no problem in the past. I shall need to take a screenshot from it, which will show the bluish flame well enough. I suppose you (or rather, gas112) will just have to believe me, when I say that occasionally, there is a yellow flicker. Sometimes this may be as high as one and a half inches, at other times, only half an inch. In all cases, they are only momentary. If I can find out how to get the video to this forum, I shall send it. However, even if I succeeded, it would only be an elongated version of the still photo, as the video does not show any yellow flickers occurring.

The radiant looks rather dull red, but I suppose it varies with the demand for gas, at different times of the day.
L.L.

 

[Madrab]

I would consider a very occasion yellow flicker as a piece of dust or fluff being drawn into the fire and being burnt and would not be any concern. If the flame becomes more yellow more often and/or there is sooting/blackening evident at the top of the radiant, then that would be a greater cause for concern.

Again though, this is only guess work and only an on-site GSR engineer is really the only one that can make that decision correctly.

 

[Lucky Luke]

Blue flame good, yellow/orange unburnt gas, potential for dangerous gases.
Gas appliances should be checked annually by gas safe engineer .
If we don’t hear from you again we will know why .

Nice touch that, foxhole! Ha ha! In the summer, I probably will have it properly inspected. I have listened to different views on this matter and am persuaded that I can affford to wait until then to have it done. Thanks to all of you that have taken the trouble to reply. It's much appreciated!
L.L.

I would consider a very occasion yellow flicker as a piece of dust or fluff being drawn into the fire and being burnt and would not be any concern. If the flame becomes more yellow more often and/or there is sooting/blackening evident at the top of the radiant, then that would be a greater cause for concern.

Again though, this is only guess work and only an on-site GSR engineer is really the only one that can make that decision correctly.

Thanks Madrab. At least you — like Harry — allow for a possibility that a brief yellow flame is not necessarily the end of the world. By the way, there never has been any soot on the radiants.
L.L.