i don't normally write reviews, and apologies for the length of this one, but I have to give a huge shout out to Rich and Chimney Plus. I have a gas fireplace that would not stay lit. I tried a couple fireplace repair services who replaced every component of the fireplace and concluded that the problem was in exhaust pipe and starving the flame of oxygen. I was told I need to find a chimney guy who would likely have to rip it out and replace it. This would be an extremely messy and costly job.
I got Rich's name from recommendations I found on Facebook. After speaking with him a couple times about my situation, he told me he doesn't deal with that type of installation. I told him I was stuck because nobody has been able to figure it out. He offered to take a look and made it absolutely clear that he also may not be able to find a solution. I was impressed by his need to set expectations and told him to come and give it a shot.
Rich came the next day and in less than 5 minutes he told me "It's not the pipe, it's something electronic. The fireplace is shutting down, not suffocating." He then went up on the roof to confirm that the fireplace was exhausting as it should. He didn't know what the issue was though, and honestly, he could have left at that point. Afterall, I hired him to check the exhaust pipe, which he did.
He began to question me about how the fireplace works and what parts were replaced. Then he asked, "do you control the fireplace from that remote?". I said yes and he asked "have you tried another remote?" The remote is the only part that had not been replaced and nobody ever thought of it being the possible cause. We played around with some settings on the remote and suddenly the fireplace was staying lit. Again, Rich could have left at that point.
Instead, he stayed about two hours and read through the entire installation manual to see if there could be anything else causing the issue. He suggested I try a few things (furniture was in the way so we couldn't do it right then). He then left but returned a few minutes later to check the gas lines to be sure they were sufficient to support all of the gas appliances in the house. He was determined to check everything!
Rich then left, but called me multiple times that day with additional ideas as he continued to research my fireplace online. A couple days later he left printed copies of the documents he found online in my mailbox.
All of this was done as part of the initial call!
The fireplace is still working. I think his initial instinct about the remote causing the issue was correct. A couple times that the fireplace went out since then, I played around with the remote and it re-lit and stayed list. I'm going to order a new remote which I'm confident will solve the problem completely. Rich is a rare find. He's a nice guy who cares. He went above and beyond and saved me a lot of headaches and a lot of money.
I can't recommend Rich and Chimney Plus highly enough. read more