Morning Surprise

[kenandjudy]

Turned on fireplace this morning to take off chill, and it exploded.
Luckily I was right there to turn it off. I had pulled it out,cleaned and inspected before we left Pa. and everything was in good shape. I have not pulled it out to checked, will let you know.
Ken

[Alwims]

Wow, keep us posted. Glad you and yours are ok.

[Rondo]

Ken-- When you pulled it out, cleaned it and inspected it you weren't suppose to hook that propne line back up to it!

[kenandjudy]

Rondo are you sure?
Ken

[trlrboy]

You have a gas fireplace?

[Art-n-Marge]

Actually, you should explain "exploded". If it was propane and it had exploded I doubt you'd be able to post about it.

I'm guessing you might have had an electrical problem where the lamp that is used for illumination failed or there was a poor electrical connection and the resulting arc was like a small explosion. I hope it was nothing you did when you were in there.

Please let us know what you find. There have been others who have had this (maybe without the explosion) where connections were loose or arcing caused some burnt parts.

I took my FP unit apart and checked for this and all was good. It is up there with the things to know, then to check just to make sure all is good.

[Ozz]

Smelled like wires/plastic burning?
Wire probably shorted out, pull her out again and check the wiring, **make sure the thing is 'off line' breaker flipped.

[H. John Kohl]

I agree I think the wire shorted like the one in my post.

[DQDick]

That could give the appearance of an explosion all right.

[PackerFan]

Must have been those Cheap Fire Place logs you get at the grocery store!!


Sorry, don't mean to make light of it....I would be very interested in knowing the outcome too so I can check our fireplace out.

[CamillaMichael]

quote:Originally posted by Alwims

Wow, keep us posted. Glad you and yours are ok.

Definitely....

[Irlpguy]

My brother in law had the same thing happen to him with his fireplace. I cannot remember the make, but when I removed his fireplace I found the 110V power cord was attached to the circuit board at a relay using spade connectors. Over time one of the connectors must have loosened up and of course that creates resistance/heat. After some time the insulation burned off and when he turned it on the 110 arched across either the wires or the terminals and of course there was a fairly loud pop and the smell of burning wire insulation.

Although only 5 years old neither his fireplace, nor parts for it, were available anymore so I had to rework his opening to custom fit a new Dimplex of similar size. His had not actually blown anything on the circuit board so I was able to get it to work again, but after he saw the Dimplex he did not want the other one put back in anyway.

We have had 3 Dimplex electric fireplaces, two in our RV’s and we have one in our family room at home. They have all been great, and have the most realistic flame of any I have ever seen. They also have the best and longest warranty of any on the market that I have found. Our 3402RL came with the Dimplex. I was happy to see that.

If anyone is going to do any “maintenance” on their fireplaces this is one area I would be sure to check for loose connectors. Make sure you either unplug it or turn off the circuit breaker to the fireplace before working on it.

If you had a gas or propane fireplace and were lucky enough to remember hearing the “explosion” you could likely look out your window and see the international space station as you went by. You would be able to lay claim to having the only orbiting Monty though.

[steelpony5555]

That's why I bought this fireplace http://www.samsclub.com/sams/infrare...Id=prod7140004 It's on casters so I can wheel it over in front of the place the built in should go or anyplace else I want it. For $159 it sounded better then the $400 for the built in and I don't gotta do a whole lot of work to mount it. It does throw a lot of heat and the fire does look pretty. Of course if this one tries that exploding thing I can toss it out the door...lol lol

[kenandjudy]

I guess I should not have used the word explode it was an electrlcal issue, plan on pulling it out tomorrow.
Ken

[okierver]

glad everything worked out ill check the back of mine and check the connections

[kenandjudy]

Update:
Pulled fireplace and found a factory mistake. The wire going to center light bulb on bottom of unit was left too long and was laying between bulb and metal mounting. I am surprised this didn't happen sooner. I removed bulb and melted wire, cleaned up everything, working great with two bulbs versus three. Will definitely be more cautious when using.
Ken

[Rondo]

Ken sure glad you found the problem. Didn't mean to make a funny on you original post but could not help it! Don't have a fireplace in our 2004 unit especially since it's only a 30 amp unit over all but we do use a small ceramic heater when the temps drop on us. It works well and we only need it for an hour or so in the morning and we do leave it on during the night but set it on a lower temp. The thermal blanket and comforter works for us at night!

[fauch]

We do not have a 'fireplace' in our 3075rl.
but if we did, after seeing Harold's, pictures, i would take-it-from-together and immediately replace that non UL approved PLASTIC terminal strip with one made of bakelite or ceramic.
i may be wrong, but that looks like a QA/QC management problem where cheap parts are used and in a factory where UL, NEC, NFPA, regulations are foreign. The only applications where i have ever seen plastic terminal strips would have been on low-voltage applications in the toy and hobby industry.
Those 'fireplaces' or 'heaters' are a high resistance load where power leads can get hot, especially at loose connections.
I would use bakelite with the bare wire end in a screw-box lug. This is the safest way to connect supply to load leads. ..no spade lugs, eye lugs or other elements of risk failure added to the equation.
at Grainger:http:http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/Ter...H63?Pid=search

[Hooker]

That's one of the reasons we opted for no FP, but the extra storage and two Lasko tower heaters.

[WeBeFulltime]

quote:Originally posted by Hooker

That's one of the reasons we opted for no FP, but the extra storage and two Lasko tower heaters.

When we ordered our present unit, we also opted-out on the fireplace and love having the extra storage. We had a FP in previous 3400RL and almost never used it. We also told them that they could keep the worthless "central" vacuum!