Gas fire refuses to lite

[Tony]

I have a Cannon Caress Royale " living flame" fire ( 4 -5 yrs old )which as suddenly proved impossible to lite, I pull down the lever and the ignitor clicks rapidly, the pilot lites and I keep the lever depressed as I've always done, but when I let go of the lever and push upwards , the flame dies without the burner staying on. Over the past week I have tried nearly every day without success, only once did the burner stay on and this only lasted for about 10 seconds..

Please can someone diagnose the problem and tell me how to fix it..

Any comments gratefully received..

.. Tony

[Michael Stanford]

I had exactly the same problem a few weeks back. I got the engineer in, he said it just needed cleaning. Apparently there is a device on it that checks the oxygen supply and if it starts getting blocked it cuts off the gas supply. It was worth the £20 to have the whole thing serviced and cleaned.

Mick

[Rob Morley]

Is there a thermocouple that detects that the pilot is burning? If so, check that it's getting enough heat from the pilot to keep it activated. I have a gas fire that will only light if I heat the thermocouple (I suspect either the pilot jet is slightly blocked or the thermocouple performance is marginal) but it's fine once it gets up to temperature. Thermocouple replacement is cheap and easy (so why don't I get around to doing it?)

[Tony]

Thanks for your input guys, I've sorted it out, the pilot was blocked, it had a passage upwards but not sidewards towards the thermocouple, I blasted it with compressed air and cleared the blockage..

.. tony