Having Problems Lighting a Propane Fireplace

[vfem]

Its a 100lb tank... it was only empty about 2 weeks. We just had the fireplaced fix with new EVERYTHING (not logs) in December. It was one issue that needed repairs when we bought the place as is in 2008.

It appears, whenever the valve outside gets ICE on it from the snow it won't light inside. Yet we get the ice off the outside valve to the tank with hot water and the thing lights fine?! How the heck can ice on the tank cause the fireplace not to light?! Again, it won't stay lit otherwise... nothing is going to go boom... its like its not getting enough gas randomly!

 

[Mac in Wisco]

When I first read that I thought you said 100 gallon tank. I guess you are talking about a 100 lb upright cylinder. Those cylinders can be limited to providing a certain amount of BTUs at a given temperature. The LP is liquid inside the tank and must be vaporized. The greater the surface area and the greater the ambient temperature the more gas you can draw off at once. Since the upright cylinders have very little surface area for the liquid they can be limited to a certain number of BTU output at low temperatures. When you melt the the ice off you are increasing the temperature and are ale to vaporize more gas. The bottom line is that the tank may be too small for the size of your fireplace and the low temperature outside.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

How big is your fireplace? At 0 F a 100 lb cylinder is good for up to 113,000 BTUs. As it it gets below zero that can drop to under 100,000 BTUs. Do you have any other load on the cylinder?

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Still thinking about this. It's also possible you have water in the line that is freezing and causing a blockage that you are melting when you heat it up. They could have also overfilled the tank causing it to draw liquid into the line that is causing a blockage. By heating it you vaporizing the liquid and removing the blockage until the next time it happens.