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In article t,
says...
Hi folks-

Here's another post about the house my family recently moved into...

The natural gas fireplace seems to be out of adjustment. Upon flipping
the switch, the fireplace lights and we get strong yellow flames, but it
generates a significant amount of odor. The odor isn't "leaking gas
smell" but is "burned something smell." Also, after about 4 hours of
use since we've moved in, the front glass of the fireplace is now coated
with a significant amount of carbon, making it hard to see the gas logs.

The fireplace is original to the house, built in 2000.

We don't have a manual but I might be able to find a label if I poke
around inside... Or is this a job for a pro? I have no experience with
gas fireplaces.

Marc

Folks-

I called the original installer (based on paperwork in the house)and
explained the problem. They said that based on the description of the
problem, the unit has probably never been burned in and the odor/soot
are probably normal for the first 20 hours or so of use. They said to
check the venting and as long as the vent was clear, the best thing was
to run flames for a while to see if it clears up.

Tonight I opened it up, with the manual in front of me. Got a blast of
cold air in through the vent with the glass off, so I know the vent
isn't blocked (the vent just goes straight out the side of the house,
probably not more than four feet total combined up-and-out, and no
overgrown bushes blocking it).

The ember material was somewhat excessively covering the burner, so I
moved it to better match the drawing in the manual.

Put the glass back on and started it up. Flames were bluer than before,
but after about 20 minutes were looking relatively yellow again, with
the odor coming back.

I adjusted the flame down a bit with the hi-low adjustment. It's
venting to the outside, and I can see there is a draw of air toward the
unit, so I'm not too worried about CO etc..

For now I'll follow the advice of the installer, though one point does
concern me: the manual says there are "air shutters" that can be
adjusted. I haven't found any in the manual, so I'm not sure where they
would be. Any ideas? It's a Martin Industries 5500 series direct vent
system.

Marc