the new fireplace interesting finds so far

[Jims94vmx]

A quick review. My original fireplace would shut down after about 10 minutes or less and blink red.....


2nd fireplace (arrived at dealer only) and was tested but found the logs broken.

3rd fireplace sent to me directly. Seemed to work fine testing, after install had an error 88. thought i might have confused it because i was playing with the remote to see my options. turned off at breaker and restarted and ran 6 hours, no problems......until a few days later....just goes to code 88.

so what makes these things work....hmmmmm, i have the orignal, so too off the back. 1st thing i tried was unhooking the wire that goes to the side vent....immediate error code. dig a little deeper and ended up checking all the fittings and decided to take off the sensor wire that is in front (proximity?)

It has been working in my garage cycling on and off at set temp....so, no heat flashing could be just the front sensor. I know...pics or it didn't happen.

[Jims94vmx]

I also waited for the fireplace to cycle back on to throw heat, then i pinched the wire for the temp between my thumb and forefinger and it sensed it reached the temp and went into shut down for heat, fireplace continued to show flames......

[Jims94vmx]

rehooked the sensor and it was fine until i put my hand in front of it. went into blinking mode. i noticed when i unplugged it originally the sensor was loose. thinking the screen was interfering with the sensor.....re attached it and it has been working for about 15 minutes so far....will keep you all posted. could be an easy fix. thinking if you don't want to take out fireplace, then maybe trim the screen around the sensor with a dremmel maybe......

[TucsonJim]

Thanks for the updates Jim. I've been fortunate that mine worked fine in both my trailers. But you never know when they might need some work.

Jim

[Jims94vmx]

been running as it should with sensor resnapped in place for almost an hour. The test will be after install tomorrow if it ever stops snowing! LOL

[butch50]

Jims94vmx

Jim,

Have you had a chance to install your fireplace back in your unit and if so is it still working?

The reason I'm asking is we had some friends over yesterday and they wanted to look at our unit so we went out and it was cold so I thought I would turn on the fireplace to take a little of the chill off and it turned on then went into the flashing "88" code. Darn it!!!! So either I see if I can fix it, have GD send me another one or else it will have to go back to dealer. I don't want to do that as it takes the better part of a half day to go there and back to drop it off and then go back to pick it up after 2 or more weeks.

Can you tell me where the screws to pull it out and is that the sensor you are holding in your hand that looks like a couple of small speakers?

Thanks

TucsonJim

Jim,

To many Jim's and Rob's on here.

Jims94vmx probably has the bigger 40" fireplace like mine.

[SouthTX]

I'm not Jim, but I can tell you that I replaced my (40") fireplace last week and it seems to be working well. Everything worked on the old one except no heat came out. New one works great.

4 Screws to remove the bezel and 4 more holding the unit in. Took longer to uncrate it than install it. The old one is sitting in the garage now waiting for UPS to pick it up.

[Jims94vmx]

When the new one arrived it worked, but threw the code 88.....so i have used my original for a couple days in a row. We have company coming over tomorrow and will show off the rv and will turn the fireplace on....


the sensor is a proximity sensor....mine was actually loose i noticed when i unplugged it....since it worked fine with it unplugged i decided to put it back in and made sure it was snapped into place. I can see how if it is off just a little the screen in the front might be seen as a problem and shuts down to not start a fire....guessing here.....will report back tomorrow.

on a side note, now that the new one is in my garage, it will work! ??????

one last note, I shimmed my fireplace up just a bit, seemed like my glass front was hitting the bottom of the enclosure.....

[butch50]

Well I went out and tried mine today and it still threw a 88 code. So I took the four screws out from the front and could not get it off. I remember someone else that had that problem. Then it hit me that I bet it is the same way as my gas fireplace glass cover is in the house. I tried to lift it up and guess what, it came off. Sure all of you that have taken it apart knew this is how it came off but for the folks that try to take the cover off and don't know "After taking the 4 screws off the top of the cover then lift it up and there are sloted brackets that holds it in."

Anyway I took the back cover off and then plugged it in and it worked. I let it run while out for 15 minutes and it worked great. It sure wasn't going to fail while it was out like that so I put it all together (man there are a lot of little screws in the back of this thing). I then tired it again before installing it and it still worked. Installed it back into the opening and got it all back together and ran it for 1/2 hour and it was still working. I have no idea why it was not working but I have a suspicion that will fail again I don't why I think this way.

On another note I was pleasantry surprised how little sawdust there was behind the fireplace, I went ahead and vacuumed it up. I showed my wife and she was shocked but she also found when we first got the unit there was very little sawdust when she cleaned did the initial cleaning. We have had many RVs before this one and one is by far the cleanest one. Good for GD

[Jims94vmx]

Well, went out to heat up rv for company and the original fireplace now just blinks 88! That wasn't even it's original problem.....getting very frustrated! Help!!!!