Gazco balanced flue gas fire smelling Information, help and advice on many gas related subjects from gas fires to domestic appliances

[bertieandme]

I've posted earlier in this thread about my fire smelling. After this forum's Staff intervention I contacted Gazco who asked me to remove the front from my fire. I didn't think this would make a jot of difference, but actually it seems to've cured the issue! My fire front is cast iron (I have a stove-type front) and Gazco thinks it's causing over-heat?!

However, you can't leave a fire with the insides exposed as it looks dreadful. Luckily for me, the front of my fire opens - like a real wood burning stove would, so I now have the front back on but open the door when it's in use. OK, it's not ideal but as long as it solves the problem I don't care (I've had issues with this fireplace for 2½ years now and am fed up to the back teeth!).

This is the original fire:

fire1.JPG (51.85 KiB) Viewed 16203 times

This is the fire without the front:

fire2.JPG (55.5 KiB) Viewed 16203 times

And this is my solution - to have the fire door open:

fire3.JPG (58.49 KiB) Viewed 16203 times

I'm still amazed at the "couldn't give a toss" attitude of Gazco staff, particularly as they are aware there is a now a large internet thread about this issue. I probably shouldn't be though - they are the worst company I've ever dealt with for not taking responsibility for their crap products.

[thekwaze]

Hi, I'm needing some advice, just got a logic HE gazco fire installed and having a few issues. The marble surround and hearth and the wooden mantle piece are getting really hot when the fire is on a high(ish) setting. There was no problems with the last gas fire this has only started to happen with the gazco. Does anyone know who should take responsibility - we were shown the catalogue and chose one from only a couple that were suitable. I don't want to have to take out the mantle and surround as replacing the fire was £1500. The smell that made us aware of a problem, we think, is the smell from the overheating surround, mantle, sealants, varnish and adhesives.

I wish I'd read this lot before I had a Gazco Logic HE fitted a few weeks ago!
I can only echo what has already been said by robertgarvie.
The marble above the fire and the wooden surround are untouchable after a short time and I think the constant stifling smell might be the paint on the surround on the verge of melting.
About a week after installation a black dusty film formed above the fire on the marble. We have cleaned this off a couple of times, but it soon returns...This surely cannot be normal??
I have emailed the Gazco technical department and had no response, so will try calling them.
The fitter is coming back in the next few days to investigate, but to leave it in it's current state is simply unacceptable so we have decided not to use it until we have some kind of resolution to this catastrophe.
I would be interested if anyone has had a result after they contacted Gazco?

[Michrob32]

We had studio 1 slimline fitted at Xmas , the wall gets so hot we can not paper it ,or have a picture above it, we can not even touch the wall, the company that fitted it have re plastered the wall twice, it has cracked yet again. I am worried about fire esp as the wall gets so hot. Can any tell me if your fire gets this hot.

[iCarley]

Hi, has DIY Doctor had any official response from Gazco yet? (I havn't from a couple of days ago). We had a Gazco Studio 2 fitted in July with a false chimney breast (and space for flat screen TV above) by a local gasfire company and we are also getting this horrible smell even after several days of trying to burn it off. Sets the fire alarms off. The fitting company installed the false chimney breast as well but are starting to try to swing the problem over to us, suggesting the paint or dust from the builders (there is a fair amount of plaster/fireboard dust inside the breast but that will have come from when they installed it as it's in little piles around the drilled holes and cuts). I've hoovered up as much as I can get to. I also noticed what looked like red insulation tape that had melted and fallen from the flue, but that's now been removed and we're still getting the smell. Luckily it's not carbon monoxide but it still don't smell too healthy. Not sure what's causing it but it's in the same room as the apparently sealed fire and seems to be leaving the flue outside as we can also smell it in my daughters bedroom with the window open which is above the flue (regulation distance away). Has anyone else fixed it with the replacement door recently?

[thedoctor]

Hi iCarley

Unfortunately we have not heard anything official from Gazco, although we do encourage companies to respond in situation such as these with the goal of getting any issues resolved in such a way that all parties concerned are satisfied.

If we do hear anything we will update this topic straight away

Kind Regards

[iCarley]

Had a call from Gazco engineer yesterday. Quite prompt and informative. Our fire apparently already has the new door fitted (so it seems there was an inherent problem) but no closer to finding out what is causing our smell! I'm sending him pictures of the fire in situ as he was concerned we've got the TV above the fire - not something Gazco recommends, which our installers said they've done lots of installations like this ... don't really want to rip the whole thing out! He also said a lot of the problems on this post were down to the surroundings rather than the fire unit itself.

[iCarley]

The helpful chap from Gazco was wrong. We did have the old style door with the glue that caused the fumes. Our fire was fitted during oour building work then commissioned a couple of months later. New door fitted and the smell has nearly gone and much less intoxicating, we're hoping it's just a residual smell now that will work it's way out of the fireplace. I've asked Gazco if that glue is used anywhere else and the ingrediants of it as I want to find out if was toxic as we spent many days breathing it in whilst Gazco and the fitters kept telling us to just keep burning it off! No response yet. Our fitters also said what poor customer service Gazco offer.

[Malcr]

I have been reading these posts as I have recently had a Gazco Riva2 1050 balanced flue fire installed and am experiencing the same problems of a strong smell when the fire is used on full for more than 20mins.
This is not related to the false chimney breast as the fire was tested prior to having the chimney breast boarded off and the smell was present at this point so plenty of ventaltion and nothing surounding it to get hot.
All the posts I have read relate to Studio1 or 2 has anyone else experienced the same issues with a Riva2.
Has anyone had a definitive answer or cure to these problems.

[iCarley]

Hi Malcr, no definitive solution still. Although replacing the door helped a great deal it our Gazco Studio 2 does smell when we have it on higher settings for any period of time. We also have had a Stovac (same company as Gazco) woodburner fitted which also gives of an unpleasant fumey type smell if it gets reasonably hot. I was in contact with Gazco, and they have sent me the report on the tests they commissioned but this seems next to useless as they say no volatile organic compounds were present - so what are we all smelling???!! here's the last email I had from Gazco Engineer.

Dear Mr Carley
Thanks for your enquiry. Just to reassure you this issue was found only on a small number of products and was identified as coming from the double sided tape. Normally the usual 8 hour burn off would clear any smell coming from the appliance however on the few we found with issues this would take longer than the 8 hours. The door is the only place that this seal is used. We changed the design as it was not possible for us to identify any difference with the double sided tape used, with most products not causing any problem, but the issue needed resolving. As part of our investigation into the issue we have had specialists in air quality (RPS Health, Safety and Environment, Milton Keynes) investigate on our behalf. This was undertaken in accordance with Health and Safety Executive published methods for the determination of hazardous substances “MDHS 88 Laboratory Method Using Diffusive Samplers, solvent Desorption and Gas Chromatography”, which concluded in the property tested there was a lack of any volatile organic compounds

[Malcr]

Hi icarley
Many thanks for your post and the information.
I have not involved Stovax as yet apart from a brief phone call to discuss possible options with one of their technical team.
I am currently carrying out a few investigations with regard some materials used during the install so that when Stovax start making excuses I will have the necessary information at hand.
I also intend to run the fire on full at the weekend with the windows open for a long period to see if this clears the smell.
I will keep the blog updated.
Thanks again

[iCarley]

Good luck with the burn! Nice weather for it. We tried that all day on high, didn't make much difference except to our gas bill!!! Gazco chap rang me today after my email prompting him, he's chasing their R&D department to see if they identified what the fumes actually are. Cheers

[Malcr]

Tested all products used on install last night, sealers and boarding used by heating to a very high temp no smells from either the smell is definitely coming from the fire, don't know why I bothered really as the smell was apparent even before boarding the fire off.
Will carry out the burn as planned then a phone call to Stovax on Monday I expect.
Will let you know.
Cheers

[PhilD_1]

Hi

Just to say we had installed a Gazco Studio fire in 2016, and I had read these messages here when researching this type of fire so we were a little concerned, however it did appear Gazco knew about the problem as they were replacing doors, so we went ahead.

On it being new the smell was particularly bad, although this was expected as we were warned about that as various waxes and coatings were burnt off for the first time. It was like something burning, and you got used to when in the room, but on going out and returning it did hit you.

I would say in total it might have taken 10 hours of use before the smell disappeared, with each use being not quite so bad, and now there is absolutely no smell at all, confirmed by visitors so not just us used to it!

This is a Mark 2 version of the fire, and it has a different logs (chunkier) to those before it.

So just thought I would add that this issue seems to be fixed for anyone researching this fire and finding this thread.

MODERATORS NOTE:
This thread was started in 2012, to date no one has had a definitive answer. (Or if anyone has, they have never posted.)

Regards

Phil