Get Your Fireplace Ready for Winter in Downers Grove

The first cold night in Downers Grove is usually in October, and it is the night half the fireplaces in town are lit for the first time since March — which is why our phones are busiest that week. Everything on this list can be done in September, most of it in an afternoon, and it is the same list our technicians work through on a pre-season visit. Wood first, then gas, then the things every house should do.

If you burn wood

1. Get the chimney inspected. NFPA 211, the national standard, calls for a chimney inspection at least once a year, and cleaning and repair when the inspection finds it needs them. A Level 1 look covers the parts you can reach. A Level 2 adds a camera down the flue, and it is the one to ask for if the house is new to you, the fireplace has not been used in years, or anything has changed since the last look. The chimney page explains the levels and what a cleaning includes.
2. Sweep if it needs it. A season of fires lays creosote in the flue, and creosote is what burns in a chimney fire. If the last cleaning was more than a year and a season of fires ago, book it now; the September calendar is open and the November one is not.
3. Look at the top. From the yard with binoculars, or from a ladder if you are comfortable: the cap on and undented, the crown (the concrete slab on top) without cracks, no plant growth, no missing brick. Downers Grove has a lot of 1920s and 1930s brick — the Sears kit homes and their neighbors — and an old crown that has cracked lets water into the stack all winter.
4. Work the damper. Open it and close it a few times; it should move freely and seal when closed. A damper that will not seal is your heat leaving the house every night the fire is out; a top-sealing damper at the cap fixes it.
5. Check the firebox. Firebrick that has cracked or fallen out, mortar joints that have opened, a lintel that has rusted: these are repairs, not emergencies, but they are easier to do before the season.
6. Buy or stack the wood now. The EPA’s Burn Wise guidance is that wood burns best under 20 percent moisture, which takes at least six months of seasoning. Wood bought in October rarely is. Stack it off the ground, top covered, sides open.
7. Doors, screen and tools. Clean the glass, check the mesh, and find the poker before the first fire, not during it.

If you have a gas fireplace, insert or log set

1. Book the yearly service. A gas unit that sat all summer collects dust on the burner ports and the pilot assembly, and a lazy, yellow, sooty flame in October is the result. A service visit cleans the burner, checks the pilot and the thermocouple or the ignition module, cleans the glass and the logs, checks the fan and the vent, and confirms the gas connections. Our own technicians do it on every make; book it through the repair and service page.
2. Test-light it in September. Turn it on for ten minutes now. If it clicks and will not light, the first suspect is the battery in the remote receiver or the wall switch — change it. If it lights and smells for the first few minutes, that is summer dust burning off and it passes; if the smell stays, turn it off and call.
3. Vented gas logs: the damper stays open. A vented log set exhausts up the chimney like a wood fire, and its damper is clamped open for that reason. Never close it. The chimney above a vented log set still needs its yearly look.
4. Clean the glass, gently. A direct-vent unit’s glass gets a white haze from the flame; the maker’s glass cleaner takes it off, household glass cleaner does not and can etch it. The glass comes off for cleaning on most units — the service visit does it, or ask us to show you once.
5. The barrier screen. If small children will be in the house this winter and the fireplace has no protective barrier over the glass, order one now; the makers sell them for most models and we fit them.

Every house, every fuel

• Carbon monoxide and smoke alarms. Illinois requires a working carbon monoxide alarm within 15 feet of every bedroom and smoke alarms on every floor. Test them, change what needs changing, and note the manufacture date — alarms have a life.
• Three feet clear. The furniture that migrated toward the fireplace over the summer moves back.
• The outside vent. A direct-vent gas fireplace terminates on an exterior wall; check that nothing has grown over it, that the cap is intact, and that a shrub or a stack of firewood is not sitting against it.
• The fire extinguisher. One in the room, its gauge in the green.

Signs it should not be lit until someone has looked

Smoke into the room with the damper open. A strong smell from a gas unit that does not fade. Pieces of clay tile or mortar in the firebox. A white or rusty stain on the chimney outside. A whistling or roaring you have not heard before. A gas flame that lifts off the burner or burns sooty yellow. Any one of these is a reason to call before the next fire, and the earlier in the season, the sooner we can come.

Questions we get every September

How often should a chimney be swept?

Inspected every year and swept when the inspection finds enough buildup to matter, which for a fireplace used most winter evenings is usually every year. A gas appliance vent needs far less, but the yearly inspection is how you know.

My gas fireplace clicks but will not light. What do I check first?

The battery in the remote receiver or the wall switch, then the pilot (some units need it relit after a summer off), then the gas valve on the supply line. If those three do not do it, book a service; the ignition module and the thermocouple are the usual next suspects.

Is it too late to get a service before the cold?

Not in September or early October. From late October through January the calendar fills with no-heat calls, and a routine service waits behind them. Book early and it is done in a week.

Do you come out to Downers Grove for a small job?

Downers Grove is our own town — the showroom is on 75th Street — so a service call, a sweep or an inspection here is minutes from the shop. Our own technicians do the work; the person who serviced it is the person who comes back.

Book it before the first cold night

Book a chimney inspection or cleaning through the chimney page and a gas fireplace service through the repair and service page, or call (630) 241-1919. The showroom at 1202-B 75th Street is open seven days if you would rather talk it through in person; the Downers Grove page has the hours and directions.

Sources

• NFPA 211, Standard for Chimneys, Fireplaces, Vents, and Solid Fuel-Burning Appliances — the annual inspection and the inspection levels — nfpa.org.
• U.S. EPA, Burn Wise: best burn practices (moisture under 20 percent; season for at least six months) — epa.gov/burnwise.
• Illinois Carbon Monoxide Alarm Detector Act (430 ILCS 135) and Smoke Detector Act (425 ILCS 60) — ilga.gov.