Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Can anyone tell me why my gas heater keeps cutting out. It is rather old, but has been working fine until recently.
It has started taking quite a few clicks to get going, then goes fine...an hour or two later it simply goes out.

Does the the gas just simply stop, or could it be a more sinister problem, as in...the gas still pumps out but is just floating around...should i get a new heater, or can this be fixed...?

Any and all ideas would be welcome.

When we had the same problem, it turned out to be low oxygen levels in the room. It is a safety feature. Try pushing it into another room or outside and see if it works OK then. We now always keep a window ajar and problems disappeared.

I always have a window open, but i tried with the door open as well last night...it still went out...

I think that the thermocouple probably needs to be replaced.

The shops that sell the heaters usually have a contact for doing repairs.

Thanks Keith. Meanwhile, if i fall asleep and it goes out, will i get poisoned?

Daisy Dukes wrote:Thanks Keith. Meanwhile, if i fall asleep and it goes out, will i get poisoned?

Unlikely - but with any gas appliance it is not wise to carry on using it if there is anything at all wrong with it!
Get it fixed ASAP !!!

The chap at ERSEM Yapi market would be able to get someone to do it, I'm sure.

A required safety feature on gas appliances is the ability to detect and shut down the appliance in the event of a reduced oxygen level in the room. A reduction from the normal 21% to around 18 or 19 % should cause the fire to shut down. A room that is closed to the rest of the house will easily reduce the oxygen by this amount. This device is called a oxygen depletion sensor (o.d.s.). If the fire runs for a few hours, shuts down and runs normally the next day I would suspect the o.d.s doing its job. An indication that it is this is that the pilot flame lifts of the pilot jet, sounds noise, misses the thermocouple, letting the thermocouple to cool and closing the gas valve. The answer is as mentioned, adequate ventilation. I would recommend that we all have carbon monoxide detectors fitted in rooms with gas appliances or wood burning stoves. Low cost life saves. The fault could be a faulty thermocouple but from the info supplied I would suggest it is no fault but a lack of ventilation. Love your o.d.s. a true life saver.

Agree with all the above, however: Daisy did say - " It is rather old, but has been working fine until recently.". My question would be How Old is rather old? A quick test would be to borrow another fully working gas fire and run that in the same room as the "rather old" one perhaps. For me, having been a caravan fitter in my earlier life and having to service and test many gas fired caravan heaters in my time, I was always worried by customers who never had their caravan heaters serviced on an annual basis, just to save a couple of quid! The lack of servicing out here coupled with the lack of language can be a potential disaster - you have a snooze in front of your warm gas fire and then a week later the will is read!!!! Now that I am older I have stopped using my trusty catalytic gas fires and gone to air con instead - about the same cost to run but they don't kill quite so quickly - downside is power cuts but these days they have become rarer (apart from this week - lol) and with the planned electric coming from Turkey will "eventually" work out far cheaper as well. If I was Daisy I would buy a new gas heater (if you can afford one) anyway if the "rather old" one is over 6 or 7 years old and has never been serviced. Its a short life people, make the most of it while you are here and try to stay here as long as you can!!!

My aircon unit doesnt send out hot air only slightly warm it has been serviced and regassed so its back to the gas fire.

Take it into Tektan in the centre of town. They will service the fire and replace any faulty parts.

Deniz1 wrote:My aircon unit doesnt send out hot air only slightly warm it has been serviced and regassed so its back to the gas fire.

Deniz, it sounds as though your compressor could be worn out - it's probably fixable if the parts are available...