Firegear Outdoors · Troubleshooting
Firegear Yellow Flame + Sooting: Troubleshooting
A yellow or orange flame means the burner is getting too much fuel for the available air — rich combustion. The three usual causes: too much decorative media on top of the burner, a propane burner running on natural gas (wrong orifice), or a regulator that's failing to supply enough pressure. Sooting on the media or enclosure follows yellow flame.
By Rob · Updated November 8, 2026
What you need
- Shop vacuum for soot cleanup
- Manometer (optional — for pressure diagnosis)
Step by step
Check media depth on top of the burner
Decorative media deeper than 1-2 inches chokes airflow and causes rich (yellow) combustion. Remove the top layer, run a few minutes, see if flame clears to blue.
Verify the burner is matched to the fuel
Model code -N is natural gas, -P is propane. If a propane model is running on natural gas (or vice versa), orifice sizing is wrong. This is especially common after a conversion gone sideways.
Measure supply pressure
A manometer at the inlet tells you if the supply pressure is at spec. Low pressure = starved burner but can also show as yellow flame if there's also a conversion mismatch. Check against the fuel-specific pressure spec in the installation manual.
Clean soot off media and the disc
Once flame is corrected to blue, clean the soot off media and disc with a shop vacuum. Persistent soot after correcting causes = another underlying issue remains.
Common mistakes
- Assuming yellow flame is 'realistic'. Yellow is NOT the target. Pale blue with yellow tips is correct Firegear flame. Solid orange or yellow = problem.
Hands-on tips
- If flame is yellow in high wind, add a wind guard — wind pulls air past the burner faster than normal, shifting combustion ratio.
Questions people ask
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