Overriding a Heatilator Fireplace 9 Hour Auto-shutoff.

Having received request after request from viewers on finding a way to override the Heatilator Fireplace Series 9 Hour Auto-Shutoff I have dove into it and found a simple solution. First of all, there is no way to hack the s/w and there is no backdoor over-ride provided by Heatilator.  For those of you that use the digital remote in Thermo mode the 9 Hour Auto-Shutoff is disabled.  A call to Heatilator could not explain why.  Heatilator advertises the 9-Hour auto-shutoff as a safety feature.  However, this begs the question of why would the LCD remote make it safer such that no auto-shutoff is needed?

The real issue is that if you hook up a standard thermostat such as the Honeywell TH1100DV1000/U Pro Vertical Non-Programable as I outlined in a review some years ago, it will function great but after 9 hours all goes dead.  You must cycle the Off/Heat side witch from Heat to Off then to Heat to reset the 9-hour timer.  Thus, if you forget to do this before going to bed and you Heatilator is a primary source of heat, you will wake up cold.

After a bit of research, I found a perfect solution that is inexpensive and rugged.  It requires the purchase of two items.

• Timer: Favolcano CN101 DC 12V 16 A Digital LCD Programmable Timer Time Switch Relay (or equivalent as this is imported under several private labels). [About $15.00 shipped)
• Supernight DC 12V 30W Waterproof Power Supply Driver AC 11-=260V to DC 12 Volt 2.5A Constant Voltage Adapter Transformer for LED Strip. (or equivalent) [About $15.00 shipped)

The timer as shown below has four inputs.  Two go to the Supernight power supply and two go to interrupt on leg coming from the Honeywell thermostat.  It is that simple.

Program the timer as follows (all should be set on all days)

Program 1: On: 00:00, Off: 7:59

Program 2: On: 8:00, Off: 15:59

Program 3: On: 16:00, Off: 23:59

It is that simple.  The timer will turn the fireplace off/on every 8 hours for one minute if the thermostat is ON.  If the thermostat is set to OFF it will do nothing.  By turning it off for this one-minute period it re-sets the Auto-Off function and gives it another 9 hours.  Since we do this every 8 hours we are well within the 9 hour Auto-Off period.

As always make sure your Heatilator model is rated for constant heat (i.e. primary source).

By, Scott Kraft – Tech Producer (TechTalk Host) contributing reporter Aimee Johnson (Testing / Research)