Contact

The switch controlling the gas fireplace was being flaky. Push it once and the fireplace comes on. Turn around five minutes later and it has gone out. Flip the switch and it comes back on again. Probably because it's the wrong kind of switch. It's a standard household light switch, good for 15 Amps and 120 Volts and it is being asked to switch 800 millivolts and some small number of milliamps. I imagine that the load is not enough to keep the contacts free of corrosion. They are probably brass, and a thin film of corrosion is all it would take to keep it from working. So I go to Home Depot and buy a new switch for $2.50 and install it and the fireplace seems to be happier now. Just for grins, or because I am compulsive this way, your choice, I take the old one apart. Here, for your amusement is a picture of the contacts from the old switch.