The Bionaire BCH9224-CN is a ceramic space heater, one of apparently 4 related units. The 9224 is the tallest in the family and I also have the shorter BCH9212-CN. They are electric so I have no idea what all this talk about 'gas', 'pilot light' and 'flame' is. My 9224 failed in a way that seems quite common with Bionaire space heaters in general, namely, first the smell of burning electrical insulation, then a snap or pop accompanied by a flash of light out the lower side, and then no more heat. It is possible that the original questioner had this happen but wasn't around to witness it. Now it is possible that the failure is in the electrical control board but in my case (and in fact I'm betting for many or most of the Bionaire failures) it was a wire running to the ceramic heating block (element) that fried at the connection to the ceramic element. I would say it is very unlikely the failures of the Bionaires are in the ceramic heater blocks themselves, and in fact the 9224 and the 9212 (and I assume many or most of the other Bionaires) actually have two ceramic blocks/elements fastened together, one being used for the 750 watt heating and both for the 1500 watt heating. The central wire running to the blocks must support enough current (about 12.5 amps) for both of the blocks, whereas the wires to the individual blocks need half that (about 6.25 amps). In my 9224 unit the weak spot was clearly where the central, common wire was connected to the spade-like connector that was crimped onto the central, common tab of the ceramic block pair. At first I thought I'd just toss the thing but then I opened it up, did the autopsy and repaired it by replacing the 3 wires from the circuit board to the ceramic blocks with 14 gauge wire, and made the connection of the wires to the three soft metal (tin or tin alloy?) tabs of the ceramic blocks by carefully drilling holes in the tabs and bolting eye, crimp-type wire connectors to the tabs using small screws. Oddly enough I opened up the smaller unit (the BCH9212-CN) and it has the same ceramic element pair but no indication of burnt wires.