Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - pilot on gas heater

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Ed Myers
11-26-03, 11:03 AM
Hi,

I have a natural gas heater (free standing), I am unable to keep the pilot lit. The heater has a new thermocouple and has a standing pilot. It stays lit for a while then goes out. What could be the problem?

Ed:confused:


hvac4u
11-26-03, 05:02 PM
could be a bad gas valve, imptoper placement of tcouple, possible draft from vent pipe blowing it out

Narroc
11-27-03, 11:48 PM
Or could be the flame on the pilot is not big enough due to it being half blocked.
The best solution is to remove the pilot and take out the 'Spud' and renew it with the same size as the old one. The rating plate should specify the size too. Never had much sucess with blowing them out they only cost a few cents why stuff around trying to clean them.
Pilot should be covering the thermocouple by a good 1/4 to 1/2 "
As a rule you can usually tell how the pilot is going to behave by the time it takes to hold in if it takes longer than say 20-30 sec you know it's not looking good. Also make sure the T/C is firmly into the valve with no clud on the contact bit or up in the valve.