temperamental water heater, help

[Jackofalltrades]

I finally got around to redoing the plumbing for my whole house with copper piping. After finishing the water heater has been intermittently losing the pilot flame. I did not touch the water heater at all.

copper piping is: 1" miain 3/4 under house in crawl space and 1/2 in walls.

What can be the problem, it will work for about 3 months and stop all of a sudden, I then have to relight it for up to a week and then it will be on for another 3 months.

My qustions: can the way I did the water piping cause the water heater pilot to go off? IS this evern possible? on the same line that feeds the water heater I have teed to another pipe which I use my washer on.

I get around 70 psi in the mornings, it drops down to about 45 when the sprinklers are on. I cannot pinpoint the problem becuase it keeps on going and coming.

help

[Ejbogusch]

I have never seen a condition with the plumbing that causes the pilot to go out unless the water leaked directly on to the pilot. Once every three months is a hard condition to diagnose with any surety. I suspect your problem will take several steps to solve.

If it was under warranty I would just replace the control valve and thermocouple to eliminate these items. But since you do not mention this I will assume it is not covered.

Also what might help if you would give a model number. There are a few problems or maintenance items that must be done to certain models that can cause intermittent pilot outages.

[Jackofalltrades]

It is a Ge profile samrt Water heater

with low nox and self cleaning
model number <p> PG40T9xA<p>
capasity of 40 gallons
40,000 btuh

What I do not understand is for the last three years it has worked flawlessly, and then all of a sudden, it would start turning off, it actually started when it was raining really bad in Los angeles, the installed did not install the flue wel enough and it was collecting the water from the roof and channelling into the stainless steel enlclosure of the water heater, which would overwhelm it and cause the water to go into the heater and turn the piolt off. When the rain went away it went back to normal but now it goes off every few months.


When I relight the pilot I here water simmering, it goes away after a while and I do not see any leaks. I assume it is the condensation. And the heater is still under warranty for another 3 years.

i called Ge and all they could say was to try moving the exhaust gaurd on top of the heater 70 degrees or something to that effect.

thanks

[Ejbogusch]

I know of no known pilot problems with your model. So you will want to check some of the basics before spending your dollars.

First
Make sure your thermocouple is tight at the control valve. It should be 1/2 to 3/4s of a turn with a wrench after you can not tighten it by hand any more. Also make sure the full thermocouple is pushed all the way up into the mounting hole at the pilot assy.

Second
While observing the pilot turn your water heater temp setting knob until the heater clicks on. Then turn back on then off again. Do this several times while looking for any sign that the burner is sucking out the pilot when it cycles off. If this happens there can be several remedies do fix this.

Third

If possible the next time the pilot goes out see if you notice hotter than normal water leading up to the pilot outage. This would indicate a bad control valve.

Is your pilot easy to light once it goes out. Will it be fine for another three months?