Water Heaters - Gas Water Heater Pilot Not Lighting
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klosapio
04-16-06, 11:06 AM
Hi,
I am having intermittent problems with my gas hot water heater. The pilot goes out and will not re-light. And to make things worse, it always seems to happen on weekends! The water tank reads "State Select" brand, but the instruction manual is generic. I apologize that I am not very experienced with these issues, but I will try to relate what is happening the best that I can. I have had service people out to look at it, but it has "corrected" itself before they have arrived and they can not find anything wrong. Now it is a holiday weekend and again no hot water! And it does not seem to be correcting itself, either...
The water heater has a device to automatically light the pilot, so I can not light the burner by hand.
The pilot light goes out (for some unknown reason), and the blower just stays on continuously. In the trouble-shooting section of the manual, the LED status indicates the problem as "Pressure switch remained opened longer than 5 seconds after the combustion blower was energized." The solutions given are "1. Pressure switch wiring is incorrect. 2. Pressure switch tubing not connected correctly. 3. Air intake or exhaust obstructed."
I looked at the wiring, and it seems to be the same as the picture in the manual, except that the blue and yellow wires seem to be reversed. But the water heater has been working for about a year (new construction) so I would think that it must be right, right? I have no idea about the tubing, but I will assume it is correct also. Is the air intake and exhaust the same pipe? I only see one rather large PVC pipe going from the water tank to the outside of the house, and it is not obstructed in any way.
The gas supply to other appliances in the house is fine, so I do not think that is the issue. The reset button is not tripped (I can not press it in). The last time this happened, the pilot finally re-lit (about 36 hours after I noticed no hot water) and I do remember the flame having a lot of yellow to it. I have just read on these boards that that is not a good sign. The flame was also quite large when it finally did light, like a big burst of flame, then in got smaller. I really have not paid much attention to the pilot light other than that (a bit too optimistic, I guess). I have turned off all power to the water heater, let it sit for hours, and then plugged it back in and flipped the ON switch....nothing. I have followed the instructions to set the thermostat to the lowest setting, then turn it off, waited 5 minutes to clear out the gas, then turned it back on...nothing. I have been doing this now since late Friday night. One previous time this happened I had the gas company come out to look at it (but of course it was corrected by that point), and the repair person said that possibly -- though he was not convinced -- there could have been air in the gas line. But since it keeps happening, he said that that would be pretty rare. I am really at my wit's end trying to figure this thing out, and I am hoping someone out there might be able to help me! Thank you so much for any advice. Sorry for the very long post.
-- Kathy
I am having intermittent problems with my gas hot water heater. The pilot goes out and will not re-light. And to make things worse, it always seems to happen on weekends! The water tank reads "State Select" brand, but the instruction manual is generic. I apologize that I am not very experienced with these issues, but I will try to relate what is happening the best that I can. I have had service people out to look at it, but it has "corrected" itself before they have arrived and they can not find anything wrong. Now it is a holiday weekend and again no hot water! And it does not seem to be correcting itself, either...
The water heater has a device to automatically light the pilot, so I can not light the burner by hand.
The pilot light goes out (for some unknown reason), and the blower just stays on continuously. In the trouble-shooting section of the manual, the LED status indicates the problem as "Pressure switch remained opened longer than 5 seconds after the combustion blower was energized." The solutions given are "1. Pressure switch wiring is incorrect. 2. Pressure switch tubing not connected correctly. 3. Air intake or exhaust obstructed."
I looked at the wiring, and it seems to be the same as the picture in the manual, except that the blue and yellow wires seem to be reversed. But the water heater has been working for about a year (new construction) so I would think that it must be right, right? I have no idea about the tubing, but I will assume it is correct also. Is the air intake and exhaust the same pipe? I only see one rather large PVC pipe going from the water tank to the outside of the house, and it is not obstructed in any way.
The gas supply to other appliances in the house is fine, so I do not think that is the issue. The reset button is not tripped (I can not press it in). The last time this happened, the pilot finally re-lit (about 36 hours after I noticed no hot water) and I do remember the flame having a lot of yellow to it. I have just read on these boards that that is not a good sign. The flame was also quite large when it finally did light, like a big burst of flame, then in got smaller. I really have not paid much attention to the pilot light other than that (a bit too optimistic, I guess). I have turned off all power to the water heater, let it sit for hours, and then plugged it back in and flipped the ON switch....nothing. I have followed the instructions to set the thermostat to the lowest setting, then turn it off, waited 5 minutes to clear out the gas, then turned it back on...nothing. I have been doing this now since late Friday night. One previous time this happened I had the gas company come out to look at it (but of course it was corrected by that point), and the repair person said that possibly -- though he was not convinced -- there could have been air in the gas line. But since it keeps happening, he said that that would be pretty rare. I am really at my wit's end trying to figure this thing out, and I am hoping someone out there might be able to help me! Thank you so much for any advice. Sorry for the very long post.
-- Kathy