Water Heaters - Pilot Light Issues

Hello -

I'm having issues with an AO Smith natural gas water heater that often times will not stay lit. We've replaced the thermocouple several times, this has not fixed the issue. I've even replaced the thermostat, which did not resolve the issue.

I think the problem is that the water heater lives in the same closet as our gas dryer, which produces a lot of dust in the closet. We do a pretty good job of keeping it clean, but it's difficult to stay 100 percent on top of this.

Everytime the water heater goes out, unless I do a good cleaning of both the closet and the inside of the water heater, I can't get it to stay lit. It seems like the thermocouple senses an overheating, because the venting screen is partially clogged and turns the pilot off. Or, if I run several loads of laundry in a row, this seems to overheat the water heater and causes the pilot to shut off.

I've already replaced the factory vent cover with a better filter, but it's only helped a little.

Moving the water heater is not an option, and running the power for an electric heater would be very challenging. I'm looking into a fresh air intake water heaters, but I'm not really excited about spending $650 on one of these...

Any other suggestions?

thanks!

andrew

That particular brand of FVIR water heaters is particulary problematic with lint and dust. You have to open it up to clean the lint screens. This should only be done by a qualified plumber. There is a class action suit against the Whirlpool brand WH, which is an AO Smith subsidiary and of similar design to yours.

Besides the lint issue, there is another potential issue when you mention "in a closet" and that is combustion air. Unless there is adquately sized vents both high and low, on that closet space, that will cause combustion issues and possible pilot issues.

Hello, Thank you for your response. So, there's a class action suit against AO Smith regarding poor design and airflow issues on my water heater? How do I find out more about this?

What can I do in the meantime to fix the problem? Any suggestions? Do you think AO Smith will replace the water heater with a newer design and better airflow?

thanks:)

andrew

aschatzb: (594tough) has given you a good answer about not having enough combustion air in your closet. You could have the same prob. with any heater without the closet being vented, closet has to have air grills on it.:(

Hello - The closet is vented with louvered doors. We also have kept the doors entirely opened since we figured out what was going on... So there is plenty of air.

Any other ideas?

thanks:)

andrew