Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - Gaffers & Sattler furnace - pilot light won't stay lit

Hi all,

I have a Gaffers and Sattler forced-air gas furnace, model 100 FEF.

I can't get the pilot light to stay lit.

This model has a valve you turn hard counterclockwise to turn on the gas to the pilot light. I crank it over, hear the hiss, hold it there, and light the pilot light. I let it run for a while, then back off on the valve. The pilot light immediately goes out.

I set up an arrangement with a clamp and bungee cord to keep the valve cranked over and left the pilot light burning while we had dinner. After dinner, the pilot light still went out after I removed the bungee cord.

I'm comfortable doing my own simple repairs and installation of replacement parts. I'm guessing that the flame sensor is bad, but don't have enough experience to know for sure. Plus I don't know where to find parts for this old furnace.

Any advice?

Thanks,

Doug

Only about 10% of the time is the problem going to be a bad thermocouple.


70% or so the problem is a dirty pilot burner. Does the pilot burner look like a small blow torch, with a sharp flame engulfing the tip of the thermocouple?

Or is it a soft, lazy flame more like that of a candle, perhaps with yellow tips to the flame?

If it's the second, the pilot burner needs to be disassembled and cleaned, with the aluminum pilot tubing removed by loosening the brass ferrule so that the pilot orifice can be removed and cleaned.

Thanks for the reply!

The flame looks like a little blowtorch, partly diverted onto the thermocouple and the rest aimed into the burners. Looks pretty healthy to me. The thermocouple glows a dull red at the tip after a few minutes in the flame.

I bought a new thermocouple anyway (< $10) and installed it. Didn't help.

I didn't know what else to do so I started taking stuff apart.

Long story short: I figured out that you have to crank the knob clockwise HARD to operate the gizmo in the bottom of the valve. Holding it open just enough to allow the gas to flow doesn't do the job. Otherwise, the magnetic latch won't work and the pilot light won't stay on.

The furnace is now working and the house is nice and warm.

Thanks for the help!

Doug