pilot light blowing out


  #1  
Old 02-04-04, 12:17 PM
puljicka
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pilot light blowing out

Our water heater has been losing its pilot light. It was repaired when home was under warranty (duct redirected). In the past month, it has blown out 5-6 times. What can be causing this?
 
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Old 02-04-04, 02:19 PM
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Thermo coupling maybe bad, replace it and see if that fixes the problem.
 
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Old 02-04-04, 02:54 PM
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Hello: puljicka

Pilot outage can be caused by several possiblities. The most likely is a wornout thermocouple. Replacing it should resolve the problem.

A thermocouple is the part the pilot flame touchs and keeps hot. The end containing the element bulb is inside the water heaters firebox. Be sure the control knob is turn off prior to removing the
two covers to access the inside of the firebox.

Follow the very thin tube outwards until you locate where it is connected. It will be screwed into the bottom of the main control valve. This location is usually just to the left side of the larger diameter center aluminum burner gas tube.

On some water heaters the burner assembly must be completely removed from the inside of the burner compartment to remove the element end of the thermocouple from it's holding assembly.

The end of the thermocouple will be on the left side under the control and has a male threaded end. This end must be carefully unscrewed out of the control housing using a small open ended wrench.

A thermocouple is generic except for it's length. Thermocouples are made in different lengths. Measure the removed part or take the one you remove to any hardware store and replace it with an exact duplicate in length. The parts cost is very nominal.

New thermocouple packages will contain complete do-it-yourself installation instructions and pictures. The package also contains additional clips of various assortments.

Not all the parts contained in the package with the thermocouple will be needed. The packages contain an assortment of holding parts and clips that are generic and designed to fit a wide variety of water heaters applications.

Once you have installed the replacement thermocouple, turn the control to the 'PILOT' position. Relite the pilot in the normal manner. Replace the inner fireboxes metal cover.

Next rotate the control knob to the 'ON" position. The burner flames should lite up and resume heating the tanks water to the preset desired thermostats temperature.

If the burner doesn't light up immediately, the water in the tank may already be hot enough. To verify this, rotate the temperature knob to a higher setting to test it. The burner flames should now lite up and resume heating the tanks water.

If you had to remove the entire burner assembly, soap test the
two tubing nut fittings to the right of the thermocouple fitting
while the burner is ON.

If there are any leaks, tighten the hex head fittings carefully and as needed, to stop any visable leaks, as indicated by the soap bubbles. Applying a lite weight oil to the threads helps.

HAND start the threads to avoid cross threading and damaging the threads. Once your sure the threads are correctly prestarted and tightened as much as possible using fingers only, use a wrench to further tighten the nut but do it carefully. Just firmly secured.

DIY'S Plumbing & Hardware Shopping Center And Much More:
http://doityourself.com/store/plumbing.htm

If you need further assistance, use the reply button to add any additional information or questions, etc. Using this method also moves the topic back up to the top of the list automatically.

Read the prior asked questions in this forum on this topic of water heaters and the replies offered. In them you'll find additional helpful information.

Regards & Good Luck. Sharp Advice
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  #4  
Old 02-04-04, 04:28 PM
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Lightbulb Water Heater

Most of the times it is the thermocouple on the water heater. When you put the new one in also clean and blow out the pilot
venturi there. If it still goes out on you .A lot of the gas valves on the water heaters also have a pilot adustment on them you might want to look at the paper work on this water heater and see if it has one and you can turn it up a little. ED
 
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Old 02-04-04, 06:42 PM
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If the replacement of thermocouple does not fix the problem, have a licensed plumber perform a draft test on the heater during the heating cycle and during the time the furnace is running.


All good working water heaters should be operating at 550 FPM's and code requires 300 FPM's to be considered safe.
 
  #6  
Old 02-05-04, 08:13 AM
puljicka
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Thank you for all of your replies, I appreciate it!
 
 

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