Trouble with ProCom blue flame heater

[JSK76]

I got a refurbished ProCom ice house heater yesterday had can't keep it going. To me it seems like the flame on the pilot isn't long or strong enough to heat the thermocouple enough. The pilot flame is about 1/16" from actually touching the thermocouple after I turn the burner on, with the burner off it just barely touches it. I've taken everything apart blew it clean and inspected, everything looks new. I also have tried 3 different tanks and 4 different regulators and have plenty of O2 in the garage so it's not shutting down because the lack of O2. If I move the thermocouple up from it original position so the flame touches it keeps going.

One strange thing is the pilot burns nice and straight and quiet with the bottom cover (part with the procom logo on it) off. When I put it back on the pilot blows around wildly and is loud.

I called procom and they are sending me a new thermocouple but I don't think that's it because if I move it so the flame touches it it works. without modifying the placement of the thermocouple it will run as short as a few seconds or as long as 7 to 8 minutes.

It seems to me I need a longer pilot flame and would like to know if other procom owners flames are longer then mine? I looked for an adjustment screw for the pilot but didn't see anything.

shy.

[leech~~]

It looks like the only thing adjustable is the pilot light tube. Can you screw it out closer to the couple? Most pilot lights I have seems that the flame is burning right on the couple?

[JSK76]

It looks like you can but you can't, no adjustment at all.

[Boar]

Its the termocupler. Atnthe distancenit origionaly set at it should work fine. But they go out and sometimes gradually. Ive tweekd my thermo on my sunflower this way and eit works hut just ended up replacing it. And alls good. When they start to go sometimes, they need more direct flame to open them up letnus know please

[leech~~]

It looks like you can but you can't, no adjustment at all.

So that is not an adjusting nut under the top mounting bracket on the pilot light?

[Hawg]

My bet is thermocouple too. Go get one at the hardware store, they're cheap. Keeping the one you have coming can be a spare. Do you have any drafts coming in by the gas line for the weird pilot?

[JSK76]

So that is not an adjusting nut under the top mounting bracket on the pilot light?

Nope, it's all one piece, yes you can put a wrench on it but it wouldn't matter because there's no threads. I don't even know whey they made it so a wrench would fit it. I had to completely remove from the heater it just to make sure.

[JSK76]

Do you have any drafts coming in by the gas line for the weird pilot?

No drafts, it's like the pilot is struggling to stay lit so the sound is like a flame about ready to go out.

[Walleyehooker]

Try blowing or cleaning out the pilot tube. You would be surprised at how many times spiders or bugs get in those and clog things up and it doesn't take much to effect the flow. Any opening looks like a home to them. Cant see a nozzle there but those can get corroded and clogged up to and need to be cleaned.

[Billy G]

To me the thermocouple looks fine and looks to be in the right position. The top quarter of the tip should always be in the flame from the pilot which is called the hot junction. I would have to say it has to be something with the pilot or the gas line going to it. More pictures might help unless the problem is already fixed!

[JSK76]

The flame touches the T/C when the main burner is off but drops down to what the first pic at the top of the page looks like when the burner is on. I've done every possible thing I can think of and everything is clean if something is dirty then it's in the control valve and I can't clean that. I'm just going to through this out there, but what is the chance when they "refurbished" the heater it some how got a natural gas pilot jet buy mistake, what would that do? Make the pilot flame bigger or smaller?

Right now I have it rigged so it works but I don't know how safe it's going to be. I move the T/C up so it's in the flame so that solved my T/C shutting down issue but I don't think it's the best idea because the O2 level would be at a different rate to shut down the heater now. The other issue I had is how when I put the cover back on the pilot flame would dace around and had a really annoying sound and some times blow it's self out. To "fix" this I put a small hose clamp over the existing oval hole in the pilot tube and then drilled a hole in the hose clamp and put a small stainless screw in it, this screw is smaller then the hole so it doesn't plug it. I was able to adjust the pilot flame buy changing how the air and propane go down the tube and now it's quiet with the cover on.

I'm not sure how I feel about this but it is working perfect set up this way, not saying it's safe but it's working. I'm not worried about any fire or explosion or anything I'm just thinking the distance between the t/c and flame is a calibrated distance so that if the o2 level and the flame shortens the T/C shuts the heater down. I have changed that distance so the o2 level might drop lower then it should. I'm not saying I'm going to use it this way for sure but more so to give insight on what it takes to make it work.

Note the screw I added buy the brass pilot jet and how the T/C sits about an 1/8" higher now.