water heater wont stay lit

[bgreen82]

so last friday we noticed we had no hot water. so i followed the instructions and re-lit the pilot on the heater before leaving for work. by the time i got home it was out. did it again saturday and it worked through sunday night but when i went to take a shower this morning, all cold, pilot out. any thoughts.

[Dave S]

Had this happen in my first house. Replaced the thermo-couple and had no problems after this.

[wishing for walleyes]

Try tapping on the pilot light after you light it and knock off some dust.That can sometimes get your flame bigger again.

[bgreen82]

its behind the window

[UMDSportsman]

LP tank low?

[paul pachowicz]

Lep nailed it!!!! Replace it and you are good to go. It's the little copper tube that may have a curl in it. All ya need is a small wrench that is made for fittings. You can buy one when ya get the thermal coupler.

[bgreen82]

why would home improvement be in an "outdoor" activity forum?

[heating guy]

if its the new style its a sealed unit with 2 nuts hold on the access cover if it has that little penzo lighter like on grills if that's the case there's a little thermo disk on the sensor line and if the ceramic disk under the burner gets plugged with dust and dirt the thermo disc opens due to lack of air getting to it so in that case you will need to blow air from under the heater up to clean all the air holes then you have to replace the thermo disc which the onlt way of doing that is by replacing the hole burner assembly but that's the new ones hopefully you have the old style if you don't its a chore

[echotrail]

So we can help each other get things done around the house faster so we can spend more time outdoors.

[Surface Tension]

Could be scale(dirty) on the tip of the thermocouple also.

A small brass brush will take it off just be careful not to bend anything.

[youngie22]

replace thermo couple (7.99, any hardware store) clean burner while down there. should be good for a long time. Surface tension is right, most times it is just getting dirty and needs to be "polished" up.

[Archerysniper]

If you replace it and still have problems it could be a strong down draft down the chimney and if it is it will also cause thw flue gas to back up into your home causing carbon monoxide to build up in your home hopefully not the problem but another idea, if you don't have one allready get a co detector for your home.

[Coach1310]

Had the same problem last winter. Was told to replace the thermocoupler. After it didn't work the first time, was told to replace it again, might have been a bad part. That still didn't fix the problem. After a visit from the appliance repair man it was determined it had a bad gas valvev. So after being about $200 into with out a fix, just bought a new water heater as mine was pretty old and not worth the roughly $200 to replace the valve.

[Redlantern]

Sounds like you have a power vent water heater but you didn't actually say so. How many feet of vent piping do you have? How many elbows are used and what size pipe is it vented in? I've seen a water heater keep losing it's pilot light when the venting was too far away from the water heater. I imagine you still have the literature that came with the water heater. If you do, look at what the manufacture recommends and see if it was installed accordingly.

[Archerysniper]

Redantern is right on that another thing I have run across is manufactuers installing the pressure switch in the bottum side of the horizontal vent wich makes the pressure switch not work because it builds up condensation and the heater say blocked vent/inlet. If you have a newer power vent heater and the book their should be a light flashing red when the heater will not run count the blinks and go through the book it will tell you what is wrong this only works on newer heaters.

[Archerysniper]

Hey Red if you see the NewMech van rolling through town honk and wave we might have to hook up and do some hunting or fishing.

[Redlantern]

Arch, sounds good. What part of town you from? I'm actually down in Sunrise.

[Archerysniper]

I live about 3.5 miles west on 5 towards Isanti by saint johns cemetary if you ever go down 5 you drive right in front of my house. I do alot of my bowhunting a little north of checkerboard park if you go west from the sunrise bar you would just about run into from my hunting honeyhole so don't be surprised to see the newmech van down their either.

[Redlantern]

You hunt almost in my backyard. I live on Lowden and Hay Creek road. I used have a bunch of sleddogs in my backyard but now I'm down to two. Stop in sometime if you're in the neighborhood. I got the great big old blue chevy crew cab and the little black saturn in the driveway.

[Archerysniper]

When you go down louden and cross the first bridge on the dirt their is a field road that goes in on the left when your heading north my portable is about 50 yards in on the grown over feild I shot four deer out of that stand this year and the funny thing is I can shoot almost to the road and watch ever vehical that drives by so durinig bow season when your between the two bridges look west and wave I'll be their controlling the heard so you don't hit them with you truck their is way to many deer there. Oh and drive slow fast vehicals make the deer nervous when I'm trying to arrow them.

[Archerysniper]

Oh by the way I still hear your two dog howling when I'm out there I can always tell when it's supper time for them, the property i hunt is the south west corner of the lowden hay creek intersection I do hunt your back yard.

[Redlantern]

Arch, that's funny that you've been hunting so close and we've never met. Been seeing a lot of deer at night crosssing on Wilcox road. I ought to get your e-mail or phone number. I feel kind of bad about highjacking this guys thread.

[Archerysniper]

Yes everyone sorry for the highjacking.

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