Hello, need some help with my water heater. Last year, I replaced my water heater with a model that I purchased at Loews. It’s a gas unit that has a problem with the pilot light going out. After talking with customer service, they said that my water heater, which shares a flue witht the furnace, is not compatible with a forced air system. So, I’m assuming that the pilot light is blown out when the fan kicks on. The (2) flues are joined by a “y” pipe and then head through the roof. Unfortunately, running another vent is not an option due to accessiblity.
My question is this, how can I keep the pilot light lit? Can I add some sort of “diverter” without affecting the exhaust venting.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave
Replies
Contact a plumbing and heating contractor. The pilot light should stay on, the forced air system has nothing to do with it. If the gas does not shut off automatically when the light goes out, turn the gas cock off, leave it off until the problem is corrected.
When the water heater is fired up, does it stay that way? If it goes out only when the pilot light is on and the heater is not running, then the problem is from the oriface back to the gas line itself. Turn gas off, disconnect the union, check for tape or dope in the pipe. Blow the nipple ,oriface etc out with air. reconnect and try it. This may do the trick.
mike
I had this problem with a Sears WH I bought a few years ago. They said it was a bad thermocouple. Changed the whole WH out for me.
Get down where you can see the water heater pilot, and then have someone turn up the thermostat so that the furnace kicks on. If that causes the pilot to go out, that's information you need. I doubt it's the case but you need to know.
Our last house had a boiler and a water heater using the same B vent stack, with a tee in it. No problem there.
First off, many water heaters are now designed with a pilot that will go out intentionally if the amount of oxygen in the air is reduced, due to flue obstruction, etc.
Secondly, if there is more than a slight flicker when the furnace FAN comes on it means that your furnace ductwork is improperly configured and is creating a vacuum (most likely) or pressure (slightly possible) in the house. This can happen if the ductwork is outside the "envelope" and is leaking -- something that is costing you heating $$ and needs to be fixed ASAP.
You may also have a problem when the furnace fan comes on if the utility room is too tightly sealed relative to the rest of the house and the furnace is drawing cold return air from the utility room.
If the problem occurs when the furnace BURNER comes on then the house as a whole, or possibly just the utility room is too tightly sealed and is not allowing enough air in to feed the burners. In this case you need to add a duct from the outside to near the furnace/WH to supply makeup air.
happy?
Thanks everybody for the quick response.
I do see the pilot light flicker when the furnace starts up. I also see it flicker when the wind outside picks up. The water heater I replaced never had this problem.
The water heater is in my garage, right next to furnace. I did enclose the pair, but added louver doors to add venting. The walls were added years ago and did not affect the old system.
I also changed the vent cap on the exterior in an effort to reduce the chance of wind coming down the flue.
Thanks again for the help,
Dave
next to the pilot light is the thermocouple which must be in the flame to produce a milavoltage to keep open the main gas control
if the thermocouple is weak it will shut down the control , if you unscrew the thermocouple where it screws into the control and clean the contact point with a piece of sand paper sometimes it gets rid of the problem or replace thermocouple
PS; the reason i know this is i used to work in the trade
It may be a bad thermocouple. I have a furnace in a rental house and have to replace the thermocouple every heating season. Then it works fine until the next year. Also check to see that the end of the thermocouple is in the flame of the pilot light. If it is not in the right spot the pilot will go out after the heating cycle ends.
Bluejay,
Had same problem with a Wirlpool WH from Lowes. I went on Wirlpool web site and download a tech bulliten about cleaning a vent screen under the weater. It worked!!! New heaters are sealed up in the combustion chamber and if this vent gets dusty it will not light.
Good luck
If it has the little red button (pop) lighter like a gas grill then it will have the screen under the very bottom. When I say screen it looks more like fine lines about 3" X 5" . Kinda hard to describe. I will try to find the bulletin
Edited 1/21/2006 11:15 am ET by VAVince
O.K I will try to attach this so here goes!!
This is not the bulletin I was looking for but this might help. If this the tpye heater you have, cleaning the screen works.
Edited 1/21/2006 11:34 am ET by VAVince
I had this problem with a natural gas water heater. After some complaining, the gas company admitted the pressure was too low. They dug up the yard, cleaned the tee where my feeder hits the main line and everything worked fine.
I was more work to get the electrical company to fix their open ground.
Thanks everybody for the responses. I give your suggestions a try tomorrow.
Thanks again,
Dave