I have a gas water heater, installed three or four years ago. Today, the heater went off. I relight the pilot, get a good steady pilot flame, turn the heater back on, get a great blue flame, it stays on for three or four minutes, and then goes out. Any suggestions?
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Thermocouple could be bad. Easy and cheap to change.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Don't some of them use a "fire-eye" to tell if the burner fired? Maybe the sensor is dirty...
By fire eye, I assume you mean the small glass port. Yeah, it has one. The burner comes on just fine....just won't stay on after a few minutes, and after it goes off, the pilot is out again, too.
AFAIK a Fire Eye is only used on oil burners.99% (at least a very very large number of them) of gas storage tank WH are strickly mechanical. A standing pilot light and a mechanical thermostat which controls the burner. A thermocouple senses the pilot light flame and is used to hold open the safety on the gas valve.If the pilot fails (or the thermocouple) then the gas is shut off.A few gas WH have exhaust fans and I assume some safety circuits that verify that the fan is runnin when the burner needs to fire. With that much logic it might be possible that it has an electric ignition of some type or another.If that is the case then there will be somekind of flame verification. A flame sensor is one type that is commonly used on gas burners. It detect the small current that caused by the flame ionizaiton.
sounds to me like when the main burner kicks on it's blowing the pilot out and letting the thermocouple cool off. watch it fire up and see whats happening.i wouldn't know what to do if thats whats happening.i'd just change the thermocouple for 3.00 and see what happens.larry
hand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
I tried again this morning, and watched the flame through the port. The flame burned perfectly for a minute or two, then started flashing yellow, and there was a sound as if water was dripping into the flame. This continued for another minute or so, then the burner shut off. But there is no sign of water dripping from the tank. Weird.
Could be water in the line, or some restriction somewhere in the line. Do you have any other gas appliances? Are they operating OK? And, of course, have you checked to see if the shutoff valve in the pipe near the heater is all the way on, as well as any others down the line?
People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt. --Otto von Bismarck
ok,i,m kinda leaning toward the air restriction, but..... i had a ge 1 time,when the tank had pretty cool water in it,it would condense water on bottom of tank and drip,[which is normal] i never could figure out if it was hitting burner or it would drip and hit the thermocouple and cool it off and shutoff,if the tank was full of cold water i would light it 2-3 times to get it hot.then it would be ok until the washer and shower suck hot water at same time..............i fixed it,put in a new one. larryhand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
Hmmm...the idea that the dripping is condensation never occurred to me. I was thinking of wild ideas like a hairline crack in the tank that only leaks when flame heats it, or something like that. Condensation kind of makes sense. Thanks.
I have a Whirlpool gas WH in a rental unit. It was doing about the same thing that your's is doing except I don't recall the dripping sound. I went on Whirlpools web site and found a tech bulletin about cleaning a little air screen under the bottom of the tank.
The heater will have the screen, if the bottom front cover is sealed and the heater lights with one of the push button pezo or what ever you call them.
If this is a Whirlpool WH you may have a piece of junk. Google Whirlpool WH and look at all the consumer complaints!
Edited 11/19/2006 10:38 am ET by VAVince
That does make sense.The newer WH have a flame arrestor. And if it is clogged up then it can't get enough air for full combustion, but enough for the pilot light.And the yellow flame could be caused by a low air mix.
Does the gas pipe have a mud leg?
Flame arrestor style WH? ------ meaning is the burner sealed & you have a magnito to start the pilot?
Forced exhaust or gravity?
Is there two gray posts by the flame?----- one would be a thermo coupler the other being a flame sensor
“It so happens that everything that is stupid is not unconstitutional.” —Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
It is sealed. No forced air. I don't know about the mud leg, but I think so.
It sounds like lack of air
Either incoming or out going
As mentioned look at bottom screen where the air comes in.
& look at the vent termination to see if there is an obstruction.“It so happens that everything that is stupid is not unconstitutional.” —Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
Check for dirt and rust all over the thermocouple and burner. Have you done any work nearby lately that may have knocked crap loose down the exhaust pipe?
...that's not a mistake, it's rustic