On Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:33:19 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

Had about 6" inches of water in my basement a couple days ago.
I'm not too far from O'Hare airport and they measured about 7" inches
of rain that day. Most of it came in a few hours.
Most rain in 24 hours since record keeping started in 1871.
Second most was in 2008, and my basement got hit then too.
Anyway, the furnace/AC, washer and dryer all work.
But the water heater, a 40gallon Rheem I put in a couple years ago
wouldn't light.
The piezo ignitor for the pilot wouldn't spark.
I had a strong fan on it for 12 hours but it didn't help because the
burner/pilot/ignitor are all sealed up behind a metal access panel
where the main gas, pilot, and piezo wire lines go through grommets.
That panel has a little glass window about 2" x 2".
So I was going to disconnect all that and pull the panel to dry the
innards out.
Lucky I started with the 4 torx srews holding the panel in and never
got around to detaching the gas lines.
The panel wouldn't budge. Tapped it around with a hammer thinking it
was a gasket/sealer holding, but no go.
Still not sure if it's been crimped around the edges because the
casing makes it hard to see the edges.
Decided to pry out the frame holding the window glass in.
That was tabbed top and bottom with wide tabs bent down inside the
casing. Had some kind of fire wool between the glass frame and casing
as a sealer.
Broke the glass, but got it pried loose.
Lit a wood skewer and relit the pilot and got it going again.
Just like old times.
Flames burned yellow for a while but turned blue after a few minutes.
There's some heat escaping the window hole, but nothing serious.
Only problem is the very small pilot flame blows out without that
window. Can't take the 2"x 2" opening.
I had to light it again last night so my wife could do laundry.
Just relit it again. The piezo is working now.
Anyway I'm just going to tape a patch of fiberglas insulation over
the window hole unless somebody warns me off.
A pain in the ass design, and I suspect it's all just to keep a small
pilot flame.

Here's a warning. After the last basement flooding I bought a bunch
of those big plastic container with lids. Maybe 40 at $10 apiece.
My wife keeps a lot of "junk" in them, and off-season clothes.
Some packed with clothes were stacked 4 high.
A whole pile toppled over, spilling their contents.
That's why she'll being doing laundry for days.
The bottom container was full of clothes, but even with 3 other full
containers on it wasn't heavy enough to fight displacement.
Even the bottom one tipped when they went over.
Aw hell.

--Vic


No one else has mentioned it so....

You know you have just defeated the safety feature of your water
heater that prevents it from igniting any flammable vapors in the
vicinity?

No matter to me either way, but having seen a fire caused by contact
cement vapors reaching a water heater (at a friends house) I'm glad
to have the safety system.

Anyway, that's what the window and gasketing are about...

Paul F.