"trader_4" wrote in message
...
On Thursday, June 19, 2014 7:37:50 PM UTC-4, Julie Bove wrote:
I have a gas one and it is giving me fits! Our old one began leaking on
New

Year's Eve perhaps 3 years ago. I can't remember for sure. Had problems

ever since with it. Would not stay lit. I called repair once and he

replaced the thermocoupler which I've been told is the most common reason

why they won't stay lit.



That wasn't the problem and I found myself lighting it over and over
again

to the point where I had to light it 6 times in one day.

If it's not the thermocouple, the things left that I see a

A - the pilot nozzle. But if that were a problem then when it's
lit you should see an abnormal flame, too small, etc

B - Somehow an excessive draft is blowing it out.


That could be but I don't know how to fix that.


I gave up and

called the plumber again. I had been putting this off as they charge
$250

just to come out, then parts, then of course their service fee.



You need to find a different plumber. $250 just to come out and then
a service fee too?

That's the going rate here in WA. This is the third company I've called.
They're all the same.

This time they worked on it for a series of about 2 days, replacing one

thing and another. The guy said there was some sort of updraft problem
and

that the only thing they didn't replace was the roof vent.



They had one more part coming but they were sent the wrong thing so they

decided to just give me a new water heater.



Then I noticed that the older new one had dents all over it in places I

couldn't see where it was installed. The guy had a problem getting it in

the small space as the models they make these days are a lot wider. I

thought perhaps he might have damaged it in some way in installing it.



So now I have the new one. But... It too has problems staying lit! It
was

going out about every 2-3 weeks. Then the last time I had extreme
trouble

getting it lit. Someone (perhaps here?) suggested a website which I went
to

and also ordered a book from. In the book and also on the internet, it
says

to light these, you need to depress the pilot light button and then the

igniter switch 10-15 times while still holding the pilot light button
down.

This after shutting it off for 5 minutes to clear out the gas.


I'd read the manual for the unit you actually have, not some book
you have to order. I've never heard of pressing an igniter switch
10 -15 times, but who knows.

The manual was no help.


Well, I did that and it stayed light for a long time. Several months.
But

now it went out again! It's very annoying as it only seems to happen
right

when someone needs to take a shower.



I just had a new roof put on, explained the problem to the roofer and
asked

him to put on a new vent. Which he did. So...



Why is it doing this?

Without knowing how air gets into the WH area, what blowers,
eg furnace blower sucking air?, how the venting is done, etc,
impossible to say.

Furnace? We have no furnace or any blowers that I know of. But... There
is a fan in the garage. I am not sure where it is or what it does. I only
know where the switch is. It works sometimes, sometimes not. Just for the
heck of it, I did have it on for several hours to see if it made a
difference in the dampness in there. It didn't seem to. And then it quit
working again.



I did have the garage door open yesterday for many

hours because I was doing a big clean out.

Is the WH in the garage?

Yes.

But... We had hot water through

the night and early this morning.

If it went out the prior day, it would be normal to still have
hot water until the next morning, depending on the usage.

My husband gets up early and takes at least an hour long shower. So I know
it had to have been lit then or he would have hollered.

The water for my shower started out hot but rapidly cooled to barely warm.



Not sure when it did go out as I didn't

get into the shower until afternoon and I could tell by the lukewarm
water

that it was out again.



Do you think it could just be the way that my house sits? That somehow
the

wind, even if not strong could be putting it out? Weird thing is, we
lived

in this house for several years with the old water heater and it never
went

out. Not sure what that one was. Never really needed to look at it
until

it did have a problem.

This kind of thing is hard to diagnose without seeing it or at least
more info. One thing does come to mind though. Idiots were blowing
themselves
up with WHs by using things like gasoline to clean the basement floor
or pouring paint thinner all over the place. To protect idiots from
themselves, the govt passed new rqts for WHs maybe 5 years ago. They
are required to have a design where the flames or pilot light, etc
can't ignite volatile fumes that you fill the basement with. It's
possible something to do with that makes new ones more susceptible to
having the pilot light blow out. Or it could just be that the make and
model you have is more sensitive to it.

Did you call the WH manufacturer and ask them?

Nope. Every person I ask about this just tells me to replace the
thermocoupler. I guess I could see if I could find a way to contact them.