"trader_4" wrote in message
...
On Thursday, September 4, 2014 9:20:45 AM UTC-4, philo wrote:
On 09/04/2014 08:09 AM, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote:

"Julie Bove" wrote:



It worked for a while but then I

had to keep relighting it. At first it was perhaps every three months,
then

every week then like every half an hour.



Modern gas water heaters use a sealed flame arrestor chamber for the
burner.

This was mandated for those who put the WH in a garage where there may
be

flamable vapors.



The flame arrestor is usually implemented as a honeycomb like vent panel
under

the burner. Unfortunately, the very reason that this was implemented
(garage

location) makes the solution a PITA as garages tend to be dusty and
dirty. The

dirt quickly blocks the honeycomb vent and the oxygen sensor for the
burner

shuts the flame down.



Clean the honeycomb vent and see if your problem goes away.









She said the water heater is new, so it should not be dirty yet.



OTOH, I just realized there is something fishy about this story...

I don't think they even make water heaters with pilot lights any more.

They make and sell lots of water heaters with pilot lights, they are the
common, entry level models. I agree the story may be fishy, mainly
because we went through this whole thing with Julie months ago, yet she's
starting it up as if it's new.

---

No I'm not. I repeated the story. It's a very similar story and it's
happening again. I do understand that the venting may well be wrong. But
what doesn't make sense to me is why each of the units when new, worked for
about 3 months with no problems, then the problems began every 3 months,
every two months, every month, every week, every day then worse. To me it
would either work or not. I could understand it going out once in a while
due to weird weather or something. Just not this pattern but...

The plumber said once in a while this does happen. He said that these units
are normally very good but occasionally there are bad ones or they just have
to keep replacing things for whatever reason. It was also testing as
slightly hotter than it should have been. He said if it is running too hot
or too cold that can make the pilot light go out.