New gas water heater issue

[jsmcdon]

So here's the story, a month ago I bought a richmond 50 gallon 38,000btu gas water heater, had it installed, 2 weeks later it shut off and was throwing a 2 red blinking light code of thermopile low voltage, so i shut the heater off, restarted it and it worked for a week, then it shut off again completely and it was restarted and we took it back on warranty.
So now we have the same water heater but a new one, and the pilot light went out last night, i went and restarted it and it started. as seen below in the photos when it first started this is how it burned orange for a minute or two and from googling it the orange isnt good, after a few minutes it returned to blue as seen in second picture.

Is this a venting issue? Not enough air issue? any information helps as this has been a major pain.....

Our original water heater was 14 years old and never had any issues it just needed replaced due to the gas valve and we just replaced it instead of putting parts in it due to age.

 

[SHEPLMBR]

Are you on propane or natural gas?

 

[jsmcdon]

natural gas

 

[SHEPLMBR]

Make sure they did not sell you a propane. Do you have enough fresh air? The newer ones today require fresh air. Back up and take a picture of the entire heater and surrounding area.

 

[jsmcdon]

Make sure they did not sell you a propane. Do you have enough fresh air? The newer ones today require fresh air. Back up and take a picture of the entire heater and surrounding area.

im almost positive its a gas, someone had told me to check the gas valve and make sure it says gas and not lp. ill take a photo tonight and post it, thank you for the replies greatly appreciated.

 

[jsmcdon]

Make sure they did not sell you a propane. Do you have enough fresh air? The newer ones today require fresh air. Back up and take a picture of the entire heater and surrounding area.

is there really that big of a difference from old ones to todays heaters in regards to needing that much fresh air? genuinely asking.

 

[SHEPLMBR]

is there really that big of a difference from old ones to todays heaters in regards to needing that much fresh air? genuinely asking.

YES

 

[jsmcdon]

Make sure they did not sell you a propane. Do you have enough fresh air? The newer ones today require fresh air. Back up and take a picture of the entire heater and surrounding area.

so early this morning it was off and then when i went home a bit ago it was off.
the house is tri-level with a small concrete utility basically down from the lower level for the furnace, water heater and softener.
there is a large opening to the crawl space as seen in one of the photos.
there are 2 doors that go into the utility and i have been leaving them cracked open because i had thought about it not getting enough air.
this time this afternoon i turned the temperature down to letter A from B when i restarted it and left the 2 doors wide open.

 

[Twowaxhack]

If you left all that open and it still shut down then You most likely have a defective control valve. The main thermostat.

But you still need to address the lack of combustion air issue. You need an air vent ducted in from that crawl space.

 

[MicEd69]

As Twowaxhack said, with all those doors open, the issue probably isn't lack of combustion air. But as you have a gas HVAC system as well, you will need to check the total air required for that space once the water heater issue is solved.

From your pictures, I can't see the draft hood or vent pipe on top of the water heater. Is this new water heater taller than your old one? Is the vent pipe sloped properly? The vent pipe should slope upwards at as steep of an angle as possible, and NEVER have a downward dip.