Hello All, I've been troubleshooting this for the past three weeks. apollo water heater approx three years old. pilot light seems to go out whenever the main burner shuts off. First fix attempt, I removed the burner and pilot assy, cleaned, and blew out lines, put back on and worked great for about two days. Second attempt, replaced pilot light assy, once again, worked for about two days. pilot light lights up fine, and if I leave it at a low temp, without the main burner coming on, the pilot light stays lit indefinitely. When I manually turn the temp up, causing the main burner to come on and than turn the temp back down so the burner goes out, the pilot light will stay lit. It seems to only go out when the burner shuts off automatically after water reaches correct temperature. Checked air vents on bottom of tank and they are clean. If anyone has a suggestion on what the problem might be, please let me know, Thank You.
Pilot light will not stay lit.
- Thread starter jeff
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post a pic of the base of the heater if you can, ill solve it for you
There was a problem with some of the newer gas heaters. They get there combustion air from under the heater through a filter. These filters after time, depending on the location of the heater would become plugged. They have a brush that is used to clean these filters.
http://www.statewaterheaters.com/cust/FVIRCleaning.pdf
John
http://www.statewaterheaters.com/cust/FVIRCleaning.pdf
John
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post a picture of the base, with the front sheild cover off
Have you replaced the thermocouple or just readjusted it? They do go out quite a bit.
see below...
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ha, ha thats an OLD AO smith type, its much more than 3 years old, yes my friend, the filter needs cleaned correctly... you can thank me anytime..
look dude, ill cut to the chase so you can wake up tommorrow with hot water, if this doesnt work you can come down to San Diego and slap my momma.... remove everything again, the thermocoupling, burner, etc... take a toilet scrub brush, preferred a clean one, and scrub the filter inside the burner chamber, back and forth for like 20 strokes. wipe out all the dust and crud with a shop vac or with a damp rag... reinstall all the pieces you took off... and belive me, when you wake up tommorrow youll get on here and thank another plumber, lol
I agree with Another-Plumber. I have been saying from the beginning that it was the filter. I even supplied a link showing how to accomplish this. AO Smith was one of the worst for this problem. There should have been a recall on them.
John
John
most def john, rumor has it, AO smith knew about the problems with their WH and never admitted it, i have had many issues with them giving me the Big Business run around, they have about 20 excuses why the WH wont work. even some BS to how high the vent is extended from your roof, really? what does a vent have to do with the pilot staying on? I have been taking my business to Bradford-White ever since 2004 or so...
oh, and another thing johnjh20, i agree with what you said up top, "They get there combustion air from under the heater through a filter. These filters after time, depending on the location of the heater would become plugged. They have a brush that is used to clean these filters." its easy for me to solve a problem if i can only see with my own eyes what the customer/poster is talking about....
Thermocouple was an easy suggestion, and if it didnt work then I would definatelly Agree with AP and John, I hadnt known about this issue with the Ao Smiths but do now So I tip my had to these 2 for what I've learned today.
