How Do I Light A Pilot Light On A Gas Hot Water Heater When The Pilot Light Area Is Sealed, And The…?
Friday, July 17th, 2009 at
1:41 pm
electric sparker is not sparking?
The hot water heater is new (10 months), but the shop is closed today. I turned the light off to paint an epoxy floor (those directions said - turn off pilot lights). Now the damn thing won’t spark, and the directions say ‘dont take off the panel and hand light’.
Any realistic suggestions will be appreciated, sarcastic answers will be snickered at. (and the laugh would probably do me some good)
Tagged with: Area • Heater • Light • Pilot • Sealed • Water • When
Filed under: Home Repair
for safety purposes because you are not familiar with doing the re- lighting, you can call your local fire dept and they will come out for Free to re-light the water heater. They will probably commend you very much for being smart about what you did in following instructions.
Be SAFE
Good Luck
R
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S
C
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ROSCoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…
The sparker you describe is called a “pizo igniter”. It and the gas tube for the pilot light and the sight glass are molded together and sold as a replacement unit and are expensive, and only available from a plumbing wholesaler. ($30 - $60) In addition, the threads on this type of thermocouple are reverse thread so you cannot modify or get by with a conventional thermocouple. Often the pizo igniters don’t spark on every push, so you might try to relight the heater again. Be sure you have the valve in the “pilot” position. The pilot light is incredibly hard to see through the window. There is a good chance you re-lit it and didn’t know. Sometimes you have to turn the gas burner valve to “on” and the heater temperature selector to “hot” before the burner comes on and tells you you have been successful. If you are really desperate, you can drill a hole in the sheet metal and get something in there to light the pilot, but in doing so you will void any warranty or liability of the manufacturer. Sounds like fun. Good luck.
The sparker is clipped to the control valve. It must be clip to the side for it to get leverage to spark. or get shock. In ur case if it don’t make any clicking noise. It must be replace. U cannot buy this unit in Home Depot or Lowes. It’s a specialty part and only be purchase in a Plumbing specialty store. The only thing to do is take the screws out of the glass cover and light it manually. Take out the spark unit and use it as a sample to match the ignitor. In the mean time, light up the pilot. Once it’s lit, Temporary put the cover back on and turn on the valve to fire up the gas. U got to do the same stage as to wait for the thermo coupling to warm up and til the pilot light stays on without continue pressing the pilot lite and than turn on gas.
Yeah I am sure it does say don’t take it off.
The plate that holds the window so you can see the pilot should come off with a couple to a few screws. Remove it, and let it sit for 5 minutes in case there is any gas build up from you holding the pilot button down. I doubt there is but just in case.
Lite the pilot and replace it before turning the burner on.
Reread the entire instructions…..you may have missed something with the anxiety… calm down and re-read.
Also, call the local gas company, a local Lowes or Home Depot store. They have experts to help.
Remember natural gas is odorless, the gas company adds a chemical that makes it smell like rotten egg so we can identify it.
I know it’s scary….but stay calm and if you hear a hissing, get everyone out and call the gas company from a neighbors house.
You should call a plumber and have the “sparker”, Electronic ignition, replaced. If you don’t fix it, you will have to manually light it each time it finishes heating and the flame will go out. Providing you don’t blow yourself up in the process.
10 months old. Then call the company that manufactured it. It is under a factory warrenty and they will have an authorized business in your area that can do the warrenty work at no cost to you. (as long as youdidnt mess with it)
Look around its sides, or bottom. There would be a little aluminum plate with an 1 800 number. Use a flash light, while looking for it. They will guide you step by step.
Otherwise, if you use candle, or a match, —well, get a firefighters on a stand by
A unit that new shouldn’t have gone out just because you turned it off. Double check that you have power to the unit. DO NOT try to light it with a match The unit should be under warranty for parts. Good luck and God Bless.
I would suggest that messing with gas and a match when you don’t know what you are doing is a very nice way to say goodbye to this world.
What the h-ll are you talking about?? one minute its a pilot lite and the next its an electronic sparker. So which is it??
And I never saw a ‘’sealed” pilot lite area in my life.
I’ve been installing and repairing these things for the last 35 years, and the newer, (4-5 years old), units with the sealed pilot areas are a real pain. The piezo igniters do occasionally go bad, but as Ed said, they don’t always spark on every push and they are incredibly hard to see when you have to bend over so far to look thru that little window. I’d try it again, making sure to follow the lighting procedure carefully and if you simply can’t get it to lite, Dean is correct. You can take the metal plate with the window off the tank and lite it manually. I use a butane match, like the ones you use to lite a BBQ. They have a good long reach and usually a good flame which will lite the cavity and let you see where the pilot is. Once you have the pilot relit, reinstall the plate before turning the main valve on and the thermostat up.
The manufacturer of this unit will not send someone out to repair it under warranty for such a small thing. What they will do is to send you a part and you’ll have to find someone to install it.
And lastly, for both of the Joe’s, you guys should probably take more time to read the question before answering. They very plainly stated that they turned off the pilot to be safe around the epoxy paint they were applying. That’s not a warrantiable problem.