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rocket
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| Joined: | Tue Aug 5th, 2008 |
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Posted: Tue Aug 5th, 2008 06:41 am |
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I have an American (brand) water heater, model BFG12240T403NO that was installed in January. The pilot light went out yesterday. The pilot light can be re-lit following the re-light procedure, but it doesn't stay lit -- seems to just stay lit to light the burner for one cycle. I thought it was a thermocouple problem and called the plumber who installed it. The plumber says that replacing the thermocouple will probably not solve the problem. He says that the problem is that government regulations have required a configuration change to the burner area that causes pilot lights to go out due to lack of oxygen. He says that it is not a just a problem with American heaters, that no manufacturer has come up with a compliant solution that will keep the pilot light lit.
This makes no sense to me at all. I don't see why the pilot light would go out from lack of oxygen when there is clearly enough oxygen there to run the burner while it is on. While I am a skeptic in regards to onerous government regulations, it seems unlikely to me that a regulation would be implemented that would result in all new water heaters in the US to have pilot light failures within a few months.
I don't know if my problem is a bad manufacturer (American) or a bad plumber or if the explanation the plumber is giving me is true, in spite of how ridiculous it sounds.
Any advice or recommendations you can provide would be appreciated.
Thanks
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elenano
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| Joined: | Sat Sep 11th, 2004 |
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Posted: Tue Aug 5th, 2008 04:28 pm |
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There ARE some special issues with the new heaters, but the plumber is not quite right in what he says. I suggest you take a look in Tanklets (link at top of Tank page) at the one titled FVIR Issues. You may need to do some cleaning.
Randy Schuyler
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Ej
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Posted: Thu Aug 7th, 2008 01:45 am |
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With the BFG model you should have a small white reset switch in the upper right corner of the burner door. There will be two white wires going to this switch. If you have to reset the very small button in the middle of the switch before the pilot will relight then you need to clean the intake screen on the bottom underside of the heater. This can only be cleaned with a brush or feather duster that will reach under your heater and up to the screen indented in the bottom of the heater. A vacuum will not work. Keeping this intake screen clean will prevent a overheat condition in the burner chamber and keep the reset switch from tripping. If it continues to trip then you haven't cleaned it well enough.
If your pilot can be relight without resetting the switch then there is another problem that we can address later. The BFG is a good heater if you are aware that the intake screen needs to be cleaned periodically. It has no known issues with the pilot going out due to the burner using all the combustion air. I bet your plumber would be great on story night around the campfire.Last edited on Thu Aug 7th, 2008 01:46 am by Ej
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rocket
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Posted: Fri Aug 8th, 2008 01:41 am |
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| Thanks. We contacted the plumbing firm that handles the warranty (different from the first plumber who sold us the unit and installed it). They sent out a plumber who replaced the valve and the thermocouple and added a screen around the bottom of of the unit (down to the floor). He said he couldn't see why the unit failed, but it should be fine now as long as we clean the screen monthly. Unless we remove the screen, we can't get a brush under the unit to clean it as Ej suggests. It appears that the screen that he added is intended to make it unnecessary to clean the screen underneath.
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Ej
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Posted: Fri Aug 8th, 2008 02:48 am |
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| I hope he cleaned the intake screen first which was most likely your problem. The black wrap around filter he put on really helps but you should still clean the flame arrestor screen at least once per year to remain problem free. The new heaters which use the same design but are infrared do not have a trip-able switch should the intake screen plug up. It will be interesting to see what this produces when the intake screen gets plugged. Last edited on Fri Aug 8th, 2008 02:50 am by Ej
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rocket
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Posted: Fri Aug 8th, 2008 03:44 am |
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| OK. Thanks again. I'll do as you suggest and will post if the problem recurs. Hopefully, that won't be for a long time...
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