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Propane water heater

Jim Pompetti
Jim Pompetti Member Posts: 552
in Domestic Hot Water
Bradford White propane water heater , ran out of propane ,sooted up. Service company came out (?) worked on it . They left and trouble again (soot) Any one come across this problem . And have you put a system back in service . Unit one year old MITW50SFSX

Comments

  • Larry Weingarten
    Larry Weingarten Member Posts: 3,564
    Hello: I've serviced lots of sooted up water heaters by doing what I can to remove soot and make sure there is good air flow. Removing the burner assembly and running water through the main burner does a good job of getting rid of the soot there. Pulling the baffle up and wiggling it around helps to clear soot from the flue. Then vacuuming out the combustion chamber finishes the cleaning job so you can reinstall the burner. Having a clean FVIR air inlet/s matters too.

    Once done, check air flow and flame color.

    Yours, Larry
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    The water heater didn't soot up because it ran out of gas. Something else was wrong with it.

    I found a Bradford White that had a funky way that the burner assembly was held in place on the end. It was sooting. It wasn't something that anyone would notice. The burner was flopped over on its side. The customer had run out of gas over the winter and the house was drained. The caretaker had not shut the heat off like he was supposed to. When I turned the water back on in the Spring, I did my normal routine check by firing off the HSI direct vent water heater. It didn't light.

    In my experience, a water heater doesn't soot up because it ran out of gas, it did it because of a faulty regulator or some air/fuel ratio issue.

    Once someone makes the call (like that one) that has a bogus reason, you might get the blame for it to continue to be happening.

    CYA my friend.

    There's as many bogus reasons out there as there are starts in the sky. Just reach up and grab one.
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    As someone said:

    If it looks like a duck, waddles when it walks, has webbed feet, swims in puddles and goes "Quack", it isn't a chicken. No matter how hard someone tries to convince you that it is.
  • Empire_2
    Empire_2 Member Posts: 2,340
    A side note; There should be a pressure switch monitoring the gas pressure that open on a drop in pressure. Look into this when your service guy come by.


    Mike T.

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