SCV-50 C-3 Technology Anti combustion water heaters

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I've put in one of the new water heaters from AO Smith (SCV-50) and the pilot keeps going out. I was wondering if anyone else has been having any problems with these water heaters.

Mark Eatherton1

Hey...

Did you know your boss/partners picture is on the cover of the NCI Carbon Monoxide hand outs???

I can see some potential problems with the new anti ignition heaters on the market. Got lint?

I have not personally installed any yet, but it looks like it could be a major PITA to set up and keep running. Glad I don't do plunging any more:-)

ME

Dennis - Reliable Services

I have found on some water heaters,

that the condensation that forms on the bottom of the tank can drip directly on the pilot, if you can shim the tank this can stop this. One warning if the water seem excessively hot, the thermostat may be bad, which will cause a switch on the thermocouple to open extinguishing the pilot. In one case I put a stainless steel sheild over top of the hot surface ignitor in a A.O Smith direct vent type water tank, the ignitor has not broken in 5 years (knock on wood)

Unknown

Does it have new FVIR technology?

If it does make sure every door, gasket, and sealed area is sealed. If not you will have combustion problems. You also want to check your millivolts as there may be a high loss through all the extra harware and if the pilot is not a good stong pilot itmay keep going out.

Check to make sure there is nothing blocking flue passages and all of the special air filters into the unit are not plugged.

Dale

FVIR

Timmie, if you put together a book on all the FVIR models I'll buy one. I really wonder how these will hold up, not in the nice clean basements but in the rental property and places that flood " a bit" how will the flame arrestor deal with muddy water? I also wonder what will happen the first time an OA smith or other non standard thermocouple fails, I have already told our street mechanics not to relight them is any of the seals are missing.

Unknown

Dale I definitely

see several servicing problems with these water heaters. The first problem already happened last week. A new heater installed they could not get the pilot to light from the Piezzo igniter. The serviceman took the heater apart and in the process snapped the fusible link in the thermocouple. They could not find a replacement thermocouple any where. So the obvious they took one out of another new heater. In checking local supply houses none of them have these thermocouples. It should be interesting to say the least.

I am in the process of chasing down all the manufacturers to get a handle on each different system. When I can get some good data and do some testing myself I am going to include a section in our thermocouple servcing literature. When I get it done I will send you a copy.

Say Dale, do you happen to get the AGA books that list all of the appliance, furnace and boiler manufacturers. It usually came out periodically to the utilities. If you have an old one say the next to the last one printed I sure could use it.

Glenn Harrison_2

Tim, I went to a State class on these things,

and was told that if the thermocouple goes bad, you have to replace the entire burner assembly including the door and gaskets (all one piece assembly). This has to be done this way to keep from screwing up the penetraion seals of the burner door. There's something to think about. "Mr and Mrs Smith, you have a bad thermocouple, but it's more cost effective to replace your five year old water heater because I have to replace half the water heater to fix your bad thermocouple." I can just see saying that in a couple of years. The thing that really sucks is that this will probalby help the home improvment centers because people who have some mechanical knowledge will be going to Home cheapo and buying a new unit for less than we can replace an entire burner assembly, and won't have to wait for the parts to come in.

Glenn Harrison_2

Another thing about that \"special\" thermocouple

is that nobody had the forethought to change the threads on the the thermocouple connection on the valve so that any body could take out the saftey thermocouple and replace it with a standard thermocouple, and defeat the safty feature. I'm sure somebody will get hurt and a manufacturer will get sued before that tiny oversight is corrected.