Ruud Repair

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes_2

called me to come look at her Ruud water heater. When she turned on her hot water faucet, it would start off hot, but then turn cold in about 30 seconds.

Mrs. Wolffe is 96 years old and so is her water heater; it's her buddy and she cares for it.

There are a lot of these old Ruud water heaters in the Bay Area, but to tell you the truth, I'd never worked on one, 'til now.

I figured out that the mechanism that initiates the gas valve to come on is a water valve. This water valve has a plunger and when there's a flow of water, the plunger comes down and pushes on the gas valve plunger which turns on the gas to the burners. As flow increases, the plunger pushes down futher on the gas valve plunger and lets more gas go to the burners.

Here's a picture when there's no water flow; the plungers are separated and there's no gas going to the burners.

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes_2

When the

water starts to flow, the plunger goes down and pushes on the gas valve plunger like so:

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes_2

But the

water plunger wasn't pushing down hard enough; the burner would go on and then turn off. I took the water valve apart which is made up of the cap, a weighted, brass head and a piston and spring.

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes_2

Here's a close up

of the head. You can see the string packing at the top to seal the cylinder. I believe the grooves are there to deflect the head down when there's a flow of water, pushing the piston down and engaging the gas piston.

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes_2

Dirty

The piston was all gummed up. I cleaned the build up with a wire brush and put some high quality Grohe silicone lubricant on the stem, re-assembled the water valve and turned on the water.

Lucky for me it worked; the piston moved down enough to engage the gas valve and turn on the burner.

Mrs. Wolffe was a happy camper.

lchmb

incredible

Must have been a blast to work with that old timer. I love to come across stuff like that...Were you able to get it working?

Robert O'Connor_6

Great Story

Alan ! and good job.

Thanks for sharing the experience.

Robert

ME

jim lockard

shes smiling

you know shes happy good job Alan