gas water heater trouble

Bryant_2

I found my pilot light out last night and I followed the steps to relight it. After it was lit, I set the thermostat and heard the gas and flame kick in. Just before I walked away, I saw a flame whip out through the access doors up to where the pilot and thermo controls were. I quickly turned everything off and looked for any problems.

Not seeing any, I waited for 5 minutes and relit the pilot, and I only put back in one panel so i could see around for what was happening, I turned up the heat, waited for the flame to kick in & I peaked in, the pilot lit the main burner, but only about 1/3 of it lit when this unruly flame appeared on the bottom of the pilot area and the main burner was no longer producing flames. Of course, it then spit flames out the door panel and I turned everything off again.

What is happening here, can anybody help?

J.C.A._3

Was ....

The gas company in the area doing any work? Sometimes it happens when you're not home. They will usually try to get in to relight the pilots but can't if you're not there. Could be some air in the line still. Look for new patches or holes nearby. Just a thought. Chris

Bryant_2

Thanks Chris, but we also have gas heat and that's working fine.
It seems that the gas being SENT to the main burner is catching aflame preventing it from reaching the main burner and just producing an unruly flame. Although at first, the main burner starts to light. It's almost as if the main burner acts as a pilot for the gas being SENT to the main burner, so the flame takes the gas from the source rather than the burner. I'd like to give a better explanation, I just hope it makes some sense.
Thanks again Chris,
Bryant

Unknown

Sounds like

your burner is partially plugged. How old is this water heater? Are you flued into a masonry chimney or a gas vent? Is this the only equipment into the flue? Do you have the equipment in a small room or is it in a wide open basement area?

What is the make of the water heater? Are you a homeowner? If you are not a professional then get hold of a heating contractor to look at the problem. This type of theing can be dangerous and you are wise to leave it off.

J.C.A._3

Bryant,

Time to call in a pro. Too many things that seem simple can turn catastrophic. Protect your family and home first.

Without being there to see the what's and why's I can't go any further. I try to work from the simple to the not-so-simple causes. My first guess would be simple, but since the heater is still functioning I highly recommend a pro. Chris

Bryant_2

Thanks gentlemen, based on the questions Tim posed, I'm calling in the pros. It definitely seems dangerous to me and I was hoping to find a common and yet simple solution.

I'm no pro myself, but I like to fix what I can, this is just out of my league.

It's in a small space and it is an AO Smith. I can't answer your flue questions and I am a renter, I've already called the landlord, I just like taking care of what I can.

Unknown

Bryant, let us know

what they find. It is always good for us here to know what the final conclusion is on a problem.

We are glad to be of help.

Bryant_2

I owe you guys at least that much, thanks for all the quick input. I haven't heard back from the landlord yet so it's cold shower city yet another night.

Bryant

Dale

Crushed flue

Sounds like a crushed flue. Take off the vent pipe, and draft diverter and see if you can pull the sheet metal flue baffle out. If it won't budge look down with a strong light to see if it's stuck by a crushed flue.

Dave Yates (PAH)

Thermal expansion!

The likely culprit.

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Bryant_2

problem solved!

well, I had to look into what the flue and the draft diverter was and I started to investigate. The water heater is in a tiny room outside the house and it's up a little high to see the top of it. Once i got a look at the top i noticed some insulation was stuffed in the venting area around the draft diverter. I also noticed some rat droppings and went ahead and removed all the insulation. Once I was sure I got all the insulation out, I lit the pilot and fired it up and it works beautifully.

I'm glad it wasn't a crushed flue, but if it weren't for that suggestion, I wouldn't have found the insulation stuffed in the draft diverter preventing the air from flowing, now it makes sense why the flames were spitting out of the panels by the pilot, it needed air to breathe.

Thanks so much everyone, you're a good group of folks.

Bryant

Mark Hunt

Uh.......maybe not


Did you happen to find a dead rat?

If you are saying that an animal built a nest in the flue, you need to check to make sure it is actually drafting. A rat or a mouse would be killed by CO from the water heater pretty quickly.

A combustion analyzer can determin what exactly is happening, but an animal should have been killed before it could have finished a nest.

Mark H

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Bryant_2

well...

the water heater has been working great these last couple of days with no problems, when I lit it up that last time, everything worked great, the entire burner lit up unlike the previous attempts.

Maybe there is a rat inside the flue, my landlord is coming by tomorrow with his maintenance guy, I'll have them check it out, but there are no signs of anything wrong right now.

Thanks for the input.

Mark Hunt

But Bryant


the point I am making is that the unit may not be drafting. You may have removed the cause of the back pressure, but you may not have resolved the issue that allowed an animal to build a nest in your flue piping.

As I said, a rat or mouse should have been killed before it could have built a nest as long as the unit was venting properly.

Unless someone is going to test the water heater with a combustion analyzer, you will never know what is happening.

Mark H

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Bryant_2

I get it

I had to read your message a couple of times to really get what you're saying. So, basically, there should be no chance that a mouse could build that nest without dying trying because of the fumes being exhausted at the top of the flue? Gotcha, I would've never known to check for something like that. It seems like the nest was complete, it was packed all around the opening between the flue and draft diverter, so maybe there still is a problem afterall.

Thanks again Mark

Mark Hunt

You bet


I hope everything is ok!

Mark H

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Unknown

Was the water heater

shut down for any length of time? If so the mouse or rat could have built the nest then.

I have had nests built in flues and chimneys with evidence that they were still occupying the nest as they were running in and out of the flue pipe as I looked at the heater. I found it hard to believe they had not cooked but there they were happy as little mice can be. I have had squirrels do some interesting things in flues also.

The best one was a direct vent wall heater in Maine that had 20 of the little varmints living in the concentric flue, and blower wheel and the pilot on the unit was on all the time. Somehow they survived.

I can tell you from working in the inner city that rats are even tougher and can live in some pretty amazing conditions that you would think should kill them.

Mechanic

I smell a rat (nm)

Sweet

Rat

Recently went to customers house to make new manifold for existing In Floor Polybutylene system. Made repairs turned to light boiler and found 6" of dirt laying in bottom of burner tray, with pilot still lit. Luckily or not boiler had fired up sometime prior to this and smoked entire line and control circiut system disabeling unit but ruining boiler critter guys trapped ground squirrel several days later.Replaced boiler and sealed area to eliminate further problems. Costly mistake but rather lucky boiler burned itself out.