Water Heater Won T Stay Lit With New Thermocouple

The solution was adjusting the thermocouple.

Water heater won t stay lit with new thermocouple. It s routine maintenance that needs to be done in any case. The pilot lights but won t stay lit if a water heater pilot won t light at all the thermocouple probably isn t the problem. Clean those first before doing anything else. I am not a professional just documenting how i repaired the hot water heater s pilot light to stay on.

You will have to order the control valve from the manufacturer. Most recently manufactured water heaters function with the aid of a thermocouple. This device is central to the operation and can tell if the pilot light is on or off by an electrical current that is powered by the pilot s heat. A bad thermocouple will shut off gas to both the pilot and the burner so the pilot light won t stay lit.

Thermocouple problems can be fairly common and this component is often the culprit when the water heater pilot keeps going out. The procedure for lighting a standing pilot always includes lighting the flame then manually holding in the gas valve to keep the flame burning and give the thermocouple time to heat up. I have seen people try 4 thermocouples and the fifth one worked then they claimed the other four were bad. It happened to me.

The gas for the pilot assembly is supplied by the main gas valve and is monitored by the thermocouple. If the pilot will lit but goes out after it reaches the temperature it is the control valve. A thermocouple senses the heat of the pilot and allows gas to flow to the burner. How to light a water heater pilot.

Most gas fired water heaters use a standing pilot to ignite the main burner. These are the most common reasons why your heater s pilot light won t stay lit. Most water heaters operate with a thermocouple. After the plumber replaced the control valve then it stays lit.

The thermocouple is a heat sensing probe that is part of the pilot assembly and sits just above the pilot flame. This device is designed to pick up an electrical signal from the pilot light s heat to determine whether or not the pilot is on. You need to remove the pilot burner take the pilot tubing off and remove the pilot orifice. Whenever the thermocouple detects an unlit pilot it turns off the gas as a safety precaution.

Obstruction in the thermocouple. Most of the time the reason a pilot wont stay lit is that the pilot orifice and pilot burner are dirty and need to be cleaned.