water heater pilot jet

Jet sizes vary according to a host of variables - gas pressure, material, height of pilot flame, et al.

Try blowing it back with air and if that fails just buy a new pilot jet for a few $s. Most just screw out.

Normally, the tubing from valve to pilot light needs to fill with NG. This takes time to purge the air out of the pilot light tube. Do you see deflection in the match flame when you have the 'pilot' button depressed? That's air, not NG. Be patient, it'll light.

If you don't see deflection in the match flame, then you get to troubleshoot.

--Winston

Water in the pilot tube doesn't help, either. Just ask for recent experience. ("Gurgle, spit....") d8-)

How could that happen? Why is there crud in your water closet?

Try bleeding the air out of the lines first. That's the most common start failure source. Be patient and it will finally give you a pure stream of nat gas which will ignite.

-- The problem with borrowing money from China is that thirty minutes later, you feel broke again. --Steve Bridges as Obama

(...)

I see your sense of humor remained connected. :)

--Winston

--Winston

Roll a piece of fine wire under a file to give it some "tooth" ,use that as your pilot cleaner.

In addition what the other guys said about bleeding air out and cleaning the jet, some, but not all, units have an adjustment for pilot flame size. The original water heater docs should have details if so equipped. We usually stuck one of those big manila envelopes on the side and stuck in the directions. I know I had to bleed my new replacement heater for what seemed like hours before it lit off, was probably more like 15 or 20 minutes I leaned on the valve in "light" position before it finally went. There's not a lot of gas passing through that jet per minute, after all. I had probably 20 feet of pipe to clear to the meter shutoff, too.

For orifice cleaning, I use either the 61-80 number drill set or a gas welding tip cleaner set. Just pick one that fits and don't try to drill things out. You might tape a narrow strip of tissue paper to a stick and see if there's anything passing through the jet. A squirt of bubble solution might work for that, too. If you haven't done that to your pipe joints, you might do that before putting things into service. Nothing like a slow gas leak to ruin your day.

Stan

Guajalote. You knew I meant "water heater closet". ;)

-- Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power. -- Seneca

(...)

I would have understood 'hot water heater closet'.

--Winston

Ouch! That sounds painful.

(...)

New meaning for the phrase 'cheek blush'.

One of my nice neighbors let me connect my plumbing to their hose bib for a few hours so I could flush toilets and wash hands while replacing the pipe to my water meter.

The first time I connected, *hot* water came out of the 'cold' water tap! I was chagrined to discover that I had connected the hose to the wrong valve and was back flushing the water heater into it's supply line.

So it *is* possible! :)

--Winston

There's no such animal.

That's not a surprise I'd like.

However, until Monday, any hot water would have been welcome here.

Hey, they shut our power off again last night, this time on purpose. Apparently they had to do some work on a substation. This is getting creepy.

You're right of course. The Flying Spaghetti Monster told me so.

--Len

(...)

I went from 'what the....?' to 'DoH!' in an ohnosecond.

I bet! That would have been difficult though, without the 'Cousteau' model water heater.

We'll get you into a nice little 4 cylinder NG cogenerator yet!

--Winston

I don't think my insurance covers pyrotechnic displays with my water heater, but I'll check. d8-)

"Ohnosecond" I love it!

People don't seem to realize how much it costs to operate a small NG generator. I hear they shit bricks when they get their first bill. A 36kV genset takes 500,000BTU/hr and NG gives 1,000BTU per c/f.

Methinks Ig has the right idea with diesel gensets.

Small gasoline genset, evocative pic, wot?

-- Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power. -- Seneca

I see you found another supplier of blotter.

(archaic '60s reference to LSD)

-- Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power. -- Seneca