Hi Paul here. Are you sure that the thermostat is getting satisfied or is it just kicking out on safety while its running. If this happens it would keep on sparking. . Make sure you pilot is clean, burning blue flame. Make sure the pilot flame is not lifting off the pilot burner head. In your pilot assembly you have a flame rod, it looks like a nail.I have a unique problem that I'm not sure you answered in the above post:
I have a pool hot water system with a Honeywell #003900F gas valve controlling gas flow.
Every day, after the Circulating water pump and heater are supposed to go on, and when I go out, the water heaters pilot igniter is sparking but no pilot flame is coming on. But, if I reset the gas valve by pushing the center manual reset clockwise to off then back on again, the pilot igniter sparks and lights. . .and stays on until the thermostat says enough. But once the valve closes the problem reoccurs. . .
This is the only consistant way I've found to turn it on.
So if all the safety checks before the valve are go, just what is happening differently when I reset the valve? Do you think the valve is bad?
Many thanks for your thoughts.
First let make sure we have a flame rod and not a thermocouple. Is your flame rod about the size of a nail and has a wire going to it? a thermocoupleThank you for your response, Paul.
The only way i thought I knew that the thermostat was working is that if i turned it down enough, the ignition spark would go off and then if i turned it up, it would start again. . .but never any pilot flame unless I reset the gas valve. I'm not sure how I would know if it is kicking out on safety. . .
I never bothered, perhaps wrongly, to suspect the pilot flame, because when it does come on with a gas valve reset, it never fails and burns an almost colorless blue that turns the thermocouple (?) red immediately and allowing the burner to fire. So under these conditions, can you imagine that the flame rod needs cleaning? The question is "what's different about a valve reset and a valve turn-on as the result of the call for heat by the thermostat?"
Many thanks,
terry
I am getting the impression, this morning, that the temperature in the pool is creeping upward with my meddling of resetting the gas valve when I hear the ignition sparking and have had to simultaneously also turn down the thermostat as a result of the warming. So there is a likelyhood that the thermostat may not be satisfied all the time. . .but the safety mechanism shouldn't be turning off the gas in this situation, would it?
It would be nice to see the pictures, but anyway the sparkerI took a picture but don't see an easy way to upload it here. . .
Thanks for that description. . .It is definitely not a Thermocouple. . .I've lived too long and misspoke. . .But. . .I actually don't see a rod. . .
I just see a fork that is the object of the flame. . .then a source of spark in front and below it. . .and then the pilot opening with a shovel shaped flame director over it that is the object of the spark. The only wire is to fire the ignition spark. . .
The "fork" just appears to be grounded. . .
I emery-ed off the Fork and pilot still not lighting. . .
I don't understand how reseting the gas valve could always stop any flame liftoff when under normal circumstances it almost always happens? Plus, the pilot, after gas valve reset heats up the 2 pronged "fork" to redhot instantly.
I will try cleaning up the fork one more time and check in the dark with better flame visibility for the "liftoff". I'm starting to think that the thermostat is not being satisfied but why would the safety turn off with just a spark or is it on a timer?
You are so right about valves being expensive. . .!
Thanks for stepping up to the plate on this, Paul. . .winter is coming and I don't want to have to nurse this like a herd of milk cows. . .
Kind regards,
terry
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