Heater problems at home.

[Walking Eagle]

Our heater is acting up. So far we've spent $290 on repair bills and no luck. Now they want $1600 for a new heater.

The pilot light goes out. When heater reaches a desired temperature and shuts off, the pilot then goes out also. There might also be some kind of an air draft problem. A couple of nights ago, it was hot in the basement, so the window was open for awhile. As soon as the window was closed, the heater shut off and pilot light went out. And today, the heater was running and within 5 seconds of opening the front door the heater shut off. Don't know if this was coincidence. The pilot light starts up manually easily, we turn the heater up to 80 degrees let the house warm up, and then it shuts off and we let the house cool down to the mid 60's and recycle.

Any ideas, or does anybody have any recommendations for a company to come out and look?

[crazy rob]

My dad used to work in the HVAC biz. I'll ask him if he knows what the problem is or who he would recommend to look at it.

[Walking Eagle]

Thanks.

One guy we called said it would be $45 to come out, and $30 for every 15 minutes he was here, and then was not guaranteed to have the part with him, which then would require another $45 to come out. We did not give him our address.

[clavos]

Laying off the beans may solve the draft problem. LOL... You could try calling Excel and see if they could come out and do a free inspection. I don't know if they do that anymore or not, but it could save money to be able to tell a repair man exactly what the problem is. It sounds like the supply line to the pilot light may be dirty or coroded and isn't delivering enough gas to keep the pilot lit sufficiently. I don't like messing with anything natural gas though.

[Glass]

i would think the problem is in the pilot assembly...the valve to let the gas thru to the pilot...a relay...some sensoe, i dont know much about heaters. What make and model is it? I can do some searchin, and see what i come up with as far as common problems with them, and i can try to find a schematic of the valving and such to see what part might be causeing the problem...Could also talk to neighbors , see if theyre having problems, the gas company could just have some air getting into thier lines lately...small chance, but you never know.

[Burg460]

To me it sounds like the thermal coupling is bad. I just replaced one on a friends furnace about 3 weeks ago. He was having the same problem as you and we went to a local hardware store and got a new one for like $25 and put it in and has been fine since. Although yes, there can be other problems too. Not sure if that was replaced already as you said you have had someone "try" to repair it.

[mattadams]

If you can't get it, give walker2970 a shout. He does HVAC for a living and knows his stuff!

[Walking Eagle]

Yes, we have replaced the thermo coupling (sp?) and we vacuumed and cleaned it out pretty good. Last night I found some information about using a can of compressed air used for computers to clean out the pilot light area. I tried that and it may have worked, because I was watching it this morning when it reached 80 degrees in the house at about 4:30. The heater turned off normally and this time the pilot light stayed on like it's supposed to. I lowered the temperature down to 70, and about an hour a ago, the heater turned back on normally. Maybe the repairs are starting to work.

Did you know, there are forums on the internet where people talk about heaters, like we talk about our trucks? What a bunch of geeks?

[bassdude]

sounds like a bad gas valve. like it's turning off the burner and pilot when the t-stat is satisfied. if you were down here i would come and check it. don't know anybody good up there sorry.

[clavos]

The geeks talking about heaters probably think we're freaks for loving our trucks.

[Walker2970]

Walking Eagle It might be a bad gas valve getting a little too much flow to the pilot. when you cleaned it you might have removes the deposits from the tube. with out looking at it it is had to say but i have seen this happen on older heaters if you keep have in problems just give me a call (720 ) 982-9468 and i will only charge ya a mountian dew to look lol big slam of course if it is the gas valve i have acsess to the local wholsaler parts houses ( no Public allowed ) and get a good discount so even if you had to replace the whole thing which i highly doubt i can get you a good deal on a new 1

P.S. Clean your heating system every year Preventive Maintenance is the key to long life :P

Jakehttp://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/contrib/navigator/lhdevil.gif

[UrbanCowboy]

I don't know a thing as I only bought my house like 2 weeks ago. I can tell you that I'm putting in a new furnace and Precision Plumbing and Heating is doing my work. They really impressed me. Stay away from a company called Precision Air as they suck