water heater problems

[Ankf00]

so I went to turn it on yesterday, lit the pilot, closed the panels, turned the temperature setting up after which I heard the gas flame up...

no hot water when I turn on the faucet, it'll have full flow for a few seconds before becoming a slow thin stream of water, a glorified drip, and all cold water too.

So I turned the unit up to the hottest setting last night, turn the faucet on this morning, no dice.

I go check the unit, it's just the pilot light that's lit, I would think there'd be a full on flame to get the pressure built back up since I just drained whatever 4 ounces were in the unit.

What I'm assuming is the exit line extending out of the top of the unit, it is kind of hot to the touch, so there's something heated going on, the exhaust outlet doesn't seem so hot, just sort of warm, so I'm guessing the unit hasn't turned on in a while.

I'm thinking the thermocouple doesn't work properly, any other ideas ?


edit: the water drip w/ the faucet open is actually pretty warm, I've left the faucet on, no burner, what can it be other htan the thermocouple?

[EDwardo]

I had a similar problem a few years ago. A friend of my ex owned a heating and cooling company. The friend called and had me put the repairman on the phone. I was on the other phone. She told him "don't fix anything that's not broke".

Lesson is, be careful who you call to check it out. And enjoy a nice invigorating cold shower!

[KLang]

Are you sure the water going into the thing is turned on?

[mapguy]

Sounds like a thermocouple. A couple of questions. (I am assuming the tank is full.)

1) How old is the tank?

2) Is there any blockage in the flue?

3) Is there sufficient gas pressure in the house?

The thermocouple is the easiest thing to replace. They are only a couple of bucks. Remember try not to touch the actual t-couple when installing it. If that doesn't work then it is probably a bad gas valve or possibly the t-stat has gone bad.

If it isn't the t-couple and the unit is more than 10 years old you might as well get a new one. More than 10 years and it is living on borrowed time.

[Ankf00]

no clue on the tank age, probably 10+, just moved into the house, there shouldn't be any issues w/ the gas pressure, only reason the gas man didn't light up the heater was b/c the previous owner used a dryer exhaust tubing for the flue, we tore it out and put in the proper piping before firing up the heater.

the burner turned on for 5 minutes or so after I left the hot water knob fully open for a few minutes, then it shut down again...

thanks for the info, I guess I'll try putting in a new thermocouple, if it doesn't work, guess it's time to switch over to one of those new-fangled solid-state heaters.

hooray, another week of cold showers :saywhat:

[cart7]

Are you sure the water going into the thing is turned on?

This needs to be repeated. If you turned the hot water faucet on and the only thing that came out was a was a small stream that ended up in a drip I'd have to say you're missing something really important..... water pressure.

When you drained the tank you shut the water off to it. Did you turn the water back on?

[cameraman]

The movement of the water is unrelated to the thermocouple, the temperature setting or anything else to do the "heater" part of a water heater.

Two possibilities here.

1. you didn't turn the water back on

2. you knocked loose enough built up scale when you were messing with it to block the flow of the water

[RichK]

Make sure the repairman keeps his pants on.

[Ankf00]

assuming the water's still off (finding the valve will involve thinking like a mouse due to the total clusterf*** this "utility closet" is), would this happen...

turn on the faucet, water's flowing solidly for a good 15-25 seconds before dying off, leave it on for a few minutes & then the water becomes warm and then a couple minutes later the burner kicks in.

now, say I wait 5 minutes, rinse repeat... same time periods elapse for each stage of the cycle

say I wait 5 hours, rinse repeat... same thing again...

would this happen with a shut off water inlet valve?

[mapguy]

Open up the water valve at the bottom of the tank. Does anything come out? The shutoff for the inlet should be just above the tank. An easy way to see if the tank has water in it is to wiggle it back and forth gently. That should give you an idea how heavy it is. A full 40 gallon tank should weigh a little over 300lbs.


Make sure the repairman keeps his pants on.

Hey! I resemble that remark!

[cart7]

assuming the water's still off (finding the valve will involve thinking like a mouse due to the total clusterf*** this "utility closet" is), would this happen...

turn on the faucet, water's flowing solidly for a good 15-25 seconds before dying off, leave it on for a few minutes & then the water becomes warm and then a couple minutes later the burner kicks in.

now, say I wait 5 minutes, rinse repeat... same time periods elapse for each stage of the cycle

say I wait 5 hours, rinse repeat... same thing again...

would this happen with a shut off water inlet valve?

As mappy said, there should be a cold water shutoff on the cold water pipe going into the tank. Is it fully open? If this is an older house, over 10 years old, I've had some shutoff valves that broke though most of those would no longer shut the water off, you've got the opposite problem. It still sounds like a pressure problem or lack thereof.

[Dave99]

Ankf00- any chance a chunk of gunk has lodged itself in a horizontal run of galvanized piping in between the warter heater and the shower valve?

I had a similar problem to yours a coupla years ago where 15 seconds after turning on the shower there would be NO water coming out.

So I re-plumbed the entire house with 3/4" copper. Now I gots 108psi throughout! :thumbup: