My crawlspace flooded and water went up the heater about 8 inches. My pilot went out. I cleaned out the water and tried to relight the pilot. It won't light. Do I need to replace the whole heater? It's only two years old.

Thanks.

Assuming that the water did not reach the level of the gas valve, my suggestion would be to remove the burner and blow it out with compressed air. Put burner in oven and bake it for a while to evaporate any residual moisture. Don't put valve in oven.

Gas pressure is only about 2 lbs per square inch, not enough to blow out any moisture trapped in burner.

Gas pressure is delivered to appliances at only 1/2 P.S.I. so as Hkstroud said, it is not going to be enough pressure to clear the lines (even high pressure systems that deliver gas at 2 PSI get reduced to 1/2PSI before getting delivered to the appliance).

When you remove the burner assembly, look for a small pilot ORIFICE at the end of the gas line into pilot assembly (see picture)... usually needs to be cleared using a pin head for best results. Otherwise, blow out and dry things as Hkstroud suggested.

Finally, with all that being said, some manufacturers will NOT honor the warranty on the heater if they find that it has been under water, and they usually require complete replacement of the heater, so you may want to look into that, OK?

Glad to discuss more if you want!

Mark