[Leldon]

I have A Rheem hot water heater 40 gal. Propane. I can't get the pilot light to light.Its less than 1 year old. I changed out the igniter. I'm not doing anything I have not done before. I'm confused, can you help me?

[massplumber2008]

Hi Leldon

Why did you change the piezo igniter.. no spark? Here, if you look through the glass window at the combustion chamber (look up as you look through the glass) you should see small sparks as you push the button... confirms the igniter is good.

Now, since we can be pretty sure that the igniter is good that leaves the next two obvious things to check:

1) Make-up air. Here, check that the filters around the base of the heater are not clogged... if questionable then clean them. You also want to check that you have not put any paint thinners, gasoline, etc. type stuff near the heater as a VAPOR SENSOR integral to the water heater would automatically shut the system down.

2) The thermocouple. Here, if all else fails then the thermocouple probably needs to be replaced. Too change out the thermocouple will require the entire burner assembly to be removed so you can get to the thermocouple. According to Rheem, you need to purchase a thermocouple KIT with a new door gasket (available at most plumbing supply stores). You can go to YouTube and type in changing thermocouple in closed combustion chamber water heater to see a video on this.

Check these things out and let us know if you have questions, OK?

Mark

[mygirlsdad77]

I used to hate the newer sealed combustion water heaters, but now I like the fact that you actually have to know how to do more than change a thermocouple to fix it, lol. Certainly makes for a bit of job security.