I woke up this morning and the temperature is in 40’s and I tried turning on my Natural Gas heater for the first time this season. I flipped my thermostat to “heat” and nothing happened. I opened up the cover to my heater and the pilot light is out. I tried using my lighter, but even an open flame does not get it started.
I noticed a knob that has three settings, ON, Pilot and Off in that order counterclockwise. It was in the ON position and must have been that way since last Winter. I tried lighting the pilot light with the knob in all 3 position and most positions in between, yet nothing.
If the obvious and user-accessible means of getting it started have been exhausted may I suggest you should call someone with some professional expertise?
Yes, it’s Sunday, I realize finding a contractor or serviceman will be more difficult than attempting it tomorrow.
You need to push in and hold the knob while in the pilot position to light. Continue holding the knob in for several minutes. There should be a label detailing the procedure.
I will tomorrow. I live in an apartment and service calls take a very long time. When my A/C went out in June it took them a month before someone came knocking at my door asking if anyone needs an A/C repair. By then I had replaced the fan switch myself.
I think this is gonna be out of my own pocket again.
Your profile says you are in Palmdale, CA. I’m nearly 100% certain that the gas company will come out and check & light the heater for you at no charge.
Since I’m with out hot water and your pilot light is out, the two must be connected, so light that sucker already! :p:D
In case you’re not familiar with thermocouples, what they do is convert heat to electricity without moving parts.
So when you first fire up the pilot light, you have to manually keep it on long enough to heat up the thermocouple so that it produces enough current to keep that valve open so that the pilot light stays on.
They usually have pilot lighting instructions close by. Generally, you hold the red button down with the dial in “pilot” and light the pilot. You keep holding the button down for 30 seconds and then release it and turn the dial to “ON.” Then the unit should kick on with the thermostat. Otherwise, the pilot generator has failed and it needs to be replaced. This part is under $10 and easy to change. There could be other causes like a bad gas valve, which you probably won’t change yourself. So if the pilot won’t light with the instructions, call a heating professional.
