Water heater Pilot keeps flaming out

[Partsbob]

I’m pretty new to Jayco and the Forum, but I see posts on here that are very helpful! My wife & I just returned from an 8-day camp in our Swift 154BH and, on the 3rd day, the water heater pilot light kept flaming-out and triggered the LP alarm inside (thank God!). After doing a soap-test on all the outside fittings and finding no leaks, I noticed the pilot had gone out, so assumed one of the 2 LP tanks had gone empty, though I had added the 2nd tank with an automatic regulator, which should have started drawing from the full tank. However, after manually moving the lever of the regulator over to the 2nd tank and firing up the pilot again, the same thing happened within a half hour. Fortunately ours also has the water heater electric anode installed, so we were able to enjoy hot water for the remainder of our vacation, it just took longer to heat.
Now that we’re home and I can safely test the operation without us sleeping inside, it still occurs no matter which tank I’m feeding from, though it may take an hour or more for the pilot to flame-out. What’s also odd is, with the water heater Off and on electric-only, we have had no problem with running the frig on LP and cooking on the stove, so it’s not likely a bad tank of LP, since one of the tanks was replaced with a quality refill before we left.
Anyone have had a similar issue or thoughts?

 

[jasonmiddlebrooks]

Mine has done that before. Needed to clean around the pilot light real good. There is also a sleeve around the pilot light that you can adjust that controlls how much oxygen mixes with the flame/propane. I had to adjust that too. Should be able to look it up on you tube or google search on how to adjust it.

 

[Partsbob]

Thanks for the quick suggestion, I’ll give that a try.

 

[tjpolsin]

I have a DSI propane/electric hotwater heater, frig and standing pilot light oven.
Quite a number of times, the HWH wouldn't light resulting in a fault after 3 attempts. Additionally, I could light the oven, get it up to temp (for some pop-n-fresh cinnamon rolls), only to have that pilot light go out as well!!

I sourced the problem to the main LP gas regulator. I built a simple manometer and found out that the LP pressure was set 1/2oz too low. I measured it at the stove connection (see youtube). After I adjusted it, I have had no problems. Including having all appliances running at the same time.

Adjusting these regulators isn't difficult, but not really recommended. mis-adjusting the pressure too high can be dangerous.

You could remove it and have a gas supplier test it, or just replace it.

My point being that dirty pilot nozzles, or misadjusted O2 ports might not be the root issue.

Tim

 

[Partsbob]

Thanks Tim, so far Jason’s suggestion on cleaning around the pilot is working, plus the auto-reg is brand new, so I would hope it doesn’t need adjusting. Time will tell.

 

[Kim Gass]

Thanks Tim, so far Jason’s suggestion on cleaning around the pilot is working, plus the auto-reg is brand new, so I would hope it doesn’t need adjusting. Time will tell.

We have had the same problem especially in open areas with wind.. The sleeve adjustment fixes it.