OK I remember you saying it was a newer furnace... First.. Make sure that the pilot is heating up the pilot generator... If it is then see if it has the vent safety on it and look for the 2 wires that come down the side of the furnace to the control (box with the on/off/pilot ****) unplug it and jump a wire between those two terminals.. (if that works then first pull the cover and check that the wires are not pinched grounding out the saftey system. If they don't look pinched pulg the 2 wires back in and try again.. If it fires up then the wires were pinched and grounded.. If not Jump the Switch up in the vent (round disk looking thing) and if it works then change the vent safety)... If all this doesn't work pull the 2 thermostat wires and see if the furnace will light .. If it lights and stays on you can jump the htermostat terminals and see if it will come on or drop the pilot. If it all works fine then you have a grounded thermostat wire..

If all that doesn't work then you may have a bad control box.. they run about $50-$60..

Oh yea.. Also check under the dial and make sure that nothing is under there not allowing it to depress all the way...

Gerry

 

Okay, the same thing happened to me.

I ended up having a bad connection. There was a little black wire that came out of the back of the valve body looking thing. It has a StaKon type connector on it. I popped it off and scraped it off some, place it back on and I could hear the valve pop open right away. Not sure if there was ever anyting wrong with my pilot generator or pilot burner orfice, guess I PM'd it accidentially.

Are you positive the wires from the thermostat and pilot generoator are hooked up to the right posts/screws?

It is doing exactally what mine was, almost like it's ignoring the millivolt signal from the pilot generator?

 

Ok guys. I finally got the pilot to stay lit, but now when I turn up the thermostat the pilot goes out. Any thoughts?

 

Getting chilly there too?
Well. All I ever figured out with mine was a bad connection. I had a short, little black wire that came from around the backside of the valve body looking thing that was not making a good connection. Although I still don't really understand my unit, from the way it was expained to me, I gathered that it was not getting a good enough signal from the pilot generator to say " okay, the pilot is now lit, I can turn the burner on and not flood the house with gas".

Make sense? Even if it does, it will not expalin how you have replaced the part that makes this decision and it STILL doesn' work!
I took off a black wire that was connected to the bottom side of the valve with a Sta-kon, brushed the post up with emory cloth and put it back on, viola! Flames!

 

35 deg right now. BURRRRR. I live about 4 miles from the beach. Its not suppse to be this cold in God's country. I'll check the connections a little later and go from there. I've been lighting the fireplace the last couple of nights while in the living room, but when I get up @ 5:00am its not worth the hassle. If I can't get this thing to work the gas company will be called out tomorrow. Thanks

Tye

 

Other thing I can tell you is that the fellow at the hardware store I was getting advice from said my next step was to replace the entire valve unit itself. Considering that was going to be about $250.00 out of about $425 for the whole heater, I think I would be looking at a new unit.

Good Luck.

 

Check ALL the thermopile/thermostat wiring for a poor connection. Sounds like a poor connection on the valve. Also check the thermostat wires where they pass through the case. There might be a small spot that is shorting and pulling so much power that the pilot drops out due to the thermopile only being able to produce 750mv (approx).
Tom

 

Spiders Love to make nests and lay egg pouches on gas tubing. Have you cleared all the passages out wih pipe cleaners and or compressed air? Vacuum? Cleanliness is key...

 

Is there any electricity going through the unit I should worry about?

 

Not on mine, no blower or anything. The thermo-whatever is a tiny windmill inside of that metal jacket that spins when the pilot heats it. It either spins and sends the millivolt signal to open the actual burner valve or doesn't spin ans sends no signal. No electricity to my knowledge.

Clean up the posts and let us know, I'm curious now............

 

I had the same issue in one side of my San Diego duplex. Never did get it fixed. I went to Home Depot and bought 2 new double sided wall heaters. One for my side and one for the side that would not stay lit. Installed and evrything was just fine after that. I tried replacing parts also to no avail. I figured they were about 35 years old and ready to be replaced.

 

What brand unit is it ? Usually if you have eliminated the thermocouple, vent safety switch etc it's the gas control valve. Depending on the type they run $89- $300 approx. The older type wall heaters use a snap hydrolic type with a capillary and built in thermostat. The newer millivolt type have a separate thermostat. If you keep having a problem with it I live close enough to come look at it for you.

 

Not sure what brand it is, but supposidly its only 3-4 years old. Thanks for the offer but I got the gas company scheduled to come look @ it today. So I'll see what they have to say and then go from there.

Thanks for everbodies help on this, I really appreciate it.

Tye

 

You need to tell us what the gas company finds wrong with it.
Tom

 

The guy from the gas company said it looks like the burner control valve is bad. I wasn't home when he came, but I'm assuming he's talking about the main valve on the bottom of the heater. The wife said he was pointing at the top of the heater?