So this is not the thing that I usually blog about…but hey…I am grumpy since I didn’t get my hot shower this morning 
The pilot light on my water heater keeps going out. I had a service man in to look at it. He replaced the thermocouple. It was fine for a few weeks after that. Now about 6 weeks later, the damn pilot keeps going out again every other day! I figured I would use technology to my advantage and broadcast a webcam view of my burner and watch it from the comfort of my office…
…and co-opt whoever cares to watch to alert me if they see the pilot light go out.
You can watch the live TV stream on my Mogulus channel:
http://www.mogulus.com/flexmonkeypatches
or go to the full post and view the channel on my site…
UPDATE: if anyone wants to chip in to help defray the cost of a new water heater or the repair bill should I call in a repairman again…you know what to do….paypall donation link at the right on the sidebar.
When the main burner is on…big flame. At some point when the tank water has reached the desired temperature, the main burner should go out, but a small pilot light (towards the bottom right) should stay on.
Currently the main burner is off (around 9:45 AM CST)…but pilot is still on.
One theory was that when the main burner snuffed out, it might “blow” the small pilot light out….looks like that is not the case.
I want to have more info for the next time I call in a repair person
It is a mystery to me as to what the cause is. All I can do is google and find similar scenarios with suggested causes or rely on the expertise and experience of the repair man to make an educated guess at to what might be the problem.
Replacing the pilot light was the most sensible choice, but I suspect the entire burner assembly should be replaced next. Gathering more data should help in that decision though.
So this does have a slight tie in to Flex/AIR/Flash Player, etc.
Mogulus uses Flash Media Server to record and stream the video streams (to the Flash Player).
Plus, the “studio” environment that one uses to produce a “TV channel” is build in Flash…and I strongly suspect Flex…so…a bit of a tie in.
UPDATE#2 : 1 shower was taken around 1 PM CST (Fri Oct 3, 2008)- the main burner turned on. After the water reached the target temp, the main burner turned off. The pilot stayed on.
UPDATE #3 (approx 5:15 PM CST Fri, Oct 3, 2008): took a shower. Main burner turned on. Water in the tank reheated. Main burner went off. Pilot still on. So far, no idea why it went off 3 times in the past 2 days.
UPDATE #4 (approx 11:30 PM CST Fri, Oct 3, 2008): got back out from dinner. Pilot light still on. Hopefully it stays on all night and we have plenty of hot water for showers in the morning. Stay vigilant people…tweet if the flame dies.
UPDATE #5 (approx 11:45 PM CST Fri, Oct 3, 2008): just about to go to bed when the main burner kicked in. It lasted about 8 minutes and then shut off. Pilot still on. Lets hope that happen a few times overnight and the hot water tank is maintained up to temp overnight and of course, the pilot stays on. With everyone watching on the live Mogulus video feed (about 70 people currently)…I am betting that we will have hot showers tomorrow.
UPDATE #6 (approx 9 AM CST Sat, Oct 4, 2008): The pilot light is still on thanks to the vigilance of the blue flame watchers. Now we can have hot showers.
UPDATE #7 (approx 12:30 PM Sun, Oct 5, 2008): The pilot was on all day yesterday and so far today without failure. The main burner comes on and off as needed without any adverse consequence.
11 Comments »
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:03 pm
[...] So Mr. Star Stryder did what any modern person would do: he pointed a webcam at the pilot light and is now streaming video of it. [...]
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:50 pm
From my HVAC husband:
Tell the repair man to come back and clean the whole pilot assembly -as he should have done the first time. It’s probably dirty and isn’t getting enough fuel. Tell him you’re not paying the service charge because he should have know that was the problem the first time.
Good luck!!
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:50 pm
[...] FlexMonkeyPatch “Pilot Episode,” is a program to figure out why my husband and I can’t always take hot showers. For mysterious reasons, at completely random intervals, our water heater’s pilot light fails. This usually happens in the middle of the night. Sometimes we’ll be okay for weeks, sometimes it will go out 3 times in 1 day. We’ve had the plumber out several times, and he hasn’t a clue. [...]
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Thanks for the input, Lauren and HVAC husband
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Thermocouple was may first thought as well. I do agree with a good cleaning of the pilot and the burner. Also a check of the incoming gas pressure would be good. (If the is a propane installation — with a tank of propane in the back yard — it wouldn’t hurt to make sure you aren’t running out of propane and thus the pressure has dropped.)
If the Thermocouple that was installed is good, the only other thing I would guess at this point is the controller (the thing the T/C plugs into.)
Good Luck!
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Likely the light is going out because you aren’t following the rules about covering the access panel correctly. It must be closed with the ventilation cover. Additionally if the repairman hasn’t looked at the flue for the water heater, he’s not the right repairman for the job.
These instructions are available easily on the internet, [you sir insult here].
October 3rd, 2008 at 6:43 pm
What about wind?
October 4th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I got your plea for help from TheBadAstronomer, and I figured I should post my idea here –
there’s a very useful software on the www called “WebcamXP Pro”. In the paid version, it has a motion detection feature that can idle while all is well and then take pictures (or video) if something on the screen changes according to the settings (you can set up the sensitivity, etc).
It can also send the pictures to an FTP server, post them online, or Email you whenever the motion detection is triggered.
It might help you to get an instant notice on email whenever the light’s out, if you set up the sensitivity to pick up the change from “light on” to “light off”
Instead of following your own cam feed (or hoping others do), you could get instant message by mail. Cool, no?
And if you’re net-savvy, the program can result in costing you.. very little.. *ahem*winkwink*ahem*.
Good luck!
~mooeypoo
October 5th, 2008 at 1:43 am
[...] this: I have just sat (and not for the first time i might add) watching a live web-cam feed of somebody’s pilot light. (click to see live video feed! I’m not sure how to embed [...]
October 5th, 2008 at 9:21 am
I agree with others that your repair guy should be horsewhipped… or at least made to come back free of charge to do the job properly.
I think it’s funny that the power of the Intarwebs is making your pilot light famous… why, anybody could be watching… the pope… the president–er, well, maybe not… other faculty members… your mom… my cousin… osama bin ladin… the possibilities are endless!
does your pilot light have an agent yet?
October 9th, 2008 at 11:11 am
[...] the previous blog entries for more background info: http://blog.flexmonkeypatches.com/2008/10/03/flexmonkeypatches-pilot-episode-on-mogulus/ [...]