Posted by Scottj on October 08, 2001 at 15:53:18:
In Reply to: repost: Pilot and venting posted by jtown on October 08, 2001 at 08:13:04:
: Sorry for the re-post. I meant to rename the subject so I or others could search for venting later. Repeat typing gets old!
Thanks for the follow up. Ok, maybe the gas company and professional should not be used in the same sentance, my mistake. Venting was one of the checks made by the professional boiler company. The chimney is the 6-inch triple wall insulated stainless steel, (not sure if that's class B or A). The water heater and boiler share the same chimney. Fresh air is provided directly to the boiler room by a unabstructed 6-inch pipe that extends to the floor directly in front of the water heater and boiler. To eliminate the possibility of any venting problems, the water heater chimney was temporarly removed and the boiler fired. I can sometimes get the boiler to 'cough' by letting the boiler fire at the call for heat then turning it off with the master power switch for 10 seconds, then back on again. With the water heater chimney disconnected, and the boiler 'coughing', the water heater pilot goes out. The pilot light flame remains steady and doen not flutter. Then it's like someone turned the gas off. In fact sometimes the pilot will go from a strong blue flame to a very small, about the size of a pencil eraser, flame and never actualy go out, then increase to it's normal size. Other times it just goes out completly. The venting option has been checked and ruled out.