Who can help me solve my problem with my Vaillant gasheater. It's not winter yet but I wanna be prepared.

thx
rob

A gas heater on Bonaire???? It would take an Eskimo to be cold in 'winter' on Bonaire. This sounds a bit like the refrigerators sold to Eskimos!!! :–)

(Actually the refrigerators kept things from being frozen too hard!!! But a heater on Bonaire??!!??) :–)

This is about a gas water heater i suppose? What's the problem with it? my father in law services those things in Holland and has/can get the parts.

the problems started that the little flame didn.t keep burning and now there is no gas flow anymore. What looks is that the water pressure is not releasing the gas flow anymore. there comes water in the pressure float that opens the gas valve. heater is about 3,5 year old. think it needs to be really adjusted to local settings here.

just a thought....check for spiders in the gas pipe to the pilot{little flame} light sometimes they make nests and block the flow of gas.. this has happened here many times especially if the heater has not been used for a while..

will give it a try tomorrow to clean and see what happens
thx

On some gas water heaters (and stoves and home heaters), if the pilot light goes out for any reason the gas flow stops completely. To get it going again, one must manually try to relight it, holding down the reset but while simultaneously holding a match to the pilot light. In reality, what you are doing is getting a piece of metal hot enough to relight the pilot if it goes out. Don't know if this is your situation, but suggest checking the owner's manual to see what they suggest. Possibly spiders in the gas line has sufficiently reduced the gas flow so that the pilot light went out. If the system does not start when following the instructions in the owner's manual, then seek alternative causes.

Check for ants, spiders, all small critters.

Rob,

Are you sure the injectors were adjusted for propane in stead of natural gas? The gastype should be mentioned on the data-plate. (unless the injectors were changed outside of the manufacturing company, then the installers sometimes forget to also change the type-plate)
Otherwise the injectors can be clogged with coal-parts from the burning process, (back-burning) and need carefully cleaning. The pilot-flame was burning continiously? then check the injector of the pilot.
If the pilot doesn't burn, there is no chance of getting gas to the main burners, with or without watervalve working. Your first worry is to get the pilot working again.
If you have an electronic ignited pilot, (that means it turns on just at the moment you need heating, and turns down at the moment heating is not asked for anymore) (the more sophisticated, more expensive and less energy-consuming types of hotwater-boilers,) this remark doesn't apply. I don't mean the push-button-type of hand-ignition.

In general: cleaning the gaspath is the most important thing to do first. Little creatures are already a problem in the Netherlands, so they will be here a much bigger problem. Also the sand can cause obstructions.

Harrie

(Message edited by harmoni on July 17, 2006)

Hi Harrie, didn't know your knowledge on this was this great. thx. yes the heater is build for propane and has worked good before. only thing was that water has been into the gas system before, gas reducer was mounted upside down :-(. and has been out of use for month now. I go spider hunting now

I'm gonna take the whole freaking thing apart and clean it properly.
is there anyone who has equipment to measure the pressure properly??????

THE HEAT IS ON :-)

thanks everyone, it is back working. took the whole heater apart and put back and still nothing. when I jumpstarted the heather. yes i know i am crazy. he worked but the pilot kept failing. now is there a very small reducer in it with a hole smaller then a needle point and that seemed to be dirty..

p.s. to jumpstart your heater use a flame torch to heat up the pilot until hot and have ur girl open the watertap and then turn the knob of the heater to normal use. Uh keep a bucket of water and the phone on 911 ready. take care and join the island

Good news, Rob.

I just wanted to propose to come to help, You know, I was working in the field of heating appliances and solar equipment in the netherlands. We produced hotwater heaters for Fasto, actually the biggest brand in that market in the Netherlands (at that time). But I never made it to servicing those appliances, I just did Research & Development. One of my tasks was to make those things as insensible for service as possible. In another job I was responsible for the whole technical part of the company, as the production.

Although I am a bit out of loose time, at the moment, I could help in bringing parts for you from the netherlands.

Nice word, BTW, "Jumpstart", for overruling the thermocouple of the pilot.

Indeed the hole in the injector in the pilot, is much smaller then 1,0 mm. DON'T EVER MAKE THAT HOLE BIGGER!!!

Harrie

You do know that a doc tried doing this in his brownstone in NYC recently.... and look what happened ;)))))))))))

Well maybe you can help me one day to reduce the amount of hot water without having the heater stop every time. I get to much water compared to the warm water that we normally have. I have turned the regulator already to minimum, maybe we can reduce gas pressure. but need ur help with it

Rob, it is not wise to reduce the gaspressure. You can get backburning and that is dangerous. I had the same problem with a waterheater in my camper, years ago, and I closed some of the injectors of the main burner, you keep a good combustion for the remaining burners. I think that should be possible with this Vaillant-geyser too. I can help you, but not at this very moment.
BTW: Why worry about the switching on and off of the geyser, if you take a thermostatic tap, you get a constant watertemperature, and the geyser will still switch on and off as necessary. You also keep the possibility to take big quantities of hot water at the time (two taps together). Just an idea.

Harrie