Ignition failure Atwater combo electric/gas 10 gallon water heater

[Samflhomes]

electric heater works finer. Gas will not light.
I have spark and a brief ignition and then shut off. The brief ignition seems to be a fluttering sound and not the "Jet engine" noise that full ignition makes.

I have unplugged all wires and reconnected. i cleaned the tube from the air shutter opening to the end of the tube with a wire brush.

I even used a bic lighter to try and light the gas but it does not stay on.

Seems like not enough gas getting to the combustion chamber at the end of tube. I notice that the gas comes through a tube into the air shutter from the left and there seems to be a cap on the end of that tube. I assume there must be a small hole in that cap to allow gas to flow through the air shutter to the tube on the right and into the combustion chamber. would it help to try and put a pin into that and see if it improvesd the flow of gas?

[Sammie]

Sam, there is a small gas jet located on the end of the tube. This jet regulates how much propane comes out for combustion in the burner assembly. It's possible that this jet is either plugged or partially blocked. You can somtimes poke a small wire or pin through the jet hole to clean it. Also if your rig has been sitting for a while with the propane shut off it may take a little while for the air in the propane feed line to be purged before pure propane is avalible.

Sammie

[RV Mech Tech]

Sam - have your propane system checked with a pressure test- you should minimum 11" of WC - lower than that will cause problems like you have -this can be adjusted at the system pressure regulator - also the ignitor tip/end should be clean - any corrosion here will cause problems as well - the ignitor is also a 'flame sensor' that sends a signal back to the control board telling it that 'yes we have a flame' and the CB will then keep the gas valve open -and any corrosion at the tip may prevent this signal getting back to the control module- also I would suggest that you do not try and ignite the gas by hand - in a manually operated WH you are igniting the pilot light - in your 10 gallon WH if the control board signals the gas valve to open and it collects in the burn chamber then you just may get a quick haircut if it ignites - same thing when people turn on the gas valve/burner in a home BBQ then spend 15 or more seconds trying to light the BBQ lighter then they stick it into the bbq- guess what happens? - also be carefull cleaning the gas orifice at the end of the tube do not stick anything into it as you may open up the orifice calibrated size hole - use only a strong cleaner and blow out with air - all the appliance manufactures tell you this in their service manuals.

[Samflhomes]

I cleaned the orafice and inserted a safety pin about a couple of millimeters into the orafice....water heater fired up like a jet engine.

Thanks for the advice

[Sammie]

I was a plumbers helper many, many moons ago. The plumber showed me a gas jet on a house furnace where a tiny spider had built a small web across the jet opening during the summer season when the heater was not being used. It was an easy fix for us but I'm sorry to say that the poor customer had to pay for a plumber's service call. Glad to pass on the well kept secret.

Sammie