CaBoater
New Member
The heater is generating repeated small explosions about every 10 seconds. The flashes are strong enough to shake a door and light up the area around the heater. I have not seen it happen myself, but the tenants of the building shut off the gas and called the gas company. They showed up, lit the heater and it worked normally.The PG&E employee told the tenants that they have seen a lot of problems with delayed ignition in low nox heaters.
This heater was installed 18 months ago and has never had a problem. The flue did not have enough rise coming out of the heater so last week I eliminated the platform it was on and drop it 18 inches. It is at the bottom of a stairwell and not in a garage. The combustion air comes from a large gap between the roof and the building. The area of the gap is about 20 square feet. The building is three stories.
After I dropped the heater it worked for a week and started doing it again. I am going to check the gas pressure after the meter and the pressure after the regulator. The furnaces, stoves and other water heaters are working fine.
This building is in the Sunset area of San Francisco about a mile from the ocean. When the wind blows and the door to the bottom of the stairwell is open there is a strong upward draft. The flue end about 12 feet from the stairwell. I suspect maybe it is creating a backdraft down the flue. But it has been windy plenty of times in the past 18 months and it never happened before . This is not an uncommon setup in this area.
I called Bradford White tech support and they couldn't help me.
If this happens again I am going to install a direct vent heater.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks,
Eric
This heater was installed 18 months ago and has never had a problem. The flue did not have enough rise coming out of the heater so last week I eliminated the platform it was on and drop it 18 inches. It is at the bottom of a stairwell and not in a garage. The combustion air comes from a large gap between the roof and the building. The area of the gap is about 20 square feet. The building is three stories.
After I dropped the heater it worked for a week and started doing it again. I am going to check the gas pressure after the meter and the pressure after the regulator. The furnaces, stoves and other water heaters are working fine.
This building is in the Sunset area of San Francisco about a mile from the ocean. When the wind blows and the door to the bottom of the stairwell is open there is a strong upward draft. The flue end about 12 feet from the stairwell. I suspect maybe it is creating a backdraft down the flue. But it has been windy plenty of times in the past 18 months and it never happened before . This is not an uncommon setup in this area.
I called Bradford White tech support and they couldn't help me.
If this happens again I am going to install a direct vent heater.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks,
Eric