How to Light a Gas Water Heater

If you’ve ever had the seemingly difficult task of lighting a gas water heater, I’ll explain how to safely and easily do it. In older water heaters especially you can often have the problem of loosing your pilot light and therefore losing hot water in your home. It’s an easy procedure but it intimidates some people because of the warnings out there of doing this.

The first thing you need to do is carefully remove the panel that is called the burner access panel, this will give you access to the flame. Most of the time it is pretty self explanatory how to do this, usually it’s either a tension fit and you can lift it up or sideways depending on the model you have. Turn the temperature control dial to its lowest setting and the gas control knob to off. Usually the gas control knob is a red looking knob that you turn. After you turn the gas control knob off you need to wait several minutes before continuing. You need to wait until you don’t smell any gas odor at all. The best way to do this is to leave the room or even go outside for several minutes so you don’t get used to the gas smell. If there is no odors of gas relight the pilot light, there are usually specific instructions on the heater for doing this.

You will depress the reset button while placing a lighted match near the tip of the pilot. If there is not reset button depress the gas control knob while lighting the pilot. Here is where you have to pay attention, if the pilot light doesn’t stay lit you need to take precaution, you can try one more time and if it still doesn’t work you need to call the gas company. The gas company will come out for free if you have this situation. If it does light keep holding down the gas control knob for about a minute, then release and set the temperature control.

To set the temperature turn the gas control knob to on and the temperature control dial between 120 and 130 degrees. Some models won’t have a temperature setting; they might just be general setting like warm and hot. In this case set it just above warm. You can save money by lowering your temperature and it really won’t have much affect on you hot water. If you put it too hot it can actually be really dangerous because you can have the water so hot that it can really do some damage, especially to children.

That’s it, it really is simple but it can be dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. If you smell gas at all do not light a match and call the gas company. Another helpful tip for those who have whole house fans, do not turn your house fan on without opening a window, you will blow out your pilot light and you will smell gas. Don’t worry just leave the house for an hour and come back, relight the pilot light and you will be good to go. Hope this has been helpful……