Your furnace has a pilot light that is responsible for igniting the burners inside of it. When these burners become ignited, they produce heat for your home. Unfortunately, you may experience your pilot light going out from time to time. Being able to identify the culprit of why it went out and fix it quickly can help to get heat back into your house in no time.

Find the Pilot Light

The first step in safely relighting your furnace’s pilot light is to locating the pilot light assembly. For most furnaces, this is going to be located near the bottom of the unit. You should be able to see where the pilot light ignites and the knob that controls the flow of gas to the unit. This knob has three different settings on it, which are off, on, and pilot.

Turn It Off

Before you get ready to light the pilot light, it’s good practice to turn the knob to the off position. Let it sit in this position for at least one minute to allow the excess fuel near the assembly to dissipate into the air. If you tried to relight the pilot light right away without shutting off the fuel, you might get a large flame that can be harmful.

Turn It to Pilot

Next, you want to turn the knob to the pilot position. You’ll want to hold the reset button while you light the pilot light. Make sure that you’re holding the reset button until the pilot light becomes a solid blue color. Be very careful with choosing the tool that you’re going to use to light your pilot light. It’s best to use a grill lighter or an extra-long match so that your fingers are far away from the flame when your pilot light ignites.

Make Sure It Stays Lit

Once your pilot light turns a solid blue color and you let go of the reset button, you’ll want to switch the knob over to on mode. Go ahead and stand by your furnace for a couple of moments and make sure that the pilot light stays solid and lit. If the pilot light starts to flicker out or it won’t stay lit, then you’ll need to identify what the problem is before you’re going to be able to relight your pilot light successfully.

Dealing with a Weak Yellow Flame

If you notice that your pilot light retains a yellow color and a very weak flame, it’s an indication that there’s a problem with the pilot orifice. It’s best to start fixing this issue by shutting off the fuel to your furnace. You’ll need to thoroughly clean the gas orifice. It’s likely that there’s debris stuck in the orifice that won’t allow the gas to properly fuel the pilot light.

If you’ve cleaned up the gas orifice and you still have a weak yellow flame, it could be a problem with the actual gas regulator for your home. You can verify that the gas regulator is indeed the issue by checking any other appliances that you have that run on gas. The most common are going to be your stove and your dryer. If these seem to have a weak supply of gas, then it’s time to call in an HVAC professional to handle the gas regulator coming into your house.

Not Relighting at All

If you follow the steps above and your pilot light is not catching a flame at all, it could be due to two different issues. First, you may be out of fuel. It’s best to check your fuel tank to ensure that there’s an adequate amount of fuel before you move on. If your fuel level is fine, then it’s most likely a thermocouple issue.

The thermocouple is essentially a flame sensor that’s responsible for shutting off the fuel supply to your furnace whenever it senses that there’s no pilot light. This is meant to be a safety mechanism to help protect dangerous gases from filling up your home and injuring your family. Your thermocouple usually will have one of three different issues. These include a dirty sensor, misalignment, or the complete thermocouple is faulty.

Excellent Heating Services

Home Comfort Services offers excellent heating services throughout the Grand Junction area. We also provide quality cooling, plumbing, and ducting services. Call our office today to schedule your next service appointment with our highly trained technicians.

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