FIXED GE GG50T06AVH00 nat. gas water heater pilot won't light

[ccupples]

Model Number

GG50T06AVH00

Brand

GE

Age

More than 10 years

I shut off our 50-gal GE natural gas water heater for an annual flush. Now that I'm ready to fire it back up, I can't get the pilot to ignite.

The troubleshooting section of the Use & Care Manual punts to a "qualified service technician" on the three non-operator possible causes. I'm not ready to give up the ball so quickly, but I need some direction on which way to run with it. Coach?

 

[rickgburton]

See if this helps:

FIXED - GG30T06AVG00 GE Water Heater Pilot light will not stay lit

My wife had done the dishes last night and the water heater was fine. She had hot water. I got up this morning with the kids and fed the kids and I went to wash their bowls and there was no hot water. Went and looked at the pilot on the water heater and it was off. I followed the instructions on...

www.applianceblog.com

 

[ccupples]

Thanks for the reply, Rick. I had seen that thread, but the difference here is that while texastig couldn't keep the pilot lit when turning up the temperature, I can't get my pilot to ignite at all

 

[ccupples]

I went back up into the attic to check if I could even see spark through the sight glass. I pressed the igniter button a few times and saw spark each time, which I don't recall seeing at all last night. So I moved the gas control knob to PILOT, held it down, and pressed the igniter button ... and the pilot lit! And it stayed lit. Moved the gas control knob to ON and turned up the temperature, and the water heater is running just fine. No idea why I wasn't getting spark earlier -- maybe it was "pilot error" (har har har!) -- but it's working now. Mark this one as FIXED.

 

[rickgburton]

Awesome!