brivis buffalo heaters

[rahman]

the pilot flame on my brivis buffalo gas heater will not stay alight as soon as the flame is established. i hold down the pilot for a few minutes but the flame extinguishes immediately when the pilot is released.

 

                                     thank you

                                      rahman

                                       3/5/08

[Budget Appliance Repair]

On most all heaters when I find this type of problem, it's becuase of a weak thermocouple or pilot generator, or a week pilot flame becuase of a partially clogged pilot orfice cuasing pilot flame to be not efficient enough to heat thermocouple/pilot generator correctly.

Remove the pilot assembly and carefully clean the pilot oriface and clean the themocouple/pilot generator tip with emory cloth and give that a try.

If you have a meter that reads millivolts you should take a reading on the thermocouple/pilot generator before you start and then again after you are done cleaning.

I just had one today with a pilot generator, (they usually put out around 500-700 millivolts), I was only getting 327m.v. before cleaning the pilot and after cleaning I got a good 490m.v. -- NOTE: in this case the pilot wasn't going out but the main gas valve wouldn't open when t-stat called for heating.  Burner would come on if you tapped the gas valve.

One I had the other day that used a thermocouple, (they usually put out 30millivots), was doing exactly what yours is doing until they couldn't even get the pilot to stay lit.  I was only getting 13.9m.v. when I started, which wasn't even enough to keep the pilot safety magnet energized, (the customer had already replaced the thermocouple, so this was a brand new thermocouple).  After cleaning the pilot and pilot oriface I got 32.9m.v. and the heater worked fine.