Pilot Light Keeps Going Out

When this becomes an emergency

• The pilot lights and then dies within seconds, every attempt.
• The flame looks small, lazy and yellow rather than tight and blue.
• There's a rotten-egg odor near the equipment; leave the building and call from outside if you smell it.
• Black soot marks have appeared around the burner or pilot assembly.

What a pro does

The pilot flame itself is rarely the problem. What fails is the thermocouple or thermopile that proves the flame to the gas valve, and once that sensor weakens or drifts out of the flame it reports darkness while a pilot burns an inch away, so the valve closes exactly as designed. Position gets checked as carefully as the part itself, since a sensor that's a hair out of the flame fails the same way a dead one does. A pilot orifice partly blocked by dust or spider webbing produces a lazy flame that no longer bathes the sensor tip, and drafts do the same thing from outside: an older building with a leaky foundation wall, a stairwell door that never sealed, or a strong wind driving across a chimney top can pull a pilot right off its target.

Frequently asked questions

Pilot Light Keeps Going Out?

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