Comments on: Citizen Plumbing (It’s not quite Galaxy Zoo)

By: Max

Max — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:07:07 +0000

Very helpful. I liked your advice.

By: I heard Pamela Gay on the BBC - It's about plumbing - Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:15:24 +0000

[...] heard Pamela Gay on the BBC – It’s about plumbing On the BBC Radio 4 program IPM It referred to here I could not believe it was our Pamela, and she was not talking about astronomy Does Pamela still [...]

By: Flex Monkey Patches » Blog Archive » Flexmonkeypatches - Pilot episode - it’s not dead yet

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:13:30 +0000

[...] But…the pilot light burns on and the “Pilot episode” streaming on Mogulus lives on. In fact the “Pilot episode” may have some “new legs”. My wife, Pamela (http://www.starstryder.com/) and I just finished a Skype interview with Chris Vallance of BBC Radio 4’s iPM (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ipm/) talking about this “Citizens Plumbing” project (a term applied to this by my wife in her blog entry about this: http://www.starstryder.com/2008/10/03/citizen-plumbing-its-not-quite-galaxy-zoo/). [...]

By: Freiddie

Freiddie — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:15:48 +0000

I just found a website that is an almost exact copy of your blog post here (but truncated), and it’s on someone else’s website. Just Google “citizen plumbing”. I have a feeling that it’s some sort of webbot-operated blog.

By: Freiddie

Freiddie — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:21:10 +0000

I was wondering where the buzzing sound came from: the live video! I think I can hear faint music or other sounds in the video.

The big flame just got lighted.

By: Anatai

Anatai — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:16:19 +0000

My knowledge of water heaters and plumbing ends at calling my dad when there’s a problem but this is an interesting puzzle. So although this will most likely be the stupidest suggestion offered I thought I’d toss it up anyway. It looks to me like the pilot tip is too far away from the fire ring thingy. What I mean is, when the fire ring thingy ignites it probably blows the pilot light out but then immediately re-ignites it. But if the tip is too far away then there would be random instances where the flame from the fire ring thingy can’t reach it and it doesn’t relight. Does this make sense? It’s just a guess

By: xenoglyph » Citizen plumbing

xenoglyph » Citizen plumbing — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:30:28 +0000

[...] These folks’ pilot light keeps going out. If you see it happen, direct Twitter (as I hear the kids do these days) the owner of the water heater at turdontherun. [...]

By: Yoeman

Yoeman — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:26:44 +0000

Well, looks like the pilot assembly is not the original, at this point I would replace the whole thing.
Like I said above, you could do it yourself, but if you aren’t comfortable working with gas, have the plumber do it.
There are much more energy efficient models available, albeit at a much higher cost, and you wouldn’t have to take cold showers, which is not a fun thing to do!

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:42:44 +0000

(1) I really enjoy your blog and podcast. AstronomyCast is great. Thanks for all the work you and Fraser do to produce it.

(2) Might consider getting a new repairman.

(3) If the repairman can’t figure out the problem, just ask him to replace the pilot light assembly – although the webcam is intriguing. I’ve had similar problems with pilot lights. Cleaning the assembly sometimes helps (for reasons that are not clear to me), but it’s sometimes best to just replace them. Cold showers are no fun.

Best Regards,

Jim

By: pamela

pamela — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:28:32 +0000

So far we’ve replaced the thermocouple and had the plumber clean the thing.

Still sadness.

By: Yoeman

Yoeman — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:31:14 +0000

Ooops, X2 on the thermocouple, but the plumber prolly already did that.

By: Yoeman

Yoeman — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:30:19 +0000

You probably just need to take the burner and pilot apart and clean them out with water, they will get dust and dirt built up in them over several years use, you shouldn’t run without the cover, but it would be hard to keep an eye on the pilot that way.
If this unit is close to 10 yrs old, you should just replace it, it’s not that difficult to do yourself, and will run you between $200-$300, unless you get one with a power vent.
Phil Plait is concerned that you folks are having to take cold showers, thought I would offer some advice.
E-mail me if you need any more info.

By: BambooTech

BambooTech — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:25:14 +0000

You needn’t a webcam. A small uV detector and a small piezo alarm and a few wires and you’ll know the pilot went out. The water heater should stay warm for many hours after the pilot goes out. If you wake to cold water, the pilot was off all night or more.

I’d replace the thermocouple. Had a similar problem on a furnace (just a year or two old) when I lived in the frozen north. Fixed it right up.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:39:30 +0000

Any strange drafts that could be blowing the pilot out? I’ve seen mine go out occassionally when we sleep with our bedroom windows open (east side of the house) and we get a gusty west wind. The wind blows down the chimney, under the basement door, and out our windows. It isn’t much wind but it doesn’t take much to blow out a pilot light.

On a mechanical side, as Jay said, “thermocouple”. Failing that perhaps the whole thermostatic control.

Good luck.

By: jay

jay — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:57:48 +0000

same thing happened with mine a few years ago, try replacing the thermocouple ($7 piece of copper), not that I’m an expert, and you probably already tried that

By: Cat's Staff

Cat's Staff — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:20:46 +0000

You could (potentially) write an AppleSript/Automator action to take screen shots and compare them…then send an email/sms if it looks like it’s out.

By: Aaron Helton

Aaron Helton — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:38:53 +0000

What a cool use of the Internet. I hadn’t heard of Mogulus, but I bet someone could roll out a webcam-based security service for their house around it.