How To Fix a Low or Weak Pilot Light

In this "How to" video, I tell you how I easily and inexpensively corrected the weak pilot light problem on a water heater, but this could be the problem with any gas fixture that has a low pilot. You can use brake cleaner to clear a restriction in the pilot line.
Hello everybody it's handyman Bruce and I am here at a rental house today. Got a water heater that's out. The pilot won't stay lit. The pilot's really low they're telling me so let's check it out and see what we can figure out.
All right so there's the burner assembly and the pilot. Let's see if we could light this thing here. There we go. So you can see that small pilot right there. The pilot is really low so I'm thinking that's the problem. When I let up on the valve, the pilot goes out, but I don't think it's the thermocouple because what I did is I used my little flame here to heat up the thermocouple and it stayed on so I think the problem is that the pilot's too low to even keep the thermocouple warm so let's see if that's true.
Now is we're gonna undo that little screw in there that holds the pilot assembly onto there. And then we're gonna undo the nut here that holds the gas tube for the pilot into the gas valve. Before we do that, let's go ahead and shut the gas off to be safe.
We're not gonna be able to show this with the camera, but we got a little stubby screwdriver. We're gonna get in here, reach my arm in there, we're gonna unscrew that screw right there. I'll take it out and I'll show it to you.
All right. There's the pilot assembly right there. And the thermocouples still attached. If we need to, we can disconnect the thermocouple out of here to get some more working space but I don't think I'm gonna need it. I'm gonna try cleaning that out there and see if I can blow through this line, put it back in, see if we can get a much stronger pilot.
Okay, we've got the pilot assembly screwed back in there. You can see those two screws there that I attached it with. Oh, I've got this threaded her. Tightened on there. Now let's turn the gas valve back on and let's see what we get here.
Okay, now we're gonna hold down the pilot. Okay, and now let's see what we get, if my theory's right, we're gonna get a much stronger pilot this time. Let's turn the light off again. Oh, yeah. That's much better. In fact, I can even hear it stronger. Sweet. Okay. Let's let that run for a few seconds here.
All right. I released the button. Now let's see if we can get our burner to light. Sure did. That pilot is a lot stronger now. Think we just solved our problem.
So if you're curious what I did. I used just a little bit of brake cleaner on the end, where the pilot light comes out, right at the tip, then I just blew through it with my mouth through that tube so worked pretty well. The way to get that clog out is send it on through. I think we've solved our problem so I hope this helps you guys to know that sometimes repairs are pretty simple and you can avoid that big expense so you do-it-yourselfers, I hope this helps you take care of a problem at your house.
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Also, like the video and just comment down below. Say hey this really helped me. I appreciate it. Or man my water heater wasn't anything like this. You might have one of those newer type water heaters that is more energy efficient. Doesn't have an accessible door like that, but maybe you solved the problem a different way. You can leave a comment there that might help somebody so please comment and keep the discussion going. Thanks guys.