Water heater won't light

[dennisl]

I need some help for my brother. He has a Suburban 6 gal water heater with DSI. He says when he tries to turn on the LP switch, nothing happens. The burner will not light, and doesn't even sound like it is even "sparking" to light the pilot. Any info appreciated.

[stiles watson]

It could be a number of things. One might be a clogged orifice. Sometimes bugs will get in there and mess up the air/propane mixture. I keep a small round brush for the purpose of cleaning out the orifice. It could be something else though.

[dennisl]

I think we finally figured out what happened after a "comedy of errors'. First of all, the bypass valve was closed, so no water was in the tank, which burned out the electric element. Apparently, this also overheated the empty tank, which shut down everything else including the LP water heater switch. This morning after a little research, I told him to go outside and push the "reset" button, still nothing happened. After further research, I had him to push the SECOND "reset" button, and IT WORKED. The owner's manual was NOT very clear about the reset buttons and their operation. Hopefully in the future someone will do a "search" and this may answer their water heater questions.