Is there something wrong with the…..
Hot water? Why yes, there is, thank you for asking! Not sure if it is coincidence or bad luck but every time I start messing with the new Pulp Master Bath shower valve, the hot water heater goes down. And with that, I am slowly becoming an expert on all things A.O. Smith FCG 75 gas hot water heater related. Case in point, I had just made a repair to the Moen M Core shower valve that I believed would cure my dripping issue (as in couldn’t get the water to completely shut off coming out of the shower head. Now let me preface that with the fact that a contractor we were using to aid in the remodel managed to originally put the valve in sans a few crucial pieces (he really has a thing against anything that is not a Delta project and seemingly took no care in putting the valve in the first time). So at first, it was a full on flow coming out no matter open or closed with the handle (quite the shame as it looked very nice fully installed). Anyway, I had a go at it and became convinced the valve body needed to be flipped upside down as we were only using this on a shower only assembly (no tub) and the install manual kind of led me in that direction. So, we ripped out some tile and flipped it. put it back together and…no shut off, still full flow out. Disappointing, yes, but I kept digging. When I went to the online sight (mind you, not the manual provided with the valve, it mentioned these two small rubber pieces that I had seem on the bath counter and clearly were not in the valve cartridge as per the new set of directions. This happened late so I went to sleep fairly confident that I had the issue resolved and would be making it right the next day.
Next day came, I made my fix, and….water did shut off…initially. And then the slight drip, drip and drip out of the shower head. Disappointed, again, yet I was on to something and the situation had improved. Pulled the cartridge out and then noticed some small pieces of mortar in the valve itself and the cartridge cylinder it sits in. Not good for valves of any sort. Cleaned and cleaned but to no avail, still a drip. While this was happening, I was also checking the water flow and temp and I was just not getting proper hot water. I shut the cold off completely, played with the valve adjustments, spun the internal shutoffs a few times, etc, etc. Nothing. This went on for some time as I was also trying to get that valve cartridge to work. Finally, a brain storm. Go try another water supply faucet and see how hot that gets. Aha, no hot water happening and back to the original story.
Hot water heaters have little control units on them that tend to have a flashing light that indicates hot water heater status. Ours was flashing 4 times, then off, then repeating that. Looking at the chart on the controller, this was an indication of a “high temperature shutdown”. In my practices, any kind of alarm condition can usually be cleared by turning power off and on to the unit. So I started turning off breakers that mentioned the work “hot”, “boiler” or “heat” but to no avail. Light kept flashing. Upon further inspection, I realized that this gas hot water heater has no power feed to it, runs strictly off of self contained power it stores in little capacitors and generates from the heat of a flame. Very cool, but not answering my question and with no obvious reset button to be found I pulled out the owners manual. According to that, the dreaded 4 flashing lights is a non fixable issue that must be resolved by calling a service provider. So I called one. Not available for a week (this is no hot showers we are talking here, something I depend on greatly). Next step, let the fingers do the walking through the great landscape of DIY fix repairs on the internet. And I found them, lots of them. Seems folks don’t have a lot of good things to say about the Honeywell Gas Control valve that is part of our A.O. Smith unit. Gets downright ugly at times! But they have fixes and the one I tried (involved moving the thermostat to certain positions and holding it there) completely did the trick, hot water heater fired back up and we were in business. If you have trouble finding the fix, just email me and I’ll give you the step by step.
Of course, we just went down again as I was working on the shower valve cartridge (figured original was damaged beyond repair from the tile mortar pieces that got into it) and installing a new one, which worked just fine mind you, and once again, no hot water. This time a little different, can’t get the pilot light to stay lit and thus, no flame can be established. Replaced the thermo couple as the obvious and easiest fix but still nothing. Believe the gas valve control itself has locked up and I can’t get it to reset. Call into manufacturer, new control valve en route and searching for other means to get this thing back on line!
Busy week for sure and I am now fully cleared to do as I wish physically, 3 months post surgery in the books. You all have a good week and fingers crossed on the hot water thing, see you next week!!
