# BOOM



## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

I helped my master get ready for drywall and he said ”remember the heater we did fo the girl that just bought the house on the south side?”
Apparently the new guy had a no heat call. He got there and the pilot was lit, so he turned it up to max and nothing. A few seconds and it blew up. Sounded like a shotgun and said he felt the sheet metal swell.

We called Rheem and finally got them to let us replace it completely. The only thing we can think of is an ice damn in the vent? B-vent through the roof.


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

Sounds like you're using a bit of hyperbole. If the guy is completely fine and it only sounded like a shotgun I wouldn't say something blew up. There was definitely a build up of gas and delayed ignition, but I wouldn't call that an explosion.

Could there have been an obstruction in the heater preventing the pilot from contacting the gas coming from the orifice? Perhaps the pilot wasn't as large as it should have been. Maybe a down draft?


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

I don’t know what day they were there or the weather conditions. I’ve only seen a downdraft snuff out a pilot, but I guess that could be an idea.

I replaced a burner assembly under warranty years ago and I didn’t realize the new one came without an orifice installed. Scare the crap out of me!


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## RichardBull (Jan 7, 2021)

Let me tell you how that happened on my job....

I installed a gas water heater and fired it off.

My helper for some reason, turned the control to OFF. The heater immediately shut down.......

He then immediately turned it back to ON........

The pilot was out but the valve didn’t know it yet........it was still calling for heat. The main burner was flowing wide open, filling the burn chamber with gas.

He then pushed in the ignitor.

BOOM

Sounded bad but did no damage to the heater.


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

OpenSights said:


> .......I replaced a burner assembly under warranty years ago and I didn’t realize the new one came without an orifice installed. Scare the crap out of me!


Back when coal was a new thing, I worked in a kitchen. I was maintenance and had to scrub the insides of the fryer vats. A set of three, one had a poor pilot. The gas would build up until it reached the next unit and BOOM. Sometimes blow the door open. Sounded just like someone slamming one of the large fridge doors really hard, which happened when people were in a hurry.

Of course we all knew it was propane exploding and were scared it would one day take our lives. And on top of that, when myself and another guy would be leaning into one vat next to another 400 degree vat of oil to clean it there would be an explosion 12" from the family jewels!!! Enough to give a guy several heart attacks.

Several of us in the kitchen had ptsd for months and when the fridge door would slam we'd jump or duck, several of us, all at the same time.


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## sparky (Jan 8, 2014)

This reminds me of the time a guy jumped out of an airplane and forgot how to work his parachute,on the way down he met a man coming up,he yelled over to the guy coming up,"hey,do you know anything about a parachute???the man replied,"no do you know anything about lighting a gas stove????


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## Nazareth (Sep 30, 2017)

I remember my first time encountering a rheem guardian. I just kept trying to light that thing, making it go BANG every time, just confused out of my mind


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