If your water heater isn’t lighting or staying lit, it might be time to replace the burner assembly. Replacing a burner assembly in a gas water heater is an easy DIY project. This blog explains how to replace your burner assembly so you don’t have to call a plumber. You can also watch our video on how to do it here:
The first thing you’ll want to do is turn the gas off. Your gas water heater has a gas valve, a supply line, control valve, and a burner assembly. That's the major part of what makes this thing work.
To turn your gas off turn your valve 90 degrees so it goes perpendicular. When it’s parallel it’s turned on and when it’s perpendicular it’s turned off. So make sure you turn it off, then you’re ready to go.
Next, we are going to open up the cover plate. All the cover plate does is protect everything from dust and debris.
Now that the gas is off, you can turn the control valve all the way over to off. The reason is, once you are ready to light it, it will already be reset once you change the burner assembly.
Then, it’s time to start disconnecting the electronics. First, unplug the piezo switch. Then grab a pair of channel lock tools and start unplugging the electronics. Red is left, white is right, and the good thing is, its marked so you know they are in the right position.
Next, disconnect the gas lines. You have your gas main line that goes into the burner where your big gas feed is. Loosen them up and disconnect them because they are attached to what needs to be pulled out.
Once you’ve done that, you need to loosen the screws that remove the burner assembly from the tank. Once everything is loose, pull down to get it out of the gas control valve.
When you pull the gas burner out, get a wet vac to clean out the inside as much as you can. You want to make sure it’s clean so the burner assembly can get fresh air.
Now that everything is clean, we can put the burner assembly back in. Remember to make sure that the tab goes right into the notch on the inside. Then, put the gas back where it goes.
When you get all the gas connections tightened you can plug all the electronics back in. Next, turn the gas valve 90 degrees to turn it back on. Once it’s turned on, you have gas back in your control valve.
Now, take your control valve and turn it over to the pilot position and press it in. Once it’s pressed in, you can press your piezo switch which will create the spark. Keep holding it in once you get a flame.
When the light starts flashing, turn it up just above medium. Then, put it all back together.
This is something you can easily do at home. Make sure you do everything, especially check for a gas leak.