Garage furnace...can't light pilot

Careful, here...leaving a pilot on for any lengthy period _can_ result in nasty things happening. Coupla' fellas' out here just blew up/burned down their house day before yesterday trying to purge a line. Darned lucky to be alive.

If you can't smell the gas, there isn't any for one reason or another. Either the valve didn't open or for some other reason you have a problem. One thing that happens here over the summer w/ all small openings is critters such as wasps or other mud daubers or leaf cutters build nests in them. Make sure the orifice is clean and open.

Thanks.

Here's my furnace:

Should I try removing the hood? These furnaces are ridiculously hard to get around in. I removed the sheet metal bottom in order to access the pilot.

Should I mess with it or call a pro?

I don't have an air compressor, but I have a can of compressed dust remover for computers and electronics.

It's non-flammable. Should I give the orifice a blast?

Are you following the instructions for how to light it?

E.g., with some (most? all?) you need to press the pilot "button" _while_ you try to light it (with e.g. a match), and continue to hold it down once lit until the bimetal valve heats up and it can sustain itself.

After 5 minutes, I would have thought you would smell it. But I haven't always smelled it immediately. People's noses differ.

If it's accessible easily enough to go sniffing it, it should be easy to see if it can blow bubbles with soapy water. One std way to check for small leaks, very small leaks.

You may just have to manually hold pilot valve open for a while until gas gets to the unit.

OK. Verify that you have followed carefully the instructions on page 12.

I wouldn't.

If after following precisely the instructions on page 12, and several trials (I've found that I sometimes don't get the match flame in quite the right spot to light them when I'm working in contorted positions ), I'd opt for the pro.

I doubt it would help.

Definitely. You have to hold down the spring-loaded red button.

You may want to backtrack and see if there is another valve that is shut off. Maybe you shut a valve off when you thought you were opening it.

BTW for most of this worlds population the sniff test should be enough. For me, after years of sinus infection and hay fever, I can't count on it. :-)

This is Turtle.

With what you have said here. I will say you have a restriction in the gas flow from the meter outside to the pilot head burner. this can be may number of things like Gas valve somewhere shut and you not know it, Pilot adjustment screw set too low or has trash in the pilot lite needle in the gas valve to set the flow of the gas to the pilot valve, or even to you did not pay your gas bill last month. SO.

When you push the red button you over ride all valves and everything that would hold the natural gas back which tells me you have a restriction of some kind of the gas not getting to the pilot lite to burn.

TURTLE