Mobile gas heater repair?

[Mollie the cat]

I have tried lighting my mobile gas heater for the first time, it lights up then after about 20 seconds it goes out? The pilot light at the bottom goes out, have bought a new regulator so its not that.

Any idea where I can take it for repair please? Or any suggestions what the problem might be?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Brinsley]

Behind where the gas cylinder sits is a metal plate, unscrew it. At the base bottom is a safety unit, disarm it and attatch the wires together, they should be colour coded bypassing the unit. This saftey device very often fails and is for gas cut off should the heater fall over. Maybe unsafe to do so if housing pets or small children wandering around.
Now reattach the gas cylinder before rescrewing the metal plate to see if it works, if all okay undo the gas cylinder, screw back metal plate and beware not to knock over heater when on.
All to do with great cheap Chinese technology!

[Mollie the cat]

Thank you very much. will try that hopefully without blowing up the lounge or me!!

[thornaby]

Mollie your fault is very typical of a thermocouple failure. You can prove this by after lighting it keep the control knob pressed down if the burner stays alight you know the tc. Is not doing its job . The tc is a flame failure protection device that shut off the gas valve if the flame goes out. When the tc heats up a tiny voltage is created ( milli voltage). This voltage keeps open the gas valve after the control knob is released. The tc also acts as a oxygen depletion sensor. A gas heater used in a closed room with no adequate supply of fresh air will definitely reduce the oxygen level to a dangerous level without such a sensor. Regards disabling the switch under the gas bottle this is OK as a fault finding test but you should never run it like that as a permanent solution. Best of luck.

[Mollie the cat]

Thank you, you obviously know what you are talking about. I tried the suggestion about taking the metal plate off that didnt work. My problem is this, I press the control knob down as you should do, I try to light the igniter at the bottom of the fire, the flame comes on but its very small, it stays on for a few seconds then goes out, sometime it light the burner other times not, even if it does light it it quickly goes out, I may have to invest in a new one?

[kerry 6138]

Thank you, you obviously know what you are talking about. I tried the suggestion about taking the metal plate off that didnt work. My problem is this, I press the control knob down as you should do, I try to light the igniter at the bottom of the fire, the flame comes on but its very small, it stays on for a few seconds then goes out, sometime it light the burner other times not, even if it does light it it quickly goes out, I may have to invest in a new one?

The thermocouple requires the pilot light to heat it up to maintain a gas supply, if your pilot light is to small it maybe a faulty regulator not providing sufficient gas pressure, if you've got one on your hob swop them over to check.

[Mollie the cat]

Thank you, we bought a new regulator, it still has a small flame, just when you need it! We kept it inside this year, it was perfect when we stored it away, very strange !

[thornaby]

Mollie, holding down the control knob should give a continuous supply of gas to the pilot , if it goes out whist doing this it suggests a lack of gas to the control valve or then through to the piot itself. What I would definitely suggest is go back to the regulator on the gas bottle and try and pull it off. Quite often it can feel it is correctly engaged when it is not. Also check that the regulator output pressure which will be written on it in milli bars (mb) matches that which you should find on your heater.

[Mollie the cat]

Hi everyone, partial success, I jammed the control knob down hey ho we have heat. very unconventional, thanks again for your suggestions, very much appreciated.

[thornaby]

Hi Mollie, glad you have heat but bear in mind that your "fix" will not allow the tc to do the job it is there for. A flame failure will still allow gas to leave the appliance. On what's now been said it does look like a tc failure. Stay safe and warm!

[Mimi2]

These heaters are relatively cheap.
Throw it away and buy new. Your life is worth more than this.
Safety control's are there to protect you. NOT to be tampered with by inexperienced persons.

[Keithcaley]

I see from an old thread that Tektan repair these (and almost everything else!).

It might be worth asking them for a rough price to repair it...

[benjaminbutton]

A 100% with Mimi2. Personally if it were me I'd buy a new one and wouldn't let anyone tamper. Having said that I have to be honest and say I don't like gas heaters unless they are outside and gave my three away a long time ago..

[thornaby]

Ours now is in retirement in the shed. Calor gas gives off a lot of condensation.