Pilot gas line is clogged for patio heater (Piezzo and other things work). I will replace but would like to unclog it if possible instead of buying a new line.
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Shove in a pipe cleaner or piece of weedwacker line?– HuesmannCommented Nov 27 at 15:08
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1 Answer
Originally I connected to the my air supply and tried to blow both directions, it didn't help (though sources online seem to have this work. I the oriface end in 91% alcohol overnight, hoping it was an organic blockage from hydrocarbons & soot.
It ended up the orifice face had closed up. There is a very small hole in the part that looks like a metal bead and pressed in.
I decided to attempt to drill it out.
Pilot lights typically use 500-1000 BTUs per hour. I looked up orifice charts (knowing I am on about 4-5" WC of NG at this point, depending on what I am running).
Looking at the orifice charts I had to keep it under size 78 drill bit. I didn't have one that small on hand, so I used an tapered end bit I use to cut out copper clad for circuit boards to hand-bore the orifice out and reassembled it.
The flame was a little too big. It would be ok to run at this point but it produced a yellow flame. This means that the port on the side that normally uses the Bernoulli effect to bring oxygen to the gas stream (for the blue clean flame) had a gas stream that was too large, so it didn't allow as much oxygen and would leave soot long term.
To reduce gas flow and get a clean flame, I crimped the line to restrict gas flow, being careful not the go to hard as it rupture the line or block the flow. Result is below.
