Ahoy hoy,

I'm having trouble keeping my water heater burner lit or lighting automatically.

-When I press the pilot reset button (allows a small flow to generate the pilot light) and use the piezo sparker, it lights fine. Hold for about a minute and it stays on (my guess is that this warms the TC so the gas doesn't shut off), as it should -When I release the pilot button and turn the knob from pilot to on, allowing a normal gas flow rate, I usually hear a quick burst of gas and then it immediately shuts off -If I finesse it and turn the knob very slowly (gradually increasing the gas flow), I can get it to stay on at full blast -Almost without fail, when I leave it alone for several hours, I can tell, for whatever reason, it hasn't been able to ignite itself (most likely because it needs finessing to get it to light)

Given that the burner will stay lit at full blast after I finesse it (increase the gas flow gradually), but will go out otherwise, what might this be indicative of?

Thanks in advance!!