Trouble lighting empire furnace?

[Chad394]

When lighting my empire for the first time it is always difficult to get the pilot to light. It normally takes a few minutes to get the pilot to fire. Once it does light it works perfect. I can even turn it off and keep it off for a couple hours and it then will light on the first try. I did have the furnace serviced last fall and they cleaned the pilot. To me it almost seems like propane is not getting to the furnace until I have held the control valve in for a long time. I have tried turning the tanks on a few minutes before starting and have also tried burning the oven range first. Neither seemed to help. I would guess it takes 15 clicks before the pilot fires but once it fires it will start on the first time for rest of weekend. Any advice on how I can get the pilot to light faster?

[JSK76]

It sound to me that it is working just fine. On my old fish house my Empire it took up to 4-5 minutes to start if the tanks had been disconnected or shut off for a few days. If I got it started and left the tanks on and then tried to restart it it would go the first try. I got to the point that I would only click it once per minute just so I didn't wear out the clicker. I think if it takes a while to get going you might have a very small undetectable leak, if your tanks are turned off you start out with a air filled propane line that needs to bleed out every time it sits awhile. The longer the propane line the longer it takes. I always light the stove top too just to make sure the tanks had propane and the regulator was working.

I thought of putting a bleed off valve to speed things up. I never could find the leak or smell any propane. My new fish house has an auto light furnace, hit the switch and walk away. I can have my holes drilled in the time I spent lighting the Empire.

[Chad394]

Thanks for your feedback. I always felt like the problem was propane not filling the line and not with the furnace. The only thing I struggle to understand is why the ranges have propane immediately. I normally turn my tanks off and let the fuel completely burn out of the lines. Maybe this isn't a great idea and it would be better to keep fuel in the lines during the winter.

[JSK76]

Typical the oven or cook stove is in the front of the fish house and so are the propane tanks so there's less line to bleed the air out. Mainly the reason the cook top lights so fast is the size of the holes and how many more holes then just one small one on the pilot light of the heater.

[Chad394]

Any other thoughts or ideas I can try to get furnace to light faster? Thanks

[Whopper Stopper]

With mine (an older one) I just turn the tanks on and leave it alone for 10-15 minutes or so. As long as I do that it will start right away.

WS

[pushbutton]

How big is your tank? Seems a 30 lber has a little more umph than a 20....especially after it has been disconnected or the colder it gets. Assuming you are not disconnecting, and if not, echo Jsk, and wondering if you have a pinprick leak/connection allowing for some air to get in the line between uses. Also have found that when really windy, covering the vent or cracking a door or window, or a combination of the two depending which way the wind is blowing .....to prevent blowback/inside air rushing out the furnace..... is about the only way I can light mine after being disconnected while building the pressure back up/bleeding the air out of the lines.

Another thing to look at is the size flame you have to light. Have found that a small butane torch seems to warm up the little filament glowing thingy, that assumingly ?? keeps the pilot valve open better. Don't quote that as technical advice, but seems to help me.....

[JSK76]

First make sure you pilot is in clean good working order. They do get plugged up and the flame will be shorter causing other problems too. Smaller the hole the slower it takes for air to bleed out of the line. I had to replace mine but it still took a long time to bleed out the air with the new one.

The only thing I can think of to help speed the air bleeding process up is to run a tee at the heater and install a gas light. This will allow a large volume of air to come out fast with a flow of propane right behind it. Just make sure you install the light after the heater and not before it. Just light the light first then turn it off and light the heater. It's always nice to have a second light source for when your battery gets low or you forget to bring it with like I did once.

[Bureaucrat]

I used an empire fifteen years ago. I would take the pilot window glass off and light it with a match.

[Hawg]

You have some pretty scary suggestions here for the confined area of a fish house, it can't cost that much to have someone look at it. I think the real problem is you let the flame go out after closing the valve. Shut down the furnace then close the valve to keep gas in the line. It's a lot less gas than installing a bleeder.