The heater will not stay on

The most common problem with these types of heaters is dust build up in the pilot. If your pilot light is mostly a yellow flame you need to blow out the pilot of dust.

Turn off the unit. Remove the cover to expose the pilot. You should find two small holes about an inch or two below the tip of the pilot. Those holes are for mixing oxygen into the gas prior to it lighting. Blow those out with a can of compressed air and you may as well blow out the large burner also with the can of air. Wipe down everything with a damp cloth to remove additional dust.

Sometimes the pilot will light and stay lit, but when the burners turn on the flame moves slightly and pulls the flame away from the thermocouple. Either way this is a good idea to do every year or two on your heater.

If the dial is a rotory type of gas valve it should move to the pilot position, light the pilot and then continue to full. If the dial is stuck and will not turn at all it can sometimes be loosen by spraying some oil into the spindle. This would require several sprays and try very gently to turn but do not add excessive force - that could break the spindle. If it turns to pilot but pilot does not stay on this is normally a worn thermocouple, simple and cheap to replace. Found this site very useful, patio heater problem solving.

Sounds like the igniter needs to be replaced. It is normal for a heater to run five or so minutes that means the thermostat is working. then restart when the temp calls for heat but if the igniter does not work it will not light up again.

Sounds like it is your thermal coupler. Check for a replacement part at your local hardware store. Good Luck.

Check the gas valve. Sometimes the springs in the valve can wear out.
Another thing is the pilot itself. Inside the pilot is a little rod that stays heated to ingnite the igniter. It can become dirty or corroded and won't allow the pilot to stay lit.

Ventless Gas logs, Vanguard, VS30PR. Propane gas
Pilot light stays lit various times, sometimes for several days then other times for a few minutes. Lights best when temp outside is below freezing. Pilot flame appears to receive too much air. How do you adjust the pilot flame? Is this done using two screws marked A & E? Do you have suggestions?
Thanks,
Ed

Sometimes when you turn a gas heater off for some time, if the source tank has been turned off, the line will bleed the propane and the line will contain mostly air. This is especially true if the supply line is long. In order to light the pilot, you will have to hold the pilot lighting button down for a while (a full minute or longer, depending on the size and length of the supply line) before pure propane arrives at the pilot light jet. You should keep a lighted lighter at the jet so that when the gas arrives, the lighter will light it. After the pilot lights, you will have to keep the button pressed long enough for the thermocouple to get hot enough to set the pilot to stay on. When it is hot enough, you should be able to release the pressed lighting button and the pilot should stay on. If it does, you should be able to light the heater. If the pilot jet never lights, gas is not getting to the regulator. If the pilot will not stay lit after a period of time waiting for it to heat the thermocouple, the thermocouple or the regulator may be bad and need replacement. :-)

My problem has been solved. A friend looked at it and discovered that I have a short in one of the wires. Thank you for your quick response in this matter.

The pilot orifice could be dirty causing the pilot flame to be too small. Unscrew the pilot tube at the pilot assembly. The orifice is inside. Remove the orifice and blow it out with compressed air only. Reassemble and see if that fixes the problem. If the pilot flame is set too low, sometimes opening a door will cause a draft to blow out the pilot. If the thermocouple is good and the pilot flame is set properly, the control valve may be bad.

I have a Williams top vent gravity wall furnace (model 5009622) and I had the same problem. I had to take the cover off the furnace -- screw on top and two at the bottom (open the access door and there is one screw on each side) to get to the reset button for the vent safety shutoff system. On my furnace it's on the left side toward the top of the unit. I pressed the little red reset button and it's been working ever since. If your furnace is properly installed and doesn't have bird's nest in the chimney, it should work fine. Good luck!