Lighting the pool heater

You need to turn the knob on the gas valve (inside the heater) to the "pilot" position. Then, while holding a flame over the pilot assembly push down on the knob.

Gas should come out of the pilot and ignite. Continue holding the knob down for 10-15 seconds. Release the knob and the pilot should stay lit. If not the pilot generator may need to be replaced.

Turn the knob to the "on" position, close the heater and turn the heater on and turn the thermostat to hot. The heater should fire. If it does not fire and the pilot goes out, that may also indicate a pilot generator problem.

The first thing That comes to mind is a bad pilot generator or thermopile. This makes a small half volt charge that energizes the magnets that open the two stages in the gas valve. Next would be a bad gas valve itself. You will need a milivolt meter to check both of these. Lastley is the safty circut. This is the string of switches that can shut the heater down if problems exist. Their are two sets of wires connected to the gas valve. One set goes down to the pilot, this is for the pilot generator. The other set is the safty circut. If you remove these wires and the pilot lightes and stays lit the problem is in the circut. Still no pilot then it is in the pilot or valve. Good luck.

If the pilot light goes out when you release the primer,then the thermocouple is bad.You can try to adjust the thermocouple,if it can be.It needs to be in the pilot flame.If the thermocouple is not in the flame,it will not stay lit.If you can not get the pilot to light at all,with the primer pushed down,then replace the regulator.To light the pilot light,you need to turn the dial to pilot.Then press the primer button down and hold it.The primer is either built into the turn knob,or it is a res button.Hold the primer down,and light the pilot,continue holding the primer down for at least 40 seconds.Then release the primer slowly,and if the pilot light starts to get weak,and try to go out,then push back down,and hold 30 seconds more.After the pilot stays lit,turn the knob to furnace or low,or whatever the directions say.

There should be instructions on the inside of the heater access door. Make sure you are comfortable working with gas heaters. Make sure the shutoff valve supplying gas to the heater is on. Turn the gas valve to "pilot", press and hold it while attempting to light the pilot. Once the pilot is lit, continue holding the gas valve knob down for about 30 seconds. The pilot should stay lit once you release the knob. If the pilot stay lit, turn the gas valve to "on". Replace the heater access door and make sure you have proper water flow and attempt to light the heater. If it will not light, or the pilot will not stay on, you will probably have to replace the pilot generator. It provides voltage to run the heater and after time it wears out and produces less and less voltage. A millivolt heater runs on less than one volt so any power loss can be a problem. If you are able, test the pilot generator with a multimeter to see if you are getting at least 500mv when the pilot is on. If not, you should replace the pilot generator or even the entire pilot assembly. Hope this helps...

The power pile (pilot generator) is defective. It produces a milivolt signal to ensure to keep the gas valve open. If it goes bad, the valve thinks the pilot is out, even when you are holding the button down, so when you release the button, it shuts the gas off to prevent excess gas buildup and a possible explosion.

It sounds like a thermocouple has gone bad. this is a very common problem with gas powered things ie; water heaters, furnaces, hot tubs. The telltale sign is when you release the pilot light button it won't stay lit. This is a safety feature and is relatively inexpensive and easy to repair.

Replace the pilot generator.

most likely you have a thermopile that has low output. it takes about 100mv to maintain pilot light

One of the proper ways to light a gas water heater, is to turn the black knob to Pilot, put a match to the end of the pilot light, while holding the match there, push the red reset button down and hold the match & the reset button down for one full minute. Then, release the reset button and turn the black knob to On. This should keep the pilot light on.