i called out a hvac repairman- well reviewed on yelp to change out the gas valve on a wall heater. i had this repair done a few years ago on another heater and all is well.
the repair man had a very hard time removing the gas valve, he had to take out a whole part of the heater including the burner access door with attached main burner and pilot burner assembly and gas valve attached, took it outside and banged on it a bunch of times to release the gas valve.
he unscrewed and screwed the burner access door at least 3 times and once it was all attached, noticed the manifold was cracked. at first he said it would be an extra charge but i pointed out it wasn't cracked ( no gas leaking at all before and the pilot would always relight, not happening since the new crack) before and he had to bang the heck out of the heater outside to change out the gas valve.
he came back with the part and replaced the manifold, had to unscrew and re screw a couple more times and in the end did not charge me for replacing the manifold.
i noticed he coated a white sticky coating over every part of the gas valve that attaches to the heater. what is that and what is its function? is it like plumbers dope for gas? the other heater that got the same repair has not such white coating.
3 days later, the pilot is out again, i go to relight and can smell gas coming from the pilot tubing. i also notice there are some scratches along the pilot tubing and the cloth cover over the thermopile is also roughened and torn off in a small area. i know this is from all the banging he did outside.
i called him today about the gas smell and that its bubbling with soapy spray. he will come monday.
who should pay? and what should be expected as a repair?
before he took the whole assembly out and banged away at it, the only issue was the pilot was going out and the solution was not another thermopile ( have already replaced a few). i actually took the thermopile from the other heater ( worked flawlessly) to this one. his repair caused other issues.
i think he should replace the pilot tubing at his cost. i'm not so sure about the thermopile- the cloth cover is torn revealing the wires inside but i don't know if that affects its function?
do i need to worry that he covered the gas valve with the white sticky coating? its been 3 days and its still a wet sticky coating.
what can be wrong with the heater???? it keeps going out even after a new gas valve!
