# Bradford White Water Heater 2 blink error



## jwill370 (Feb 10, 2020)

My hot water was out today on my Bradford White gas water heater with the Honeywell controller. The pilot light will light and ignite the main burner. After a few minutes the main burner shuts off. It will relight a few times with the two blink error going before shutting off. I took out the burner and realized a Honeywell universal thermocoupler was not going to work. I put it back together and lit it with the inner door open. The pilot light looked good and the burner ignited. I let it go a few minutes and it did not shut off. I put the inner door back on and it would shutoff. I took the high temperature switch off the door and it still shutoff. I swept out the inside air filter with a sweeper after running a wire brush over it. I do not have a compressor. I put it back together and it still would not stay lit. When it is on, smoke from a match gets sucked up when held near the top vent. I found if I put a small portable fan near the base of the water heater, so that air blows in the vents holes, it stays lit. So I am wondering, do I have an air intake problem, a thermocoupler problem or some other problem?


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## BayouRunner (Feb 5, 2016)

We’ve experienced this a few times with a whirlpool hot water heater where we have to pull the burner and blow out what I’ll call the screen at the base of the hot water heater. I’m not talking about the screen that goes around the hwh but inside the base itself. It effects the airflow then trips the safety. After blowing it out with a co2 cartridge it works fine. Seems like we do this every two years or so


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## jwill370 (Feb 10, 2020)

BayouRunner said:


> We’ve experienced this a few times with a whirlpool hot water heater where we have to pull the burner and blow out what I’ll call the screen at the base of the hot water heater. I’m not talking about the screen that goes around the hwh but inside the base itself. It effects the airflow then trips the safety. After blowing it out with a co2 cartridge it works fine. Seems like we do this every two years or so


The screen that I swept covers the entire bottom inside the WH. How did you use the CO2 cartridge?


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## BayouRunner (Feb 5, 2016)

Pull the burners out and used a co2 gun to blow it out. Air compressor would work if you have access to one


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## BoBBuild (Aug 26, 2019)

Faced a similar problem a couple weeks ago with one of my relatives' heaters. Blowing out the burners worked like magic. Seems like it needs to be done as a part of maintenance to keep the heater running smoothly.


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## jwill370 (Feb 10, 2020)

I hooked a small diameter 90 degree piece to the end of my wet vac. That gave me a pretty powerful stream. It seemed to do pretty well to blow out dust. I then re-vacuumed. It didn't get rid of the two blink error or it shutting off. Today I put in a new pilot assembly which includes the thermopile. Also replaced the high temperature switch. The 2 blink error went away but it still shuts off after a bit. After lighting the main burner goes several minutes then shuts off, relights for several minutes, shuts off, relights until eventually both the main burner and the pilot shut off together. The LED which has only been doing the single strobing blink/pause immediately goes off.


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## jmon (Nov 5, 2012)

How old is it? If still under warantee, call manufacture and explain to them everything you have done. They may send you out a new controller.


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## jwill370 (Feb 10, 2020)

jmon said:


> How old is it? If still under warantee, call manufacture and explain to them everything you have done. They may send you out a new controller.


6 years and 6 months old, so 6 months past the warranty :sad:. I scheduled a plumber since my wife is getting impatient. The fan trick still works so it seems air is still restricted. To much fan and my CO2 monitor starts registering some ppm so not a good work around.


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## jwill370 (Feb 10, 2020)

Plumber used a compressor on the screen. Still could not get it to stay lit. Bradford White told him it was probably the control valve. I elected to have the tank replaced.


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