Water Heater troubles.

Idx86

We have a relatively new house (2003) and a new water heater that has been running smoothly since we bought the house last year from it's previous owners. It was inspected as part of our home inspection last February with no problems.

This morning we had no hot water at all. I checked the water heater (A.O. Smith Powershot) and on the thermostat it had a few lights illuminated which I guessed was some sort of error code. When I got to work I referenced the manual online and sure enough, it had the following:

Error: "System in lockout"

Solutions:

1. Gas supply is off or too low to operate.
2. Hot surface ignitor not positioned correctly.
3. Low voltage to the water heater.
4. Electric polarity to unit is incorrect - test and correct.

There's no gas smell at all and our furnace is working properly. Is there anything I can do myself? Is it possible for me to just "reset" the whole heater by powering it down and then back up again?

Thanks for any input you can provide.

Ruckus

Based on the fact that this is a Natural Gas waterheater, call a certified professional for that model (such as the installer or the manufacturer itself) and get their opinion over the phone.

Pussum

I would have to agree. I know on electric heaters they have a reset button, but with gas just because the heater is off doesn't mean the gas is going to stop flowing and when you turn it back on there could be explosive repercussions.

Idx86

Just got off the horn with a service center nearby. There is a safety valve in newer water heaters such as mine which will prevent the flow of gas if something occurs. They suggested powering it down and then powering it back up to see if that does the trick, as sometimes heaters need to be "rebooted" for lack of a better term.

I guess this type of error message is fairly common. Hopefully this does the trick!

Big Dookie

Could it be that the pilot light just went out? Note that Gas Water Heaters are actually one of the safer Gas appliances out there - they use a thermocouple to control the gas supply to the heater. As long as the pilot light is on, the thermocouple will create a small electric current and keep the gas valve open, but when it goes out, the current stops and the valve is closed. If this is the case, you don't really have to worry about gas leaking or anything. You basically just have to relight the pilot light and then watch it for a bit to make sure it stays lit. If it does, you're set. If not, you might have a bad thermocouple (which are fairly easy to replace), and you can make that repair yourself.