Pilot Won't Light: What to Try Before Calling, and When Not To
Three checks that resolve a good share of these calls at no cost, the part that is usually responsible, and the absolute stop condition.
We would rather tell you how to avoid a call-out fee than collect one for a dead battery. Here is what is genuinely worth trying yourself, what is probably wrong if those do not work, and the one situation where you stop reading and leave the house.
01Stop condition, first
If you smell gas: do not troubleshoot, do not operate switches, leave, and call the gas utility from outside. That instruction overrides everything else here.
Everything below assumes there is no gas smell.
02The three free checks
Is the gas supply valve open — it gets closed during other work and left closed surprisingly often. Do the remote or wall switch have live batteries — a genuinely common cause and an embarrassing call-out. And are you following the lighting sequence on the plate inside the unit, which differs by model.
Between them these resolve a meaningful share of what gets booked. It costs you five minutes to rule them out.
03What it usually is if those pass
The thermocouple or thermopile — the sensor that proves the pilot is lit and holds the gas valve open. Its output falls as it ages, and below a threshold the valve shuts even though the pilot looks fine.
The signature symptom: pilot lights, stays lit while you hold the knob, drops the instant you let go. If that is what yours does, expect this part — and expect it measured with a meter rather than guessed at, so you replace the right thing once.
04The ownership point
A gas appliance wants an annual service, and on a plan that visit is where a weakening thermopile gets caught before it strands you on the first cold evening. It is a measurement that takes a minute and predicts the failure.
That is the honest case for the annual visit on gas: not that something breaks yearly, but that the one component that does fail gives you warning if anyone is measuring it.
Check the valve, the batteries and the sequence before calling. If the pilot drops on release, it is very likely the thermocouple or thermopile — ask for it to be measured. And if you smell gas, leave first.
Every recommendation here starts from one place: a graded, photographed chimney inspection done to one standard, with a paper trail you keep.
The Prime Chimney Services Team
This article was written and reviewed by the CSIA-certified crew at Prime Chimney Services. Every recommendation reflects NFPA 211 and CSIA trade standards and the same documented, photographed approach we hold every job to.
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