Bradford White Defender / gas water heater tripping

I would clean the flame sensor...it has quite a build up on it...I clean them often and there is a good chance it is the culprit. Use some 300-400 grit wet and dry sand paper.

Hmmm. The wife says she had the door closed because she was doing laundry for a couple hours. I think she has been closing the door to the room when the dryer is running because it squeaks.

Door closed + running old dryer = problem. or could be.

The flame sensor has the yellow wire going to it. It is done easier if the burner assy. is pulled out and you may want to replace the thermocouple while the burner is out.

Thanks for the suggestion on the flame sensor. I didnt even know what that was.

Maybe whatever it was that was in there emitted smoke/residue. I will open it up again and clean that if you think its worth it.

I dont want to open it up too often. Maybe I had better order a new inner door gasket first, thought the current one looks fine and is still seating well.

On second thought, I may just order the thermocouple, thermal switch and gasket. I'm getting tired of messing with this and hoping for the best.

Brad ford white fvirs....

me thinks you are trying to make things too difficult here....


I have installed at least a thousand of themsince 2003..

we have never had any major problem with the thermal switch...

you can try changeing the thermol switch alone but


it is PROBABLY NOT the problem and probably not the thermocoupling....



You might just want to change out THE GAS CONTROL

and CHANGE THE THERMOCOUPLING while you are at it.



it will most likely be a bad high limit in the Gas Control valve.

giving you these troubles......

perhaps. Overall, seems like the shotgun method to try and troubleshoot this.

Fix this... did it work? nO.

Fix That. did *that* work. nope.

Fit that other thing. did that work? woohoo!


well.. al least I hope to be saying 'woohoo' someday. ;-)

Thanks.