Help! Buddy flex heater pilot lights but dies when I turn propane up

[bonginator]

I have a new buddy flex heater. I am running it on a green propane bottle (tried several of them).

I can light the pilot on it and hold the pilot on for a minute but when I turn the fuel level up further, the heater as pilot turn off immediately.

Any suggestions for troubleshooting this?

Thanks!

[Uglymug]

Sounds like the thermocouple is bad. Probably still has warranty hopefully. Otherwise replacing it is possible, but is a pain in the a## with most buddy heaters. Not sure about that particular model.

[Ronnie D]

See if the thermocouple nut is loose. It's a 3/8" nut that screws into the gas valve.& make sure the blue tip of the pilot flame is pointed at the tip of the thermocouple nipple. Probably something loose or out of line from shipping.
Might be a dumb question , but did ya check to see if the safety switches are re- set. I've seen those w/ pushbutton CO & tip over sensors.

[hardwater diehard]

[Brian VT]

I clicked on this thread wondering why the Flex gets such a bad rap. I don't have one but it seems like a good concept.
Why would the thermocouple on this need to be cleaned more often than all the other ones that noone has problems with?

[albo]

I had a spider build enough of a web in the pilot light tube that it caused this problem.

[Hatandboots]

I have a new buddy flex heater. I am running it on a green propane bottle (tried several of them).

I can light the pilot on it and hold the pilot on for a minute but when I turn the fuel level up further, the heater as pilot turn off immediately.

Any suggestions for troubleshooting this?

Thanks!

I had a similar issue and I ended up switching to a sunflower from Mr. Heater. It has the same safety shutoffs that the Flex and Buddy Heaters have.

My pilot light would come on no problem, all big and bright, but then as soon as I switched it onto low it the pilot would weaken to about half. This would eventually trip the thermocouple.

Is your pilot light instantly going out or sputtering first?