Why Does My Gas Wall Heater Keep Shutting Off?

Marcus Lewis Hensley -


If you are facing a problem with your gas wall heater, you may be thinking about what's happening and how to get the real warmth out of your unit without having to constantly reset the circuit breaker. If your gas wall heater keeps shutting off, you most probably have one of these 4 problems:

  • Bad gas valve
  • Faulty Thermopile
  • Clogged air inlet
  • Dirty pilot light

You wake up on a freezing winter morning and feel the shivers down your spine. The room is dead cold. Something is wrong. The gas wall heater stopped working at some time during the night. Efforts to relight the gas wall heater are futile. That’s not a permanent solution and the heater will shut off again. Maybe it will stay on for a moment and the furnace tries to catch fire, but shuts down right away.

To resolve these problems, you must hire an expert gas wall heater technician from Heating Experts. But before that, read some of the main reasons why your gas wall heater won’t stay on. You can fix the problem on your own; if you know how to use the right equipment and have the skills. Obviously, if you want to ensure the job is perfectly done with low risk, contact the expert professionals at Heating Experts for gas wall heater repair ASAP.

When your gas wall heater is shutting off over and over again, this is called heater short cycling. Coming up next are some of the most common reasons why this might be happening.

Airflow problem

If your gas wall heater keeps shutting off, the reason could be less airflow. There are multiple indirect issues that can cause airflow problems.

  1. Dirty air filters: if you don’t maintain the cleanliness of your heater’s air filters, they will become clogged which causes the heat exchanger to hold back the heat and eventually leads to overheating. It’s crucial to change your air filters about every three months unless you have allergies or pets. If you have allergies or pets, you should be changing your filters every 2 months or less, if the allergies are severe.
  2. Blocked or closed air supply vents: if your gas wall heater keeps shutting off, inspect your air vents to see if any of them is blocked or clogged in any way. You must keep all of the vents open, even in the areas you don’t use. It’s imperative for your heat exchanger to get air to transfer enough heat. Otherwise, the heat grows and could cause your gas wall heater to short cycle.
  3. Dirty blower wheel: if your gas wall heater goes on and off instantly, it could be because of a dirty blower wheel. Blower wheel contains blades that push the air. If it’s dirty or clogged, it can’t work properly or might not work at all. You can avoid debris and dirt on your blower wheel by cleaning and changing the air filters every day. If you don’t pay attention to your gas wall heater maintenance, it could be costly to repair.

A gas wall heater shutting off instantly is not something that should be overlooked. As soon as you have the problem, hire a professional from Heating Experts to check your system. If you ignore it, you could be paying for major repairs or maybe complete replacement of your whole system.

One more way to get rid of expensive replacement or repairs is by paying heed to regular gas wall heater maintenance and hiring a professional once a year to service it.