Hi,

I noticed something that looks unsafe about my wall heater. It is an old Williams wall heater. I am not sure about the proper terms for the parts involved, so please bear with me.

Basically, the gas comes from the shut-off valve, goes into the gas valve (the box with wires attached to), and then goes out through a metal pipe from the top of the valve box. Now, this pipe does not go straight into the burner. Instead, there is a gap in the pipe, separating the pipe that comes from the valve and the thicker pipe that goes to the burner. Unfortunately the gap is hidden by a metal flange (the flange is shown in the second picture), so you can’t actually see it in the picture. I am not sure what is the purpose of this gap – some safety mechanism maybe?

Anyway, today I noticed a flame in the gap area, behind this metal flange. I don’t think this is normal. I blew it off and shut down the heater.  I am not sure what could be the reason for this or if it is safe to operate the heater. I would appreciate some advice.

Thanks,

Ron