Wind blowing out water heater. Better exhaust solution?

[bbhaag]

So our water heater keeps blowing out on windy nights and I was wondering what the best way to prevent this from happening. This is the manual for the water heater we have. I keep getting the Six-Two Flash, three second pause error code on gusty nights which according to the codes on page 9 indicate wind vent issues.

The water heater is vented out the side of the house using schedule 40 pvc. The exhaust pipe extends about 18 inches from the house and then has a 45* elbow facing toward the ground. Is there a better solution than this? Perhaps an upside down U shapes exhaust vs the straight pipe with a 45* elbow? Any advice would be appreciated as my google skills are failing me on what to search for.

 

[Greenman]

Do a little trial and error. Stick another 45 on the end of the pipe and see if it helps. You don't have to glue it in, it will friction fit well enough to hold for a few days.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Those power vents put off a decent amount of air flow, hard to see how wind would affect it unless it's like hurricane force winds, I almost wonder if it's a sensor somewhere that is faulty. I'm not too familiar with power vents as I never worked on one but is there some kind of pressure switch somewhere on the unit? I'm assuming you did check the vent to make sure it's not full of snow?

 

[bbhaag]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. After installing a 90* elbow and a short down pipe the issue still persisted so it turned out not to be a wind gust issue. Tonight I troubleshooted it a little more and found a more in depth service manual where on page 14 it gave me a more complete trouble shooting guide for the code I was getting.

After tearing into it for about an hour I figured out the tube leading to the pressure switch had collapsed and formed a kink. I installed a new tube leading from the blower to the pressure switch and it has been functioning properly for the past two hours.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Cool, great to hear!

 

[bbhaag]

Cool, great to hear!

Thanks. I sure did breath a sigh of relief when a I got to the bottom of it. Saved myself a minimum $150 service call charge for what equated to a $.25 piece of tubing.