Water heater

A water heater, comprising:

• a heat exchanger for heating water from a water supply;
• a main burner for heating said heat exchanger;
• a standing burner proximal to said main burner for igniting the same;
• a main fuel passage means for supplying fuel from a fuel supply to said main burner;
• a manual valve on said main fuel passage means which is operable by a manual operation nember;
• an automatic valve disposed in said main fuel passage means at a point downstream from said manual valve, a water pressure sensitive member disposed between said water supply and said heat exchanger, said automatic valve operable in response to the pressure of a supply of water at said water pressure sensitive member;
• a standing burner fuel passage means for supplying fuel from said fuel supply to said standing burner, said standing burner fuel passage means drawing fuel from said main fuel passage means at a point between said manual valve and said automatic valve;
• and
• a lock means attached to said water pressure sensitive member by an actuation rod, said lock means engageable with said manual operation member when a supply of water is sensed by said water pressure sensitive member for preventing said manual operation member from opening said manual valve and such that said lock means are not engaged with said manual operation member when no supply of water is sensed by said water pressure sensitive member and wherein said lock means is slidable with respect to said actuation rod and is biased toward said manual operation member, wherein said lock means comprises a flat face generally perpendicular to said operation rod, said lock means arranged to be engageable with a projection on said manual operation member for stopping the movement of said manual operation member when a supply of water is provided to said water pressure sensitive member;
• wherein said manual operation member includes,
• (a) a pushbutton inserted through an operation panel constituting a front surface of a main body of the water heater, said pushbutton having three positions, a starting end position, an intermediate position and a final end position, and
• (b) an operation rod fixed to and extending from said pushbutton, said operation rod being partially disposed within said main fuel passage means,
• and wherein said manual valve includes,
• (a) a cut-off valve fixed to said operation rod said cut-off valve disposed within said main fuel passage for cutting off the supply of fuel through said main fuel passage, such that said cut-off valve is closed when said pushbutton, and therefore said operation rod, returns from said intermediate to said starting end position, and
• (b) a safety valve disposed within said main fuel passage upstream from said cut-off valve for stopping the supply of fuel through said main fuel passage, said safety valve being operatively connected to said operation rod and responsive to movement of said operation rod, such that said safety valve is open when said pushbutton is at said final end position and is allowed to close when said pushbutton is returned to said intermediate position from said final end position.