Pilot burner system for water heaters

A fuel-fired water heater comprising:

• a tank for holding a quantity of water to be heated, said tank having a bottom wall;
• a combustion chamber disposed beneath and upwardly bounded by said bottom wall;
• a flue communicating with said combustion chamber via an open lower end of said flue, and extending upwardly from said bottom wall through the interior of said tank;
• and
• fuel-fired combustion apparatus operative to create hot combustion products which flow upwardly through said flue and transfer heat therethrough to water stored in said tank, said fuel-fired combustion apparatus comprising:
• a main fuel burner disposed in said combustion chamber in an underlying relationship with said open lower end of said flue,
• a pilot fuel burner disposed in said combustion chamber in a horizontally offset relationship with said main fuel burner and said open lower end of said flue, said pilot fuel burner being operative to create within said combustion chamber, during standby periods of said water heater, a standing pilot flame disposed beneath a bottom surface portion of said bottom wall, and
• a generally vertically oriented tube member, having an open lower end portion and an open upper end portion, disposed in said combustion chamber and interposed between said pilot fuel burner and said bottom surface portion of said bottom wall in a downwardly spaced relationship with said bottom surface portion, said tube member being operative to upwardly receive said standing pilot flame and concentrate its heat on said bottom surface portion of said bottom wall of said tank,
• wherein the lower end portion of said tube member is positioned to receive said standing pilot flame,
• wherein said lower end portion of said tube member has a lower end edge and a side wall cutout area generally facing the main fuel burner extending upwardly through said lower end edge, the side wall cutout area being arranged to allow airflow from the pilot burner to the main fuel burner for igniting the main fuel burner by means of the pilot burner.