AO Smith Power Shot water heater

I've had the AO water heater for close to 9 years. From time to time I have used steel wool to rub rust off the flame sensor when it wouldn't ignite. I tried that this time, but a new problem has popped up. A larger than usual flame ignites and then the unit shuts off. It does this three times and then the two yellow lights near the middle of the thermostat come on. I am turning the unit off, and then back on, allowing it to go through the cycle again, and usually this works. However, you can see this is not optimal, espcially in the middle of the night. My wire mesh above where the flame burns is nearly completely burned up. Should I replace this? Does this keep the flame for being too large, and is that the problem? Thanks for any advice. The wire mesh is not reqired. It can be removed. To do that the burner needs to be removed. Usually the flame sensor and ignighter get damaged from the screen falling apart. I would replace the ignighter. Make sure you vacuum all the debris out of the chamber. Note: How are your skills? You will be working with gas. Please use caution or call a pro. That repair should run $225 or so from a local AO smith rep in your area. Call AO smith and ask or go to their website. Thanks. A local plumbing service is trying to get me to throw in $2,600 for a new unit and I just don't see that is necessary. I will call the AO Smith folks after removing the screen and vacuuming out the chamber. I can do that much. Don't think I want to mess with shutting off the gas and getting into more trouble. Kinda like my house. So, I removed that wire mesh and saw that its remnants were all over the burner. I carefully vacuumed them off the burner, and then in the chamber. Before I did anything else I started it up again, and it is now performing just fine! Hope it stays that way! Thanks again. Good job...Thanks for the update.

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