In hot water...not

Darren Wright

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Springfield, Missouri
Woke up this morning to no hot water. Went down and checked at the stove to make sure I had paid the bill...yup. Next checked the pilot light on the water heater and sure enough, it was out. Got it lit, burner kicked on and all was good. Was running late so jumped in the shower a few minutes later and got a quick wake up :eek: as the water wasn't all that warm yet. As I was leaving the house I noticed a gas truck up the street and assumed that they must have shut off the main for repairs, which would explain why the pilot was out.

About noon today, my wife called to say that there was still no hot water. Told her I'd have to deal with it tonight. So got home and lit the pilot light again. Went to check 10 minutes later and found it out again...I started thinking "Thermocouple". Lit it one more time to make sure and about 10 minutes later it shut off again.

When lighting the pilot I noticed a little sticker on the thermocouple saying "left hand threads", which didn't encourage me. After a little googling I wasn't having any luck finding a left hand thread thermocouple, but had noticed that Lowes was selling a "enhancement" kit for my water heater ($35 special order). A little more digging and I found that there was a class action suit settled to fix the issue I was having.

I wrote down the serial, model, and product ID's and put in a call to the "American Water Heater Company". A very nice lady answered the phone, did a little research and even though the heater was about a year out of warranty, they are over-nighting a new kit to me at no charge. :thumb: The original thermocouple was a one time/no reset device. The enhancement kit has a "breaker" that can be reset for when the unit detects an abnormal flame-up.

Will have to get up about 30-40 minutes earlier tomorrow to cycle through lighting the pilot and waiting to re-light it a few more times to have a warm shower tomorrow, but can live with that.

Anyway, wanted to give a kudos to the American Water Heater Company for their excellent customer service experience. :thumb:
 
I ran into that problem back in 2005. Here's a posting where I discuss the problem and a bypass.

My heater was made by American Water Heater Company but sold under the Whirlpool name.

Mike

Awesome, Thanks Mike! I've got a universal I've had around as a spare for years, may give it a shot tonight.

This morning I just re-lit the pilot and it ran for 10 minutes, then went down and did it again before jumping in the shower, so had enough to get mine out of the way. Had to go to a dentist appointment, so not sure if my wife took advantage of it or not, I suggested she should. :D
 
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