Water heater (gas)..help me troubleshoot!

[TRAXX]

Wake up the morning to luke warm water. I check the water heater and see the pilot is not lit. Light it, and release the button and it stays lit (guess the thermocouple is ok). I turn it to the on positon and the big burner kicks on (guess the valve is working?), and stays on for about 10 seconds and then cuts off, including the pilot light. :confused: Any ideas?

[Pro88LX]

please help people. cold showers SUCK :(

[bard]

My guess is still the thermocouple.

http://homerepair.about.com/od/heatingcoolingrepair/ss/pilot_light_5.htm

[03trubluGT]

I had to replace my thermocoupler last year, but my pilot light wouldn't stay lit.

I'm not sure what's wrong with yours.

Sorry :(

[orangegt]

Thermocouple sends a small amount of millivoltage to gas valve pilot light once the tip gets hot. This keeps the gas coming through to keep the pilot lit. You can actually check that with a decent electrical meter if you have one. You may try just sanding the end of the thermocouple where the pilot light burns it. Sometimes the soot on the thermocouple messes with it.

[PUSHROD]

Go buy a thermocouple, for temp. fix you can get some sand paper and clean the carbon off the thermocouple.

[TRAXX]

Thanks for the tips guys. It turned out it was the thermocouple, but I found a number for Whrilpool customer service and spoke to them about it. Turns out they have a "repair kit" for my water heater as the old design apparently results in killing thermocouples quickly. Supposedly, the new design is supposed to fix that. The guy gave me the part number and said Lowes sometimes has them in stock. Sure enough, they did. I gave them the serial number, and they handed me the repair kit for free. :cool: So just FYI for anyone else that has a Whirlpool water heater.

Chris, quit yer bitchin! :p