06-27-2020, 11:49 PM
It's just annoying. To buy a gas water heater from Lowes maybe five years ago, install it with the help of LCF's brother in law, and that's great. But now when a part fails (likely the thermocouple), there's no clear documentation on the parts. LCF and I went to Lowes and got a tune-up kit that supposedly works for a Whirpool 40 gal 40,000 BTU tall gas water heater, which is what ours is, but there's diffferences. I'm trying to see if I can mix and match, using part of the new, part of the old. But I don't think so.
Prior to this, I disassembled ours and used 400 grit sandpaper on the old thermocouple, which was looking quite blackened/oxydized, got it all smooth and shiny, then spent hours putting everything back together (getting the gas lines aligned for proper threading was the toughest). Retested the thermocouple, and the cleaning improved the multimeter reading from 570 mV to 630 mV, tantalizingly close to the 650-850 normal range. But the pilot still won't stay lit. And now an indicator light no longer will give a blink code. So I gained in one area, lost in another.
Still no hot water, and we have a Zoom novel workshop tomorrow I need to prepare for, so I'm having to put this project on a back burner.
Yeah, that's a fucking pun.
And yeah, there's worse problems to have. Still, it's annoying.
Lowes, by the way, was packed. Parking lot, lines going in, lines for pick-ups (us) and returns (future us?), with booming outdoor PA announcements to social distance and wear masks. It was a somewhat controlled chaos. They're trying.
Prior to this, I disassembled ours and used 400 grit sandpaper on the old thermocouple, which was looking quite blackened/oxydized, got it all smooth and shiny, then spent hours putting everything back together (getting the gas lines aligned for proper threading was the toughest). Retested the thermocouple, and the cleaning improved the multimeter reading from 570 mV to 630 mV, tantalizingly close to the 650-850 normal range. But the pilot still won't stay lit. And now an indicator light no longer will give a blink code. So I gained in one area, lost in another.
Still no hot water, and we have a Zoom novel workshop tomorrow I need to prepare for, so I'm having to put this project on a back burner.
Yeah, that's a fucking pun.
And yeah, there's worse problems to have. Still, it's annoying.
Lowes, by the way, was packed. Parking lot, lines going in, lines for pick-ups (us) and returns (future us?), with booming outdoor PA announcements to social distance and wear masks. It was a somewhat controlled chaos. They're trying.
I'm nobody's pony.