Hot Water Heater Help

[JerryinPA]

Hi Guys

I’m hoping somebody on here can help me out.

I have an ’06 Bradford White “Defender” gas water heater. For the first 5 years we never had a problem with it. 2 years ago the pilot went out, and I replaced the thermocouple. That lasted for about a year.

Now, in the past year the pilot light will randomly go out after 2-6 weeks and won’t re-light. I’ve replaced the thermocouple probably 6-8 times in the last 12 months. Every time I replace it, the pilot stays lit again, but only for a few weeks, then it will randomly go out and won’t re-light. The last time it went out I tried putting one of the old thermocouples back in to see if it would stay lit and it did for about 2 weeks, and has now gone out again and won’t re-light.

Any idea what would be causing this?

[nancydavisParticipant]

I have the same question. Did someone found anything?

[phoneaplumberParticipant]

Consult your local Plumbing company so that you can get right advice from them.

[JamesbondyParticipant]

Best Options is that the You should be contact to Your Plumber or Plumbing Company. Because last 1 years you have replaced the thermocouple most time So my suggestion is Contact to your plumber.

[nicktheplumberParticipant]

Jamesbondy wrote:

Best Options is that the You should be contact to Your Plumber or Plumbing Company. Because last 1 years you have replaced the thermocouple most time So my suggestion is Contact to your plumber.

Agree. The behavior of the water heater suggests it is not suffering from just a bad thermocouple. I would guess that the thermostatic gas regulator (the box-like gadget attached to the bottom of your water tank) isn’t working properly. I’ve seen a few that behave this way that have sticky pistons that respond to the thermocouple plunger. This is not a user or plumber fixable item…if it’s bad it is best swapped out with a new one. But that would cost at least a hundred bucks, and since the OP’s water heater is more than 5 years old, he’d be better off installing a new heater.

Another cause of frequent thermocouple failures is misalignment of the pilot/thermocouple/burner assembly, leading to excessive heat exposure and early damage to the thermocouple tube.

[moopyParticipant]

There could be a multitude of reasons for this. You should ask a qualified gas professional to check the following.

Is there adequate working pressure at the gas appliance?

Is the gas valve working correctly?

Is the pilot light the correct length, color and playing on the thermocouple?

As the problem is intermittent he should ensure the gas pipe sizing to every appliance in the property is correct.

Also it would be useful if you could post close up pictures of the pilot assembly.

[Author]

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