😆 have you given her reason not to trust you? Kidding. It's very safe and simple. Shut off the gas and check for leaks when you turn it back on. It has rotten egg smell for that reason.
I just paid my plumber to do this for $400 and it was still not working, he told me i needed to order a new heater. I watched this, and it took me 20 minutes and now it works fine 😕
Glad to help you, sorry you got bamboozled by your plumber. That's one reason why I love fixing as much stuff as I can, and learning how to do it myself. Even if I break something or do it wrong. 👍🏼 good job for fixing it.
Also, you may consider leaving them an unfavorable review on yelp/facebook or online somewhere. Sounds like they run a sloppy business at best and are lying thieves taking advantage of people at worse. People should be aware. $400 is thievery for what they did (or didn't do). Plus trying to sell you a new heater too.
Lucky you. I did this and the burner plate is not lighting... the gas works. You can smell it when you drain it. It ignites up. But the burner plate itself does not catch fire.... please why?
@@HandymanHertz Not sure why this says I commented hours ago because I commented this last week lol. I been restarting it every morning ever since. I've got a plumber coming out to check and an electrician to check the house the next day because I also lost power in half the house 3 days before the water heater(which is gas lol). Everything is failing all at once. I inherited my older parent's house and it seems everything wants to just stop all at once. Because 3 weeks before the water heater(gas) was the gas oven pilot light. Edit: I'm severely at a loss without the money to hire all these people to check everything.. is there anyway I can DM you or text or email to get information for the next hour to ask questions I'm concerned about?(this will be deleted in an hour)
Didn’t have hot water at midnight. Came across your video about an hour of looking into it and thanks to your video we have hot water again! Very much appreciated! Thank you!
Thank you so much! Very helpful. Just got off from a "repairman" who just took a quick look, without even showing any effort toward repair, and said you need a new heater, and started giving me numbers for a new heater. Immediately I realized his bullshit and asked him to leave. I started doing my own research and got here. I can't thank you enough. You saved me a whole lot of trouble and probably thousands of dollars.
Had same problem. Followed the video. Cleaned up the thermocouple nicely as instructed. No change. Replaced thermocouple, still no change. Pilot dies out when I release the red button on top, no matter how long I allow the pilot light to heat the thermocouple. Looking for next part to check. Ideas?
make sure the flame is touching the thermocouple. If it is and you replaced it already, I wonder if it's a a bad gas valve. Not exactly sure how they work, but I would think the voltage isn't tripping the gas valve. Maybe check the voltage at the end of the thermocouple with the flame on it, and google what the millivolts is required for you type?
Your video just saved our butts man! Thank you! Gf tried to take a shower and said there was no hot water… found the pilot out but gas to the furnace. Could not get the pilot to stay lit and your video got us going! We are in CO and it’s been in the 10s all day and have a baby on top of that. Thanks for making this and helping others.
Thanks! That means a lot! We worked hard on this one. My buddy is taking over the editing. we are amateurs, but hoping each video gets a little better in some way. 👍🏼
This solution worked for me. My pilot light kept on going out after multiple attempts. I’ve had to do this in the past with other RU-vid vids, but I found this video to be straightforward and easy to understand.
Plumber wanted to charge $650 to try and change out possible 3 issues (lighter, gas tubing, sensor) and it wasn’t guaranteed to work. Or replace the whole thing with a new heater with labor and haul away of old one $2600! Sir you just saved me so much $$$, THANK YOU 🙏🏽
I have two hot water heaters side by side and they both went out. I tried to restart them. No mater how long is hold the red button down the second i release it the pilot light goes out. This is on both of them. I guess ill try this and see tomorrow.
In my situation I can light the pilot and it stays on. Then I set the desired water temperature. It heats up water but when the water temperature drops( after some time) and it should turn on automatically, but it does not. It appears the pilot light is off. For some reason the pilot light goes off after the first cycle of heating. I am completely puzzled. Do you have any idea why that can be? Thanks!
I think I can help you. This is exactly what happened to me on when I made this video…the pilot would light and stay lit, but after if heated up the water, the main burner AND the pilot light would go off. So, for several days, anytime we wanted hot water for laundry or a shower, I would have to go start the water heater 30 minutes beforehand. I cleaned up the thermocouple real good, and it worked. You can replace it too easily and cheap. Hope this helps!
Thanks for the video!!! Worked perfectly. Luckily our local ace hardware store had competent employees and I purchased a complete pilot assembly replacement kit. I tried the first option to clean the thermo coupling it didn't work. I'm very happy as I only spent $50 for the kit. Way way less then a service/repair visit from the repair man!
Great! Glad you got it fixed! Yeah, an honest plumber would have charged $200+/-, And a dishonest plumber would have told you to replace the whole hot water heater $1,000 +/-
thank god for modern tech i was never taught any of this maintenance stuff thank god for people like you cuz otherwise owning and maintaining a house would be a thousand time more expensive
Literally saved my family $1,200 for a new water heater + installation. I tried cleaning my old thermocouple, but still didn't work. The wire appeared to be broken right where the probe begins. Bought a new one from Ace for $10 and instantly fixed the problem after replacing it. God bless you!
Great! Glad to hear you saved a lot of money! If you'd like to show your appreciation more, I do have venmo/cashapp/paypal in the description. No pressure...Either way, I'm glad you got it fixed!
So I have that exact HW heater and thermocouple/ pilot assembly. I replaced the assembly this time last year. After replacing everything still no joy. Solution : My intake and exhaust were clogged with lint and dirt. (Tank is in the garage next to the dryer.) Blew everything out with my compressor. And this is the longest it’s ran so far.
I have the same exact water heater and I sanded the thermocouple but it's still going out. It will stay lit when I light it but then after a couple minutes and it's not calling for heat anymore the pilot goes out. Maybe I need a new burner assembly? Or you think just a new thermocouple will work?
I would first mess around with your current thermal couple and make sure the flame is hitting it directly. If it's only partially hitting it, it can be fickle. Then, I would change the thermal couple. I doubt it would be your burner assembly, especially since it works until it loses a pilot light.
Hey Tim , I’ve replaced the gas control valve and the thermocouple assembly. All works well for the first thirty minutes and then the pilot light and burner both turn off. I was able to get everything working one time to where it would get to temperature , burner would turn off, and the pilot light would stay on. It would cycle through again and then shut everything off. Any ideas.? Also awesome video , I wish I would of tried this first 😅. Cheers buddy.
Howdy! Hmm...my first thought would be to double check that the flame is hitting the new thermocouple. You could test the voltage on the opposite end of the flame sensor if you wanted. I would then check to see if your little vent is plugged on the bottom (it needs to suck in air easily or it will be turbulent, causing the flame to go out. Another thing I would wonder is if you have a leak in your chimney or some sort of draft coming down and blowing out your pilot light. But if you can't even get it to stay lit, this isn't an issue probably. Maybe you could clean out the pilot light gas tube… Maybe some ants blocked it or a bug is in it and not allowing enough? You see All sorts of random things. I would look to your gas control valve… But you already replaced that, so no need. Let me know if any of that helps. They are pretty simple machines… At least most of them if they are like my model.
The gas water heater that I was trying to fix looks very similar to the one you were working on actually.! AO Smith , about 20 years old. I replaced the whole igniter , pilot tube , and thermocouple assembly. As well as the gas valve. I suppose I will need to double check that the thermocouple didn’t get bent or something whenever I was reinstalling it and then test the voltage. The vent on the bottom is nice and clean. I took a peak at that while I was cleaning around the pan to check for leaks. I can check for a backdraft through the chimney , that’s not a bad idea either. You’ve given me plenty of food for thought though. Thanks for the reply , I’ll keep you updated if I find anything out. God bless.!
Hello there, just wanted to let you know that we resolved the issue buddy.! I took the assembly back out and double checked everything. It looked in order so I put it back in and tested it. Like magic it worked again. I believe you were onto the issue with the pilot light not being on the thermocouple properly. I think it was just crooked when I installed it the first time and the flame wasn’t covering majority of the thermocouple. Good looking out sir.! Thank you very much.
This didn't work for me. Replaced the thermocouple--buying two of the same to verify the first wasn't the problem. The pilot lights, but as soon as I depress the pilot button it goes out. This is an older model, doesn't have a separate igniter switch. Natural gas, normal vent water heater. Model: MI403S6EN12 Serial: XD3905353
This is common when installing a new thermocouple. Most of the time it seems this is due to the flame not hitting the the thermocouple properly. I would adjust it and see if that works. Also, make sure you hold down the pilot for a minute or so while the thermal couple heats up and starts sending voltage. Hope this helps.
@@HandymanHertz thank you! I've tried adjusting and cleaning both thermocouple. I bought two thermocouples and they both stayed lit when first lit for about 2 hours. Then they go out, and will light again, but when releasing the pilot button, it just goes out. Maybe the valve itself? I took it apart and found nothing dirty or clogged. Still no luck. The water heater is at least 12 years old. Time for a new one?
@JoJoJonnSinn it does sound like the gas valve may be the issue. If you want to make sure, you can test what voltage is coming from the thermal couple on the end… I think it's 20 mV, but you may Google it just to verify. 12 years is on borrowed time, but a lot of mine have lasted 20+ years in my properties. If it were me, I would replace it, as those gas valves aren't the cheapest things either. You'd hate to pile money into it just to have your tank rust out next year or something. Sorry I couldn't give you a more easy answer.
@JoJoJonnSinn one other possibility is it could be a draft coming through and blowing out the pilot. I don't know if you have windows open for the nice spring air coming through or something that would blow the pilot light out? Just a thought. I've even heard of downdrafts coming down the chimney and blowing it out 🤷♂️
@JoJoJonnSinn sorry, I had another thought. Maybe the tube that carries the gas to the pilot light is partially clogged, and limiting the flow of gas to the pilot light?
Im doing this process exactly as you show in this amazing video i hope i dont land on the moon so if you hear a nuclear bomb go off and see a UFO thanks for everything you are the bomb ma
There's only been one of those that I came across. That's been like that in my experience. I ended up leaving it connected and was able to work around it. But if I were you, I would use a flare nut wrench. To get a good grip on it. What brand is it? I believe mine was an Bradford white. Not sure if they put licorice in it or what? I've also searched a lot of the Plumbing forums to see what they did, and didn't remember finding a solution at the time. Let me know what you find out, I'm curious to know.
I just put a thermocouple on a gas water heater and it lit and stayed lit, but I don’t think it was the right one for that water heater. Do I have anything to worry about?
Nope, I don't see any reason why. The only job of the thermocouple is to send voltage. The longer ones may take longer to send, but once they do you're good to go!
Should have taken sandpaper/wire brush and reached in and knocked off any rust on bottom of tank. You should have thought "hey where did the rust come from that was on the burner assembly? " Maybe the next video you make will be servicing the anode rod .
Interesting suggestion. Personally, since water heaters die mostly from rusted out tanks (in our area, at least) I'm not going to mess with an already leaking tank with abrasives. What do you mean servicing the anode rod? I have a video on replacing the anode rod...
@HandymanHertz I don't know what state you're in or water quality, I would bet you, check THAT tank, and that anode rod is desolved (gone) henceforth the reason you had THAT much rust. The sharp businessman would crack open the cap at the top and visually inspect the anode rod (with customer) and as needed, sell them an anode rod job and/or advise them that the W.heater is on its way out. The customer will then discover your compentcy and concern for their upcoming hot water issue. Tape your business card on the side of the heater , they will remember to call YOU back , when the time comes. "Building LOYAL customers , one customer at a time"
@@jamesborton9237 yup, sound advice, go over and above and build quality, loyal customers 👍🏼 one note: if the anode rod is dissolved and ineffective, it would rust the tank out from the inside, not the outside. And the outside is where rust was dropping into the burner.
I changed thermocouple but once I like my like my thumb off the control valve it the pilot will go out it does not stay lit no matter how long I hold it it will not remain lit
GSW only 2 years old. Pilot light stays on but as soon as i turn valve to low or high i get a backfire. Any ideas? Chimney is clear. Maybe the filter needs cleaning?
Oh, a backfire? Interesting. I've never ran across that. It almost seems like the burners are not aligned with the pilot light, so the burners put on gas, but it takes a while for it to ignite and once it does it poofs? That's my guess, maybe someone else can jump in here with that experience.
@@HandymanHertz thanks 🙃 I just pulled assembly out and cleaned burner and thermopile. Neither one in bad shape, but now its heating water. 🤷♂️. I’ll take it.
What do you do if you've removed the gas line, thermocoupler line and then the nut for the main burner tube, but when you start jiggling the main burner tube to release itself, it simply cannot be pulled down and away enough to release itself from the hole?
I may have two issues. A.O. Smith ProMax waterheater. J06J018610 Suddenly, had no hot water. Everything looked good. Turned red selector on top off. Turnd counterclockwise to piolet. Turned temp selector to piolet. Hit sparker several times. Could not see spark in little window. Tried several times. Red button seemed to pop-up Tried to turn top red selector clockwise to off. Could not turn red button to off position. Where do I go from here?
Hi thanks for the video. I have the same exact thermocouple but unfortunately mine is broke. All the replacements I've seen or have been told will work from parts departments do not have that black battery looking piece. I can only find it on amazon. What is it and is it not needed? Can I replace it with a regular thermocouple? I did a temp solder to make sure that was my issue and the water heater worked fine so i know its the thermocouple. Thanks
@FishingWithZach oh, ok. I know what you're talking about and I wondered what that was too. I'm not sure what that is. I bought the whole kit on Amazon that came with it.
Great! Glad to hear you saved a lot of money! If you'd like to show your appreciation more, I do have venmo/cashapp/paypal in the description. No pressure...Either way, I'm glad you got it fixed!
I got a new full assembly, and still having the same results. Polite comes on, but goes out as soon as the release the pilot. Possibly the Main burner is no good, even though it looks good. Even the parts guy I went to thought the Main burner was good.
Well....woke up this morning to cold water for my wife and two boys. I just followed the video instructions and my light is staying lit and heating the water! God bless you sir!
I can't get my thermocouple nut off or my main tube nut off either. My thermocouple one is kinda rounded. I'm at a loss. I can't afford a plumber soooooo ya....... help please!
I've replaced the whole burner assembly and the control board. At least the board functions now. Before it wasn't readint it was lit. Now i will hold it & it goes to overheat light flash. Everything was clean. Still not working I'm literally gonna give up now.
My water heater says something about replacing the gasket if you remove the burner assembly behind the cover. Is that really necessary? I just replaced my igniter and my pilot won't stay lit, so I'm assuming this is my problem. I also want to add that my water heater is only 2-3 years old and is a Rheem. I shouldn't have rust yet. I think it is the thermocouple.
Excelkent video! I was looking for something like this to show a friend how to fix his. Thank you ! Thumbs up. Question: Why would you heat hot water? Its already hot. Isnt it just a "water heater" ?
Also, I've replaced my polot assembly and it still wont stay lit. I'm thinking it could be the sensor (black fuse looking thing) on the thermocouple, but this is the 2nd thermocouple I've tried. How do I test it if its brand new? I may try cleaning the old one like you show in this video to see if it stays on with it.
Thank you! Great video, well voiced and well edited! Appreciate your time and effort to put this out. Boo to all the pedantic people and their comments about hot water heater vs water heater. Good grief! Get a life people! This guy just helped hundreds if not thousands of people save a lot of money, time, and effort to continue having hot water for their families. Well done sir!
Thank you! I do not let Internet comment Trolls affect me one bit. They have no credibility, and are likely people whose opinion I would not respect anyways. Thanks for your comment, glad you liked the video
Thanks brother! While I still plan on getting a new water heater I didn't really want to do it last night. While I knew the thermocouple was probably the problem, this tank is also 20 years old. I wasn't going to mess with it until you said your tank is 19 years old. Gave me the hope to try it instead of installing a new tank starting at 6 pm yesterday. Glad I saw your vid and that you mentioned 19 years!
Glad I could help! I know it's old, but I am of the mindset if it's not broke, don't fix it. Especially if you maintain it, by changing out the anode rod and flushing it, it should last a while I would hope. 👍🏼
Thank you for this! Worked like a charm. My roommate and I have had so many things break this week, it was really helpful to be able to handle this ourselves with just a bit of sandpaper we had on hand. Cheers bud.
you say use water and soap to check for gas but how? Kinda left that ambiguous but it would be helpful to see a demonstration. I guess put soap in water and smear it around the gas line attachment and then check for bubbles to see if there is a leek?
What if the point where the gas released for the full flame has "moved up" It now doesnt turn on until it reaches A (passed the arrow)? Is there an adjustment that needs to be made?
Very well explained. Detailed and easy to understand as well. Is it ok to use compressor to blow carbon rust from the burner assembly. Many thanks for the video.
Nice, glad it worked for you! If it gives you more troubles, maybe look into making sure the pilot light is hitting the thermal couple properly. This is common when reassembling that it gets bumped.
hi great video I was thinking about the same solution before I found your video because I did the same procedure for years to my furnace and actually I have taken out the burner assembly right now and stop because I found a piece of twisted metal plate that fell down from the exhaust center of the heater do you know what that is and do I have to replace the whole heater? appreciate any advice
Hi, I believe the spiral metal piece is your flu baffle/heat exchanger. I do not know if you need to replace it, but I do know you need a functioning flu. I’ve never heard of chunks of the baffle falling out. my concern would be if the top pieces are falling, it may clog the flu, and not sucking the fumes up the chimney correctly
The thermocouple tip needs to be touching/immersed in the pilot flame. The flame will heat up the thermocouple, sending enough voltage to allow the burner to kick on. Let me know if that works or not.
Great video! This worked after cleaning it twice, I decided to try cleaning it a second time before the hardware store opened and just needed an extra sand with sanding pad instead of paper.
Great! Glad to hear it. sometimes The flame doesn't hit the sensor when it's reinstalled, so if it gives you issues, that might be something to look at as well 👍🏼
Awesome video. Very detailed. My water heater is giving me problems with the pilot light and this seems like a logical answer as to why. My heater looks different from yours, mine does not include an igniter or the faceplate where the tubes travel through. Also mine has a blanket wrapped around and foil taped to it making it hard to see the make and model. Not entirely sure what to buy to replace the thermocouple. I believe this is the original water heater that was installed in the house by the previous owner back in 2003.
Thanks for watching! I would assume you would need a generic one like in the packages I showed in the video from Honeywell. I’d say of all of the hot water heaters I’ve worked on, my style is more rare. But I’d look to make sure. It should be an easy fix if you can get to it. You can search for a thermal couple video that will show you how to replace that specific kind you have. Good luck to you.
I had a water heater that shared a 2 story vent with the furnace. If the air in the vent had cooled and was filled with cold air, the draft inducer on the furnace would blow back down the water heater vent and blow out the pilot light. Adding an electronic igniter to the water heater solved the problem by reigniting the pilot flame whenever it did not sense the flame.
This really helped me. I cleaned the thermocouple, I was holding the button down for 5-6 minutes, and it was going out immediately, after cleaning it and reassembling it, I held it down for 5 seconds, and it stayed on long enough. Thank you. There was a burnt up rubber gasket around the compartment that I couldn't do anything with, will this be a problem?
Glad it helped! It it's the small one like in my video, I wouldn't worry at all about it unless you have gusts of wind, like in a garage or something that can blow the pilot light out.
This video is so helpful, im actually changing mine out tomorrow & had no idea how to do so until now. Definitely going to try clearing it first. Very informative, thanks.😌🤘🏻
Thanks for posting this. I do have a question. My issue is with the burner as it doesn’t turn on. The pilot light stays lit and the status light is normal. It blinks once every 3 seconds but the burner is out. I took out the whole burner assembly cleaned it and also cleaned the thermocouple like you did in the video. Put the burner assembly back and the burner won’t stay on. Took the whole assembly out once again and this time replaced the thermocouple. Put the assembly back with the new thermocouple. Now the pilot won’t stay lit and the status light does NOT come on at all. No blinks or anything. Just completely out. The pilot light goes out after I let go of the dial knob. I hope you could help me out. Thanks again.
I may be able to help. If the pilot light does light, but doesn’t stay lit (after holding it for 1 minutes) you need to adjust the thermocouple position so the flame hits it properly. Im confused… does the burner turn on or just turn on for a while? Also, your gas valve should have a code on what the blinking lights mean. What code does it read?
@@HandymanHertz I tested the thermocouple which is rated at 750mv with a voltmeter and it is reading at 649mv. My question is, is that enough voltage that it is getting to send that little current to the solenoid to open it up to let the gas flow to the burner to turn it on? Because that’s my issue, I don’t think the motherboard is detecting that current that the thermocouple is sending. How much voltage does the thermocouple need to send to the motherboard to open up the gas valve? So just to be clear I’m able to light up the pilot light. After holding it for 90 seconds, I get no blinking from the status light indicator. So as soon as I let go of the dial knob, the pilot light goes out.
@ktp0913 it sounds like you have a bad gas valve to me. The new ones go bad more often than I’d like in our rental houses. I like the old mechanical ones without the blinking codes. Your thermocouple (technically called thermopile if it puts out that many mV) should be putting out enough mV to open the pilot tube solenoid for the pilot light to stay on. (If pilot isn’t on, main burner won’t turn on either) I looked at a few forums online and I think it’s a bad control valve. I would try tapping it on the bottom with pliers, you may get lucky. Sorry I couldn’t help you more
I’ve heard, but never experienced, that some have right handed threads, so maybe try going the other way. If that doesn’t work, you may need a flared nut wrench and just give it some power. If you’re afraid of busting the whole gas valve, use some sort of hold back on it as you loosen it. it may be partly seized on there, but I would make sure it’s not a right handed thread first. I’m curious to know what you find.
Hi, My husband did everything on your video. It was dirty! He cleaned it as instructed and the pilot stayed on most of the day and heated the water too. By nighttime, we checked and the pilot had gone out again. Please advise next steps. Replace Thermocoupler? Thank you!
I wasn't able to easily get the bolts unscewed, unlike what's shown. I finalky got it loose, but the tool bent the line. The wires on mine don't seem to have any way to be undone. Went to next step but trying to get the screw loose is impossible. I start to smell gas even though the gas is off. There are two valves on mine, one is red, one is yellow. Do I turn both off. This seems so easy but it would be helpful to see the tools needed or have tips for getting these bolts loose!
Hmmm it seems like one time I ran into this. I couldn’t get the bolt loos without ruining something…just too much torque required. I believe I took off the cover (where the site glass is) off in two pieces and left the burner in and just replaced the thermocouple by reaching in there. I don’t remember what brand but that nut didn’t want to come off, just like yours. That’s only happened to me once.
