Water Heater died

Jimbo_5

I'm at my daughter's house and they tried to give the baby a bath and had no hot water. She has gas, had hot water last night, I tried to relight the pilot, with no success. Could the thermocouple cause the pilot to not light?

It's an American Prominent flame guard.

Zman

The pilot will light if you have a bad thermocouple, it just won't stay lit.
A dirty pilot or a closed gas valve would be my first thoughts.

GW

explain more- the light went out when you let go of the button? You held it for a minute or so? Or- the pilot would not light at all? two different issues. It's rare for the pilot to get no gas. 9 times out of 10 it's the former and you need a new tcouple. If you have gas valve issues that would be rare.

Abracadabra

Zman said:

The pilot will light if you have a bad thermocouple, it just won't light the man burner.
A dirty pilot or a closed gas valve would be my first thoughts.

Pilot will not stay lit with a faulty thermocouple

Zman

Abracadabra said:

show previous quotes

Zman said:

The pilot will light if you have a bad thermocouple, it just won't light the man burner.
A dirty pilot or a closed gas valve would be my first thoughts.

Pilot will not stay lit with a faulty thermocouple

I agree, what I meant was it would light but not stay lit.
Thank you for noticing my error.

SWEI

Abracadabra said:

Pilot will not stay lit with a faulty thermocouple

Or a dirty pilot orifice.