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Water Heater died

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Jimbo_5
Jimbo_5 Member Posts: 218
in THE MAIN WALL
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.

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  • Zman
    Zman Member Posts: 7,569
    edited November 2016
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    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.
    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
    Albert Einstein
  • GW
    GW Member Posts: 4,695
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    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.
    Gary Wilson
    Wilson Services, Inc
    Northampton, MA
    gary@wilsonph.com
    delta T
  • Abracadabra
    Abracadabra Member Posts: 1,948
    edited November 2016
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    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
    kcopp
  • Zman
    Zman Member Posts: 7,569
    edited November 2016
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    Abracadabra said:

    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.
    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
    Albert Einstein
  • SWEI
    SWEI Member Posts: 7,356
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    Abracadabra said:

    Pilot will not stay lit with a faulty thermocouple

    Or a dirty pilot orifice.

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