Suburban water heater will not keep heating
I have a Suburban ten gallon water heater which is just over one year old. (It was a replacement). Suddenly, it quit working. I have replaced the gas valve unit, the high temp thermostat unit, and the...
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OK guys. Consider me properly scolded.
In my defense, the very first thing I looked for was a thermocouple. I have fixed gas water heaters for for friends and family for over fifty years, and every thermocouple I have ever seen had a wire heading out to it. I confess I have always been baffled by two way current. For a similar sixty years, I have never been able to understand how an automobile could be negative ground at a nominal twelve volts (which in these days is actually around fourteen volts) and have a coil with a positive ground at 24 to 48 thousand volts going in the opposite direction through the same car frame.
The thermocouple thing was precisely what I was looking for in the first place, but quickly crossed off due to the only wire that led out of the burn chamber was the spark wire.
A bit of burnishing and the problem was solved. Thank you.
Had I checked with you first, we could have saved nearly three weeks of heating wash water on the stove.
And as for the 2 year warranty, there is a back story to that. When the original water heater went out, I ordered a new one from Amazon for a great price. It was gas/electric. When it came, there was damage to the box and while the box was clearly marked gas/electric, the water heater was gas only. I complained to Amazon and they sent me another water heater in another damaged box. Same markings, same gas only. My presumption was that some clever souls were buying two water heaters and switching the boxes and sending the gas only back in the gas/electric boxes. I tried to work it out with Amazon, but their customer service could not get it. The price was still good for me, even without the electric function which we had hardly used in the first place. I kept one and sent the other back. Under those circumstances, not knowing what was going on with the original heaters, I knowingly elected to eat the guarantee and fix the thing myself.
Anyway, again, thank you.
In my defense, the very first thing I looked for was a thermocouple. I have fixed gas water heaters for for friends and family for over fifty years, and every thermocouple I have ever seen had a wire heading out to it. I confess I have always been baffled by two way current. For a similar sixty years, I have never been able to understand how an automobile could be negative ground at a nominal twelve volts (which in these days is actually around fourteen volts) and have a coil with a positive ground at 24 to 48 thousand volts going in the opposite direction through the same car frame.
The thermocouple thing was precisely what I was looking for in the first place, but quickly crossed off due to the only wire that led out of the burn chamber was the spark wire.
A bit of burnishing and the problem was solved. Thank you.
Had I checked with you first, we could have saved nearly three weeks of heating wash water on the stove.
And as for the 2 year warranty, there is a back story to that. When the original water heater went out, I ordered a new one from Amazon for a great price. It was gas/electric. When it came, there was damage to the box and while the box was clearly marked gas/electric, the water heater was gas only. I complained to Amazon and they sent me another water heater in another damaged box. Same markings, same gas only. My presumption was that some clever souls were buying two water heaters and switching the boxes and sending the gas only back in the gas/electric boxes. I tried to work it out with Amazon, but their customer service could not get it. The price was still good for me, even without the electric function which we had hardly used in the first place. I kept one and sent the other back. Under those circumstances, not knowing what was going on with the original heaters, I knowingly elected to eat the guarantee and fix the thing myself.
Anyway, again, thank you.
