Whirlpool hot water heater

[Oggie]

I replaced our leaking water heater with a propane Whirlpool heater a little more than a year ago.

It's stopped working. Apparently the thermal coupler is defective. There have been a bunch of complaints about these heaters. There's a class action lawsuit pending.

They have a safety feature that is supposed to shut the burner down if flamable fumes are detected. Well, now ours is shutting down all the time.

Anyone have any insight?

I'm thinking about taking my lumps and just replacing the whole unit.

[DAVID In Wisconsin]

On most gas appliances, a thermocouple is very cheap and very easy to replace. Often times, the thermocouple just needs to be tightened a bit.

[Siryet]

Originally Posted by Oggie

I replaced our leaking water heater with a propane Whirlpool heater a little more than a year ago.

It's stopped working. Apparently the thermal coupler is defective. There have been a bunch of complaints about these heaters. There's a class action lawsuit pending.

They have a safety feature that is supposed to shut the burner down if flamable fumes are detected. Well, now ours is shutting down all the time.

Anyone have any insight?

I'm thinking about taking my lumps and just replacing the whole unit.

I would just call the place I where purchased it and explain that I am having a serious problem with their product and ask what to do as you are afraid their product might cause an explosion and hurt or kill people.
Propane is very dangerous and the unit should not be messed with by any one other than a competent technician.

Also a water heater is explosive enough if it does explode it will take out your house.

A word to the wise...........

[Oggie]

Originally Posted by Siryet

I would just call the place I where purchased it and explain that I am having a serious problem with their product and ask what to do as you are afraid their product might cause an explosion and hurt or kill people.
Propane is very dangerous and the unit should not be messed with by any one other than a competent technician.

Also a water heater is explosive enough if it does explode it will take out your house.

A word to the wise...........

Here's the problem: I bought the product at Lowes.

The first burner unit was defective. So, I took the burner into the store. They said that they did not service the heaters or sell parts for the heater.
I would have to bring the entire appliance in for a refund or exchange.

So I drained the newly-installed heated. Uninstalled it and took it back to Lowes. Here's where I screwed up: I exchanged it for another. I should have got my money and bought something else.

The heater worked great for a year, but now, it's dead in the water (well, actually dead around the water).

The other time I screwed up is when we received some legal papers about the class action suit. We could have joined at that time. We didn't because the heater was working.

So, I'll probably try fiddling with it to see if I can get it to work again, But, it's in a house that we are selling and It wouldn't really be right to pass a rigged and potentially soon-to-be-broken heater off to the next owner.

Perhaps I should pay the extra money and buy a heater from a plumbing supply house that has parts and support for the products. But, it's always a trade-off. Do you go to the big box store and pay less, but hope it doesn't break? Or do you pay more at a place with support when you might not ever need it?

Oh, and my wife found this on the Web: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeo...r_heaters.html

A site filled with complaints about the heaters.

[gccrook]

Exactly why I refused to buy one. I ended up buying a GE at Home Depot, although I'm not really sure they are much better, they seem to have fewer complaints.

[Windy in Kansas]

A thermocouple can last for years or it can go out at any time. I wouldn't ditch the entire unit because of a thermocouple.

As was already stated they are rather inexpensive, probably $10 at the most, however someone will have to install it. Pretty much a do it yourself job with minimal skill. Changing the thermocouple on many units does not involve dealing with a gas connection.

Thermocouples hold the gas valve open allowing gas flow until a pilot light fails to heat it or it fails then the gas valve shuts into a closed position thus stopping the flow of gas.

If you can find the milliamp rating of the thermocouple you can heat it and test it with a meter to see if it is at fault.

As stated sometimes a thermocouple fitting can be tightened where it enters the gas valve connection allowing it to properly work again. One can sometimes clean the end that goes into the gas valve to allow it to send the electrical signal once again.

Also turning up the pilot light flame might be an option as is repositioning the unit in the flame. Sometimes there is a carbon buildup that can be knocked off and the unit will work again. A lot depends on how much you want to work at finding a failure cause and fixing it temporarily or with a new one.

[WayneR]

As has been stated earlier, a thermocouple is usually easy to replace.

Your unit is probably like EVERYTHING made now. All of the controls,sensors,valve,etc. are connected to a computer, surounded by rock hard epoxy

Difficult for a "non-professional" to diagnose or repair

[Stephen in SOKY]

My State brand heater has the same issues. Although more expensive, the quality is low. Just mentioning to save other folks the frustration.

[Sand Flat Bob]

Originally Posted by Oggie

I replaced our leaking water heater with a propane Whirlpool heater a little more than a year ago.

It's stopped working. Apparently the thermal coupler is defective. There have been a bunch of complaints about these heaters. There's a class action lawsuit pending.

They have a safety feature that is supposed to shut the burner down if flamable fumes are detected. Well, now ours is shutting down all the time.

Anyone have any insight?

I'm thinking about taking my lumps and just replacing the whole unit.

I have purchased a Electric whirlpool from Lowes. I did a lot of investigating. All new propane units are having trouble with the thermal couple. The new Federal regulations are causing the trouble. With the electric, you need very good grounding and lots of surge suppressors or you will burn out the micro processor with lightning or other surges.

Also all the water heaters, GE, Whirpool etc. are made by the same company. Just minor controls and labels are changed. Only one exception is the Marathon that is sold by Utility companies. Will never leak as they don't have a metal tank. But be ready to pay over $800 for it.

Bob

[tamsam]

Have you tried cleaning the burner unit. If the pilot will light and burn you may have a cobweb or dust in the burner. Our propane heater after setting will knock off and after cleaning works fine. Sam

[roc-n-goats]

I take care of 120 plus apts. half are gas hot water heaters.
the whirlpool gas model is what i use most.

here's what I've learned.

The thermocouple is not real easy to replace.
The new units have sealed sides and draw air for combustion from the bottom.
The holes in the bottom plug up easy and overheats the thermocouple-
burn out!
I've drilled the holes out bigger and have knocked the sight glass out on the side for more air--solved my burn outs.

Thats my experience and I'm not saying you should do this.

I called the 800 number on the tank and got a return number from whirlpool
and got replacement thermocouples--they cost $15 plus to buy.

They do last about 1 year without these "adjustments", last alot longer
with them.
Whirlpool does supply a filter to wrap around the bottom of hot water heater, but is alot of trouble to fit right.

Hope this helps.

Bruce

[Oggie]

Here's an update:

I decided to go into the big city (Oklahoma City) and see what anappliace parts place could do for me. I pulled the burner assembly because I was having trouble finding a parts number.

The second I walked in the door, the guy at the counter said, "I hope that's not a Whirlpool." They stock parts for almost every Whirlpool appliance except water heaters. The thermocouple assembly has to be ordered by the consumer directly from Whirlpool.

Given all that I've heard about Whirlpool, I decided to get a non-big-name appliance company water heater from a plumbing supply house. Half a day later, it's up and running.

My nose is still a little out of joint and I probably won't buy any Whirlpool again and I'll think twice (or more) about buying an appliance from Lowes. They just don't offer much support after the sale.

[lwj2]

Check your paperwork, most of the HWHs I've seen at Lowes have at least a three year warranty.

The one I purchased from them two years ago had a nine year warranty, I purchased an extended warranty to take it to 17 years.

Originally Posted by Oggie

I replaced our leaking water heater with a propane Whirlpool heater a little more than a year ago.

It's stopped working. Apparently the thermal coupler is defective. There have been a bunch of complaints about these heaters. There's a class action lawsuit pending.

They have a safety feature that is supposed to shut the burner down if flamable fumes are detected. Well, now ours is shutting down all the time.

Anyone have any insight?

I'm thinking about taking my lumps and just replacing the whole unit.

[HermitJohn]

Does this water heater have some unique kind of thermocouple? All those little unvented space heaters have some oddball metric thermocouple, but everything else I've run across uses standard universal thermocouple that costs like $5 at any hardware store depending on length needed. Last propane water heater I replaced for guy was like 3 years ago and it was just standard propane water heater like has been sold since I can remember, no sealed access and no computer chips. By way those universal thermocouples arent necessarily good even off store shelf. I've bought more than a couple that were DOA. Generally pays to buy two even if you only need one just so you dont immediately have to make a return trip.