On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:01:57 GMT, PaPaPeng wrote:

On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:34:48 -0700, "DonC"
wrote:


"PaPaPeng" wrote in message
. ..
On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 04:00:51 -0700, jim wrote:

Just a shot in the dark -- but it saved me years ago when I returned from
Florida late at night in the dead of winter to find my gas furnace had shut
down.

If your water heater was installed at the same time as your furnace --
assuming it was also gas fired -- it may well have the same thermocouple.
Mine did so I pirated it over to the furnace and headed off to bed. I
bought a new one the next day. But you situation may well be different.

Best of luck!


Actually that swap idea did occur to me. But its not that cold yet
(58 deg F in the house) where I have a problem - frozen house plants.
I can tolerate cold quite well. Anyway its off to the parts store for
now.


Went to two more places and they both have only the new "slim"
thermocouples. I'll be darned if I am going to drive across town in
the hope of finding an antique at probably double the price. So went
home. Cut out a rectangle from a food can. Drilled the appropriate
sized hole for the replacement thermocouple. Clipped that over the
existing holder and secured the clip with a small screw. Works like
a charm.

Should have thought of this originally but I am not that enthusiastic
about duct tape and bailing wire stuff anymore. Its a lot easier to
just buy the right stuff and replace.

To the Jeremiah's. The majority of house equipment problems are
simple problems requiring simple fixes. Use a bit of common sense to
get them running again. You don't have to go to get a university
degree to learn how to design and manufacture the darn things in order
to fix them. And when things go wrong don't tear apart the house to
find the problem. I have fixed everything from fine wind up watches
to that hernia box of a TV set, the electric organ, my car, the lawn
mower, plus much more. The fun is in figuring out how things work as
you go along and fix them. The worse that can happen is to toss them
out.