I think you're right. I'm replacing the water heater today. The valve costs
$77, the water heater costs $202. Math wins! Thanks a lot for your response!

Art...............


"mwlogs" wrote in message
...
My thought is that it would take a pretty strong 'gust' to blow out the
pilotlight, particularly if it's just suddenly started happening and you
haven't been having unusually strong winds.

My bet is it's the valve. The thermocouple itself could cause this, but
generally they are either good or they aren't, and since you've eliminated
that as a possibility (good choice since they are cheap and easily
replaced)
I'd vote that you need to replace the valve.

You don't say how old the tank is, and I don't know the price a a valve,
but
if the tank is getting old, you might want to compare the price of a new
tank to the price of the valve.


"art" wrote in message
news
I'm at my wit's end with this. About 5 days ago, the pilot light on my
water
heater blew out. I reli t it. Lasted one day. Blew out again. Pulled out
the
burner assembly, replaced the thermocouple. Relit it. Lasted 15 hours.
Blew
out again. Took out the burner assembly, cleaned everything in sight ..
pilot lasted around 8 hours. There are no new entrways for drafts so I
don't
think its a draft issue...but to be on the safe side I stuffed every
potential air leaking crack.

I tend no to think it's a chimney issue as I've got a boiler also on
that
chimney and I have no problem with the boiler. The draft on the chimney
is
excellent. I'm down to two theories....one is the gas valve. Is this a
realistic issue? I've checked to see what happens when I go from full on
to
pilot and back to full on and back to pilot and back to full on. It goes
back and forth on each setting with no problem. The second explanatiion
might be the "popping" effect that sometimes comes with gas abruptly
shutting off....perhaps it's possible that the gas is now "popping" when
it
turns back to pilot and the force of the "pop" blows out the pilot.
Any and all suggestions gratefully received!

Thanks........Art


email to (Leave out NOSPAM when replying)