Still Troubled by Whirlpool Water Heater

Users who are viewing this thread

Judith Sackett

New Member
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
0
I have had nothing but trouble with my Flame Lock Whirlpool Water Heater
since it's purchase in Dec 2002 from Lowe's. We did the standard thermocouple repair and replaced gas valve thermostat. That worked for a while. (See my original post Oct 12, 2003). That held through the winter. Summer came, temperatures rose and poof it won't stay lit again. I limped through the summer months, because my husband was in the hospital and I wasn't up to fighting with Whirlpool or Lowe's. He came home in September. Guess what, when the weather cooled down again the water heater would stay lit. We once again made it through the winter with no major pilot outages. Now it is summer again, guess what. As soon as the weather heated up and the temperature in the garage rose significantly the pilot began to go out daily during the hottest part of the day. If I went out into the garage very early in the morning when everything was cool, I could light the pilot. It would stay lit for a few hours -- long enough to provide hot water for showers. Now, a few weeks later it won't even stay lit more than a few minutes. I thinking that there is a connection between the excessive heat in the garage and the pilot's going out. I'm contemplating what I'm going to do next. I think, I'll try Lowe's. Replacing the unit probably won't solve anything since all new water heaters are required to have some kind of safety shut off and they probably all have problems. I'll let you know how it goes with Lowe's.
 

Master Plumber Mark

Sensitivity trainer and plumber of mens souls
Messages
5,533
Reaction score
354
Points
83
Location
indianapolis indiana - land of the free, home of
Website
www.weilhammerplumbing.com
get a refund

the Whirlpool flame lock water heaters are DOGS and someday will become
a national consumer lawsuit and recall...IMHO

the problem with them is they literally suffocate from
insufficient air comming into the bottom of the unit...

the air intake ysytem on the unit underneath it is a sealed wire
mesh screen about 5x10 long.....IT CANNOT BE SERVICED EITHER
it literally sort of works like a vaccuum sweeper literally sucking
all the hair, lint, soot, debris of every kind up into the bottom of it.

they were poorley designed and I feel that the
new expensive parts cannot stand the high heat
and or possibly soot levels that must
be happenning in the burner chamber.....

if that front seal is left loose it seems to get enough air,
but when you tighten it down and seal it off as it should be
the unit cannot take in enough air...through the intake under it.

their are literally hundreds of complaints on the internet about
this unit.....complaint station.com has hundreds


I have had to service these dogs over the past two years and
found the only way to remedy the problem is to open up the
sealed chamber and atempt to bang on the air intake and loosen up
the junk that is stuck to it...


then you got to get a wet-vac and suck it
out from under the unit so it dont jsut get sucked back into the
bottom again....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

we just took one out for a customer on Friday that was only
one year old.... it was sucking up laundry lint like a pig in gravey.


we installed a Bradford White unit for him after he fought lowes ......

Lowes gave him back his money and he is fighting them for his
installation charge too.

They DID GIVE HIM BACK HIS MONEY so get youself a better brand...

Get a Bradford white or a Rheem


Also, would you Please post a complaint on Planetfeedback about your troubless and checkout the complaints I got on my web site about these DOGS.


if you want to see what a dirty whirlpool flame lock screen
looks like go to my web site and scroll down to the bottom

look at pic #5
http://weilhammerplumbing.com/products/


good luck
 
Last edited:
Top
Hey, wait a minute.

This is awkward, but...

It looks like you're using an ad blocker. We get it, but (1) terrylove.com can't live without ads, and (2) ad blockers can cause issues with videos and comments. If you'd like to support the site, please allow ads.

If any particular ad is your REASON for blocking ads, please let us know. We might be able to do something about it. Thanks.
I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks