Pilot light stays lit, ignites to warm water, then goes out

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Mcclk

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I'll try to describe what I'm seeing as best I can. I'm leaning towards replacing the thermocouple, although I haven't been able to find any other forum that describes what's happening.

It's a tank, gas water heater with an electric starter.

1. Pilot light gets lit
2. Pilot stays on after releasing
3. Turned to on switch, stays light
4. Increase the heat, it "catches" or "ignites" once I turn the heat up enough
5. Stays lit for about 5 minutes
6. I can hear a noise which, I believe, is the heat going from being fully on, back to just having the pilot light lit (I'd describe it as the AC turning off in your house once the temp is reached)
7. Once the above step happens, the pilot light also turns off

What's strange is that if I don't turn the heat up (i.e. I keep it on low heat, see the first attached picture) the pilot light stays light.

Even more strange is that I can alternate between turning the heat up and catching (step 4) and turning the heat down to the point where it isn't burning to heat up the water, and the pilot light stays light (i.e. I can alternate between the first and second picture manually, and the pilot light does not go out). It's only when I leave it on the "B" heat rating, that it eventually goes out.

This is the starter I have - https://www.searspartsdirect.com/pr...8pwM7SNwz85HzJ0ExswlSavWOn4F09YRoCmXkQAvD_BwE

I tried to upload some pictures, but got a notification they are too large.
 

John Gayewski

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I think I would go thermocouple also. To me, it sounds like a full flame it's causing the thermocouple to break the connection to the gas valve.
 
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