# State/AOSmith WH sight glass broken



## klempner

Customer had no hot water. he went up into attic to check. two side by side 11 year old State WHs. sight glass on one of the two shattered. some glass fragments inside. some outside. pilot out on both. I have not gone out to his house yet. Called State/AOS: they have never heard of this happening before. They advised complete new burner assembly, or replace WH, but am hesitant to do anything until i know what caused it. I was certain State/AOS would know. i prefer not replacing things after which problem still persists--looks bad.

It WAS the hottest two or three days of the year, and homeowner says he had been hearing a mysterious noise for several days--that of "a plastic trashcan being drug down the driveway."

HO relit the one that still had an intact sight glass, which went out several more times (coinciding with the really hot temperatures--104-105), and then (coinciding with cooler temperatures--97-98), pilot has remained lit. the WH with broken sight glass is still out of commission.

i'm well aware that a hot attic can starve the pilot, and that's what i'm assuming for now, since it's stayed lit for 4 of 5 days now. but would like to know what might have caused the sight glass to break on the second WH.

Anyone have any ideas?

I'm well aware that State/AOS have dirty inlet screen issues, which is the main reason i switched to Rheem about 4 or 5 years ago, but in all the years i've had to deal with State/AOS/Whirlpool, NEVER has cleaning the air inlet screen been the solution to the problem. 100% of the time, the problem persisted until i replaced a part. Not saying that dirty screen is not the cause sometimes.

i have no insight as to the relevance of the plastic trashcan dragging noise.

HO says there is zero chance someone damaged the glass.


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## BOBBYTUCSON

Most likely from factory and nobody noticed until now


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## wyrickmech

Just replace the sight glass and fire it up. Watch it and run it threw it's cycles several times. Noise could have been it steaming off. It is hard to believe that a sight glass in the attic broke and nobody notice water running everywhere. Hi possibility that the owner is lying to you.


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## dhal22

I install state/ao smith almost exclusively, enough that I show up on their websites as a go to plumber in the area. I don't recall any dirty screen issues ever. 

Rheem however, will leave you (and the customer) hanging while they mail you a replacement glass vial.


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## BOBBYTUCSON

true that lol rheem sucks


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## klempner

Hmmm. interesting to hear that the AOSmith screen debacle is perhaps just hype. My other complaint with AOS is inability to replace just the thermocouple because of the thermal cut out feature. BW and Rheem, can replace just the thermocouple, which means not having to make a second trip, which therefore makes the repair much less costly. so, yes, i don't like waiting on a vial, but i also don't like waiting on a pilot assembly.

as to Rheem, i have only had to replace vials twice. once when the roofer blocked the flue pipe, which means the vial did its job, and once when the water connection leaked and got the vial wet. not sure why water makes the vial break. but anyway, in other words, in my experience, very reliable.

another thing i like about Rheem is the old style control valve. i don't like the plastic, digital ones on BW.

Another thing i like about Rheem is, in stark contrast to BW, you can get burner assembly out even though the water heater is sitting in a drain pan. BW is nightmare.

i also like that Rheem's anode is magnesium, and accessible.


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## Master Mark

klempner said:


> Hmmm. interesting to hear that the AOSmith screen debacle is perhaps just hype. My other complaint with AOS is inability to replace just the thermocouple because of the thermal cut out feature. BW and Rheem, can replace just the thermocouple, which means not having to make a second trip, which therefore makes the repair much less costly. so, yes, i don't like waiting on a vial, but i also don't like waiting on a pilot assembly.
> 
> as to Rheem, i have only had to replace vials twice. once when the roofer blocked the flue pipe, which means the vial did its job, and once when the water connection leaked and got the vial wet. not sure why water makes the vial break. but anyway, in other words, in my experience, very reliable.
> 
> another thing i like about Rheem is the old style control valve. i don't like the plastic, digital ones on BW.
> 
> Another thing i like about Rheem is, in stark contrast to BW, you can get burner assembly out even though the water heater is sitting in a drain pan. BW is nightmare.
> 
> i also like that Rheem's anode is magnesium, and accessible.




I totally agree with you on the Rheem heaters on all counts
but you might want to be warned that the new Rheem heaters its gonna take an extension on your socket to get that anode rod out of the unit... We found that out the hard way last week with a newer electirc heater... the anode rod was buried about 4 inches down in foam..
We had to borrow a socket extension from the customer to get the job done.


I recently had to change out a Smith burner assembly because of the very reason you speak of.... you cant just change the thermocoupling... They stuck me in the ass for 90 bucks for the burner assembly and in turn I had to pass this on to the customer.


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## plumberkc

Master Mark said:


> I totally agree with you on the Rheem heaters on all counts but you might want to be warned that the new Rheem heaters its gonna take an extension on your socket to get that anode rod out of the unit... We found that out the hard way last week with a newer electirc heater... the anode rod was buried about 4 inches down in foam.. We had to borrow a socket extension from the customer to get the job done. I recently had to change out a Smith burner assembly because of the very reason you speak of.... you cant just change the thermocoupling... They stuck me in the ass for 90 bucks for the burner assembly and in turn I had to pass this on to the customer.


 I just stock the burner assemblies on my truck. Sometimes the thermocouple can repeatedly fail which is why I would just prefer to replace the entire pilot assembly.


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## dhal22

klempner said:


> Hmmm. interesting to hear that the AOSmith screen debacle is perhaps just hype. My other complaint with AOS is inability to replace just the thermocouple because of the thermal cut out feature. BW and Rheem, can replace just the thermocouple, which means not having to make a second trip, which therefore makes the repair much less costly. so, yes, i don't like waiting on a vial, but i also don't like waiting on a pilot assembly.
> 
> as to Rheem, i have only had to replace vials twice. once when the roofer blocked the flue pipe, which means the vial did its job, and once when the water connection leaked and got the vial wet. not sure why water makes the vial break. but anyway, in other words, in my experience, very reliable.
> 
> another thing i like about Rheem is the old style control valve. i don't like the plastic, digital ones on BW.
> 
> Another thing i like about Rheem is, in stark contrast to BW, you can get burner assembly out even though the water heater is sitting in a drain pan. BW is nightmare.
> 
> i also like that Rheem's anode is magnesium, and accessible.



I can buy the State/AOS pilot assembly same day where I bought it. Not the Rheem safety vial, they make you wait for it to arrive in the mail. I now have 2 new in box vials at my shop to get around that problem.


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