# I finally figured it out!!



## falloutman22 (Sep 15, 2010)

I have a customer with an AO smith natural gas water heater who called me back to tell me I did not fix the problem. I hate when I get a call back by the way... The original call was for no heat, and I did the normal cleaning with a brush and compressed air. Warranty was still good so I got a new fusible link thermocouple from the supply house. Figured I was good to go untill the next day when I received the call back. It fired right up and kept running so i new something was up. I sat there and babysitted it through about three cycles with a faucet running, "for my curiosity only" not charging the home owner. Nothing happened so I decided to turn all the faucets on when "it happened". The tank made a huge bang, "the cookie sheet effect". The vibration of the bang made the burner and pilot shut right off. It would not relight right away but when it did I confirmed my finding by tapping on the thermocouple lead down into the burner. It shut right off. AO smith thought I was crazy at first and then agreed with me and replaced the whole heater. So mental note for all of my water heater guru's the silver fusible link is sensative to vibration. 
Do not bypass it though because it is there for a reason. 
Cheers>>>>>>:thumbup:


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## DIZ (Nov 17, 2010)

post an intro


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## ckoch407 (Sep 30, 2009)

Interesting discovery.


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## vinpadalino (Aug 27, 2010)

Do you have a LP water heater running off natural gas? :whistling2:


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## falloutman22 (Sep 15, 2010)

vinpadalino said:


> Do you have a LP water heater running off natural gas? :whistling2:


No but I did have that service call just the other day after the plumbing outfit that installed it came out twice and told her she had to contact the manufacturer to deal with warranty info. I don't understand how it even ran. I had her call the original installer back so I could tell him personally what he did.... oh did that feel good. Needless to say I ended up doing it because she didn't want him back in the house.


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## falloutman22 (Sep 15, 2010)

DIZ said:


> post an intro


What does that mean? I'm just getting used to using this site. But I want to do it right..


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## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

Go here: http://www.plumbingzone.com/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=3

and tell us a bit about yourself. We all did it. It's kinda like an initiation.


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