Mistaken Identity: Help with Kenmore Water Heater

Eye-opening site. Just started experiencing this problem on our 5-year-old Kenmore Power Miser 9. There doesn't seem to be a filter screen installed on our machine, so the pilot is open to the dusty air. Will give the vacuum/bottle brush treatment a try when the burner cools down.

So, 24 hrs later, the pilot is still on and hot water is flowing. Cautiously optimistic that we avoided the dreaded Sears repairman. Would recommend to anyone with this problem that you try cleaning out underneath the unit, with particular attention to the screen below the pilot unit. Thanks to Tim (posted 4/21/2008) for the bottle brush tip).

I jet bought water heater from sears. and it shets off by it self after few minutes.
all the time any help?

We have 3 year old mister 6. This winter the pilot started to go off. Eventually, the WH was not able to run for longer than 30 minutes.
Sears wanted $65 just to come and see what is going on + cost of any labor required. I decided to look into the problem on my own.
Just as described here, the filter under the burner was clogged. I only cleaned it with brush, and the WH ran all night with no issue.
This weekend I will try to use compressed air to blow the dirt from the filter.
Thank you, you just saved me $100s in parts I would start throwing at the WH.

Here is the problem with these water heaters. In the last couple years there has been a new code that states that all wtr htrs manufactured must have a flame lock or flame guard technology. This means that vapors from an open can of gasoline in a garage will not ignite from the flame of the wtr htr. You will notice that the front of the wtr htr is sealed. All the air that the htr needs to burn a flame comes though a ceramic screen under the burner. This screen cloggs after about a year of use, even less if the wtr htr is located near a clothes dryer vent. There are little plastic outer screens that are supposed to stop lint from getting to the ceramic screen. Lots of people who install the htrs themselves dont even install the outer black plastic screens beacause they dont know what they're for.The outer screen wont prevent the inner screen from clogging but they will help a little. The inner screen is made of a soft ceramic. If a hard bristled brush is used, it will deteriorate. It will clog permanatly. The only way to clear the inner screen safely ,is to remove the burner assembly. All 3 connections to the gas vale,main burner,pilot, and thermocouple.Remove the 2 nuts that hold the faceplate, and pull the assembly out.Get a vacume that will run on blow. Stick your arm ,with the vacume tube ,into the flame chamber and blow out the ceramic screen from the opposite direction that air flows normally. Reassemble the unit and check for leaks. If the sceen has beed clogged for a long time and you have been re-lighting the pilot for an extended amount of time , the thermocouple,or (on this model) its called the pilot assembly. must be replaced.

I have the SAME PROBLEM as above (tank lights, then goes out after an hour or two). I even installed a new burner assembly the other day. Cleaned the screen, same problem...

So anyways I was on the phone with Kenmore just now. After talking to a bunch of people in singapore I got ahold of someone in the US. She was very nice even though she couldn't help. I told her not to buy kenmore; She laughed and said "I KNOW!"

I bought a new water heater from Sears on 01-31-07. in Feb 2007. I started having trouble in July 07. the burner has a design flaw thus only lasting aprox a few months. The Sears tech advised me of the flaw. he replaced the burner assembly and everything was ok until 3 months later in October 07, the same problem. The burner was replaced a second time. In may of 08 the pilot was acting up once again and the tech was called out and I told him what was going to happen but he did nothing. He then proceeded to tell me it was a "shared flue" problem but in the same breath he even told me that he didn't really think it was the true problem. he showed me a flow chart that Sears provides to their techs basically placing the blame on the construction of my 10 year old condo. He then left without doing anything. On June 7th 2008, the burner went out again and will not stay lit so every time you need hot water you have to re-light the pilot. The tech is due out today to replace yet the third burner assembly. I've taken off of work too many times to wait between 8 am & 5 pm for them to arrive. Each service call ends up being two service calls as the techs do not have any inventory of parts on their trucks and need to order the parts. I requested my $$ back on the water heater but Sears has refused. i think it's time to invoke the lemon law and get the media involved....Ajm

This is not the fault of Sears. If anybody is to blame, it is the Democrats, who pushed legislation requiring that all water heaters now be Flammable Vapor in Ignition Resistant (FVIR). We now have the privilege of paying nearly $100-$150 extra for a water heater designed to protect those who were stupid enough to store gasoline next to them. In reality, people that stupid should die in the explosion and thus,not be allowed to reproduce. This keeps the gene pool healthy. Leave it to Democrats to interrupt nature's perfect cycle. Besides, Sears does not manufacture water heaters. Sears water heaters are manufactured by State Industries/AO Smith.

I have a 3 year old water heater that the pilot keeps going out randomly.Some days we would wake up to cold water. Other times it would stay lit for a few months. The first repair was to replace a bad thermocouple. This did nothing to change the problem. We just kept re-lighting it week after week until recently we couldn't light it at all. This time they replaced the thermocouple again and it didn't fix the problem. So we waited over 10 days to get a new part delivered.Getting the part and the repairman together was a big hassle.Twice the part did not arrive when it was suppose to. Another time was had the repairman at our house but no part. Once the part arrived they said the next available repairman would be in 8 days! This time they installed a gas valve. Now we can light the heater. Problem is, the pilot has gone out twice in the past 3 days since the repair. Sears is blaming it on not having it directly ducted.( The duct work branches into our furnace ducting.)The funny thing is our previous water heater was in the same position for 12 years without a problem. I've talked with a plumber and heating/air conditioning people and they can't see that the ducting is the cause. I've paid over $250 dollars in repairs for a $400 water heater without resolve. Some 12 year warranty.This is a joke. No more sears purchases for me and my family.