Mistaken Identity: Help with Kenmore Water Heater

Thanks to you all for entertaining me while I sit here waiting for the plumber. I have been having the same problem ongoing for the past year. Tank has been replaced as well as 7 thermocouplers. I called American and they blamed it on everything except their crappy product. If there is a water heater out there that doesn't have this problem, I want to know about it. The only thing that is hot right now is me!

Purchased 11/07. Pilot will light, burner flames on, flames off and takes the pilot light with it. Sometimes hard to light the pilot. Pilot will not stay lit. After removing two screws to access chamber; first I managed to carefully pull back grommets (with relief cut to free smaller metal tube ) , I slid panel out. Had to force it carefully. Used screwdriver on bottom after pulling out the top first. I did not have to disconnect anything. Rust flakes everywhere.Accumulaton atop burner forcing flames downward and appeared orange in spots. The white lead turned a glowing red hot. Easy to see in darkened surroundings. Seemed to eventually trigger safety shutdown. Also saw 2 small flames at back of pilot at the fitting when burner on. Rigged vacuum. Cleaned piles out. Problem solved! Thanks for everyone's input. I saw no leaks but plenty of rust flakes. Poor design.

Well, I have joined your group. After 2 no show scheduled appointments and the fact that they would not send my warranty items without one of their technicians ordering them, I contacted a Master Plumber in my area. What I learned about this hot water tank that the maintenance book does not tell us is: When it appears that the pilot will lite, but not stay lit, the book tells us to clean the air vent. What the book does not tells us is that up inside is an additional screen that can be cleaned by using a shopvac in reverse, to remove the dust and dirt. It took him 20 minutes, knew exactly what was wrong. Showed up timely.

I cannot believe that so many people have the same problems. Sears keeps giving us the run around - having to use their servicemen, except it sounds that they can't fix the problem either (free parts - but pay for our independent contractor). Our water heater isn't more than 3 years old, had a problem last year and stayed on after thermocouple change for about 3 months then same problem again. Just changed thermostat - didn't work and since we didn't use Sears' serviceman - even though the part was under warranty, we had to pay for the part because we didn't use their service man. RIP OFF - I know that they sell these at other stores - the problem is the runaround you get from "Sears" They are not the store they used to be. In the mean time -GETTING TIRED OF THE PLAN AHEAD SHOWER!!

We've had our water heater for 2 1/2 years and suddenly our pilot light will not stay lit. I've found out that this is problematic with this type of water heater. I called the recall number...no luck. The Sears service guy doesn't even know if he can get parts. If Sears stiffs me on this I'll never buy anything from them again!

I bought my house a few months ago, and it has a 2003 Power Miser 9. The pilot went out 2 days ago and won't re-light. Of course, the Technical Assistance morons just give me the runaround, and refused to talk to me because they didn't recognize my phone number -as if they expected the previous owners to take the water heater with them when they moved! I won't buy anything from Sears now... I hope the suit is real.

We purchased a home, and had the same problems that seems to be the common thing here. My heating guy is a friend and does not work for Sears. They were not any help to him at all. After going through all the runaround that everyone else has for months, I read numerous info on the web. So first I tried someone's recommendation that you put steel wool, and that did not work. So I finally got really pissed off, and decided that I can not live like this anymore. So I decided to punch out the glass piece. The water is hot, and what the heck, I will try it. It is working great now. I mean I would have had to buy a new one anyway, because Sears is useless. So far, the water is hotter than it ever has been in the 9 months we have lived here. We put it on our regular setting and had to turn it down because we found it to be too hot. I am happy, but am very interested in a class action lawsuit. I have 8 kenmore appliances in my home, and I will replace them all with something else when they die. I will NEVER purchase a thing from Sears again.

Just wanted to let you know the thermocouple can be replaced, although for 95% of water heaters this is the problem for this Kenmore it seems to be filter clogs. I called Sears and they don’t sell the thermocouple only the pilot assembly which was $50 + $10 S/H. I went to home depot and bought a universal thermocouple for $9.95. Just removing a few screws from the burner and pair of needle nose pliers (those are really important to have for this job) I pulled out the old one and slid in the new. Now it doesn't look the same but that’s just because Kenmore made this one unit so you have to replace the whole thing. One more thing on that, if you decide to do this you have to clip/cut the old thermocouple out essentially ruining the old one so there is no going back.

After I got it all put back together, maybe 10 minutes I tried to start it and no luck. I went back over it a few times and nothing but I wanted to make sure the pilot tube was getting gas flow. So I blew through the tiny tube going to the pilot to see if maybe it was blocked. After I cleared the pilot tube it lit right up and has been working well. So I'm not saying that this will fix everyone’s crappy Kenmore’s, but it worked for me. I think if you are going to replace the pilot assembly anyway, it’s worth $10 to try fixing the thermocouple it might save you $60 in parts and probably $150 in a repairmen’s labor. It's really not hard to do and you will have a bit more understanding of how that part works in your unit.

Installed Kenmore electric hot water heater 3 years ago - light use since then. Suddenly, no hot water. I followed pamphlet instructions to reset: hot water for a few days, now nothing. All electric wires and breakers FINE. Called Sears "Help Line" Unintelligable customer service rep. Do I start ordering parts? Write it off to another rip off by Sears? I'm afraid a repair service will cost more than a new water heater - and will the new one be another piece of junk?

Any suggestions?