Whirlpool Flame Lock water heaters, reviews, troubleshooting, repair and support.

[Tempo]

I'ts still not fixed...

Well, 'fixed' is kind of subjective. It is providing hot water to the house...

[Redwood]

Yes I know somewhere in the last 14 pages of this thread there is at least one other instance of someone getting temporary relief from your "Fix"

IMHO the only fix is replacement of the water heater with a Rheem/Ruud, or, Bradford White water heater.

[Tempo]

IMHO the only fix is replacement of the water heater with a Rheem/Ruud, or, Bradford White water heater.

Could not agree more.

Actually, it was this realization that led me to not care about the durability of the fix to begin with.

[Blues501]

I bought a WhirlPoo FlameOut in April of 2008. Amazing if they were this bad, why does lowwwws keep selling them..anyways not the reason I write here today. I had flame out two nights ago, called 877 number on water heater, voicemail sends me to website, order replacement (aka enhancement) and install with one hitch..

The TC adapter has left threads and my gas valve has right threads. After reading this thread (pun intended) I decided that I must have already had the enhancement from the factory at some point and that I just had a bad TC and did not install the TC Adapter with the kit.

I am highly dissapointed in WP. My washer, dryer, and refridgerator, which incidentally are the only major appliances I have ever had to buy, are all WP. I am highly dissapointed and have hereby come to the conclusion that WP does not care about their loyal customers or earning new customers so I am hereby declaring my intent to never grace their balance sheet with another purchase.

Thanks to everyone on the thread, truthtellers, B.S'ers, and joe the plumbers for the laughs and insight at a time when I was thinking very creative thoughts about which WP executive would recieve my returned waterheater in a very uncomfortable body cavity.

Lastly, anyone have any constructive thoughts on omiiting the TC adapter (see above)?

[jimbo]

Today is the third year anniversary of the first post in this thread! Anyone going for 4???

[Redwood]

Today is the third year anniversary of the first post in this thread! Anyone going for 4???

I'm convinced that this thread will go on until the last Whirlpool water heater of this design is produced, and for sometime afterwards until the last installed one is junked.

[edgrimly]

Ok, so I have spent the last hour reading the 14 pages of Whirlpoo (my favorite name for it) WH complaints, "fixes", and modifications (love the supercharger). Never did get to see the ductwork filter assembly modification that prompted the supercharger but hey, this is a list topic dedicated to one specific problem and once people figure it out,,, bye bye (like me after I write this ;-) )

So without further adieu, here is my story.

'Bout 3 weeks ago my water heater started quitting. I would go down, relite, and it would run for a little while and quit again. My first stop was low fuel pressure so I called the propane company and they checked the line pressure and replaced my regulator. Now my stove and water heater both work (stove did not like to light either). Fast forward to the Monday following Thanksgiving holiday. Wake up, jump in the shower only to freeze the boys .
Back to relighting, many times... I DID find out one thing that has not been mentioned (or tried??) was to set the temp fairly low on the control. The lower I set it the longer it seemed to run. Unfortunately this only gained me a week. Now the temp is set at "Vacation" to make it run. I did have fun running around trying to find a thermocouple until I got to GilRoys (they got it don't ya know) and they did not have it, BUT the owner suggested I call Whirlpoo as it should still be under warranty. WARRANTY??? I thought... They put warranty's on water heaters? So I dialed the Whirlpoo 877 number and the first thing the recorded lady said was "If you have a FG (what is she swearing??) model please visit flamelocksupport.com and register for your free upgrade kit". So I hung up and called home and had the wife get on the internet (blazing fast dial up) and look it up. By the time I got home (20 min later) she was putting the finishing touches on our overnight (extra $5) order of a F###G Flame Lock upgrade kit

It has not arrived yet, but I am already planning a needle into the pilot jet when I do take it apart, just cause the pilot jet looked weak to me too.

P.s. For all of those stating that the flame out is due to the burner blowing out the pilot when it gets up to temp. At least in my case (which sounds just like your case) that is a load of hooey. I relit my pilot and eliminated that problem by turning the control up and down and making the burner come on and go off numerous times. It NEVER blew out the pilot. Whenever the flame out occurred, the tank was not up to temp so why would it be just a "normal" shut off blowing out the light?

OK, one other thing. My water heater lasted three years before the problem occurred and here is why I think it did. My wife has been concerned about our kids burning themselves on scalding hot water. Apparently she has seen some of the stupid things I have done and believes the kids will take after me... Anyway, we always keep the water heater below the "warm" setting. Recently my oldest (10 yrs old) has taken to 30 minute showers where he just stands there and let the cleansing power of hot water clean him (heaven forbid soap). Needless to say the WH does not keep up at "Warm" so I turned it up (where do you think he learned 30 min showers??) so I could have some warm water too. It was not long after I turned it up that it started quitting. I think I smoked the weak internal pieces and bye bye they went.

Question for those in the know... Could keeping the heat down prolong the life of the replacement parts?? Those who have replaced these at 1 week as compared to 90 days or 9 months, what was the temp setting?

Do these observations help those with advanced pluming and heating experience or will I just get the same "Trash it and buy a Rheem or Bradford White"? Unfortunately this is Christmas and Congress is giving my money to everyone BUT the company I get a trickle down paycheck from and all they want is a LOAN... Needless to say, I can afford a 5 dollar freight charge but not a $900 water heater.

Thanks again for this great thread. Keep up the good work.

Oh, wonder what ever became of that "new style thermocouple and old style gas valve" concept... Anyone have any update to that? Sounded like he knew what was up but no one else chimed in to verify.

Ed

[edgrimly]

P.s. Still searching the new and found http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeo...r_heaters.html that has many many many (500+) complaints. I love reading complaints because eventually some info you can use leaks through.

A couple of the complaints mentioned the gas valve. One guy even talked about hitting the gas valve with a hammer to get the Pilot to stay lit. Another complaint says on a BFG model that American instantly said it was a Main Control but of course that did not fix it.
To me that ties in to the previous email about replacing the Thermocouple and Gas Valve in pairs.


Of course I still have yet to get my upgrade kit and in my mind I am already fixing it again...

Ed

[edgrimly]

Ok, here it is, a couple days after contacting Whirlpoo and my defective unit is still on "limp home mode" and running just over "Vacation" temperature. I did turn it up a little past Vacation trying to figure out where the line is between blow out and operation. Have not figured out the break point just yet.

This should help you "get by" until your parts come in from American/Whirlpoo. Just keep the temp control turned down and don't get greedy and ask for 100+ temps out of it until new parts are in.

Merry Christmas!!!

Ed

[master plumber mark]

I just love reading all the complaints here too...

If you notice , most of the recent 100 + complaints are on
the NEW STYLE IMPROVED Whirlpool water heater.less than 2 years old.......
NOT the heaters sold over 4 years ago....

It is hard to believe that American Water heaters has actually made
their IMPROVED heater worse than the original heater that they have been sued for..!!!!!.

how can you be stupid enough to shoot yourself in the foot ....twice???.



Looking at the complaints it looks like their new style heaters seem to fail after only about 8 months



I have said before....
All I can figure is that the owner of AMERICAN WATER HEATERS must have
an incompetent son- in-law, as the president of their reasearch and develoment division..

this fellow simply cant be fired ......no matter how bad he screws up...


their cant be any other reason for stupidity like this......


http://www.weilhammerplumbing.com/galleryiii/


http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeo...r_heaters.html

[MsBehavin]

Does anyone know what the "enhancement kit" contains? My plumber told me to make sure I receive the burner assembly AND a gas valve. Is the new thermocouple right-threaded? I am hesitant to order this contraption, as the manager at Lowe's has promised me that he will reimburse me in full for a new water heater as long as I return the old one to them. The only catch is, I need $416.87 out-of-pocket to buy the new one and I don't have it. If I can get by with the kit I want to do so at least until after the holidays.

[whosyer12]

Don't know if links are allowed here---but take a look at: http://flamelocksupport.com/kits.aspx What you see is what you get. No new burner or new valve. Almost a month for me though and working ok (wood knocked).

[Redwood]

This is the kit it is shown earlier in the kazzillion pages of this thread.



Don't kid yourself into thinking this is a miracle fix.
If the "New Improved" Cesspools are still having the problem...
How good can the "Fix" be?

If they have offered you you're money back take it and run!
Put in a Bradford White and discover that once again hot water only requires turning on a tap.

Even a store credit can be spent on better things!

[master plumber mark]

Don't know if links are allowed here---but take a look at: http://flamelocksupport.com/kits.aspx What you see is what you get. No new burner or new valve. Almost a month for me though and working ok (wood knocked).

I wonder how many homeowners they send this kit out to
attempt to fool with it themselves???

these things are not that easy to fool with even for someone that does it every day...

Also....What I have found...
As long as that "new enhanced kit"
is somehow installed to let a lot of air in
through the front of it,
it will probably work for a long time


of course that would void the FVIR safeguards on
the heater.....and that is not something that a company
should do for a customer...

but I certainly am running into more and more of them in homes
that have been...... "modified" .....by the home owner to get
them to work....

they really should have a nation wide recall on all of them. http://www.weilhammerplumbing.com/galleryiii/

[Cass]

I am doing 3 calls todayon heaters, 2 on Whirlpools...both calls ar for bad gas valves...the 3rd call may be one also...