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

[Terry]

A local story about a painter in a garage laquering woodwork with the garage doors closed.
When he went to plug in the compressor, it sparked at the plug, exploding the vapors in the garage, and throwing the painter through the garage door with burns all over his body.


My story in California. 1991
I picked up a motor home from the dealer, just filled the LP tank. I open the window from the drivers seat, and tell them there is a gas leak inside the vehicle.
They very firmly told me the gas had just been worked on, and that I was wrong.

Drove it to the in-laws, they wanted me to sleep in it that night. I explained to them, there was no way I would risk my life sleeping in a motor home with a gas leak.
My father in-law and brother in-law proceeded to start lighting burners on the stove, the entire time me telling them to stop. Finally they lowered the oven door, and that's when it exploded.
I went and hooked up a garden hose and started puitting out the fire, but not before there was $6,000 in damage to the motorhome.

[JB74]

Add me to the list of Whirlpoo haters...

Son says last night that the water is all freezing cold. Realize the pilot light is out and start dinking with it all evening. After some research (but not enough at the time)... I come to the conclusion that it's either the thermocouple or the valve. No biggee me thinks... something I can easily fix... will just pick up a new thermocouple while I'm out the next day. "What?... left threaded thermocouple's don't exist anymore?... I have to call Whirlpoo exclusively to rectify this?... WHAT THE FLIP????" Lowe's (where this FG model was bought in 2005) tells me that there "used to be a kit, but they don't have them anymore!" and can't seem to tell me if the BFG valve can be used in it's place.

Sooooo, I call the Whirlpoo customer service line... and ask how to make the new BFG valve work with a new right-threaded thermocouple?... figuring that there's gotta be a way to get it fixed within 24 hours so the missus is happy that we're not going to be going another night without hot water. "Oh, that cannot be done," says the lady at Whirlpoo... "we have to send you a special kit"... "the BFG valve won't work because your existing manifold does not have the sensor the new valve has to hook to!" Okay, whatever... at this point, if they'd have just over-nighted whatever it all needed and made this right, I would've been happy, but when the lady told me it would be $34.95 because I was no longer under warranty, I had enough and came absolutely unglued! THE H*LL I'M PAYING THEM ANOTHER SINGLE CENT FOR SOMETHING WITH KNOWN PROBLEMS AND CLASS ACTION SUITS THAT OTHERS GOT FIXED FOR NOTHING!!!!! At that point I just said I'll get a new hot water heater that WON'T be a Whirlpoo product and hung up on her! Funny, she had my contact info... and have I heard anything whatsoever from Whirlpoo to make this right?... NOPE, ZIP, NADA... @$$holes!

Sooooo, irritated enough that I'm not about to screw with the darn thing any further myself... and bound & determined to have hot water before 24 hours had went by (I'm not a patient person with such things)... I'll just pay for somebody to put in a whole new stinking water heater. This had become a principal thing now! Repair tech shows up within 45 minutes and proceeds to tell me he can fix it for "half the price of a new one" and produces a whole spanking new manifold that supposedly "wasn't" locally available according to the Whirlpoo morons. Gee, if it was something only THEY could provide... why did my local repair tech have one?... hmmm? Grrrrrrr!

With the research I've done since the tech left and after watching what he did... I'm pretty certain I could've somehow done it all myself and saved some more money... if the Whirlpoo chick had just been a tiny bit more helpful instead of demonstrating her and her company's stupidity!!!! If there was a way to legally take it outta Whirlpoo's hide in blood, I'd be doing it. The greedy bastards owe it to me and everyone else I'm seeing posting out here on the internet!

We all work hard for our money and shouldn't get shafted on something that should have parts commonly available to easily fix! Like... DUH!

[master plumber mark]

[. Gee, if it was something only THEY could provide... why did my local repair tech have one?... hmmm? Grrrrrrr!

With the research I've done since the tech left and after watching what he did... I'm pretty certain I could've somehow done it all myself and saved some more money... if the Whirlpoo chick had just been a tiny bit more helpful instead of demonstrating her and her company's stupidity!!!! If there was a way to legally take it outta Whirlpoo's hide in blood, I'd be doing it. The greedy bastards owe it to me and everyone else I'm seeing posting out here on the internet!

We all work hard for our money and shouldn't get shafted on something that should have parts commonly available to easily fix! Like... DUH! [/QUOTE]


I dont mean to throw salt in the wound but if you have read the 1500 complaints at complaints.com
or on consumer reports.... what exactly makes you think you are going to fare any better than the thousands of folks that have sunk hundreds of dollars and repairs over and over , into their whirlpool heaters????


the tech that changd out your parts for half the price of a water heater did you a great dis-service... . I have attempted to help out little old ladies before only to see my efforts go all in vain..... I cleaned the bottom of the unit and installed all new parts and it only lasted about 2 weeks.....

the repairs he made to your unit might last a while and they might not......
either way I doubt that he is not going to refund your money like I did .in a few weeks

Did he give you any kind of 90 day or year warranty with his repairs???....

that is the reason no one works on them any more.... no one wants to waste time
and effort only to feel bad in a month from now and refund monies to old ladies....

you should get yourself a Rheem or Bradford white...
Its just a matter of time before it goes out again......

[master plumber mark]

Terry,,,,

It Sounds like you got over your cancer only to
almost get killed in a mobile home....


did anyone get singed by the fire????

[Terry]

did anyone get singed by the fire????

I think that was in 1991
And yes. My brother in law was totally singed. Even his eye brows. He looked like he had an Afro.
The flames when the oven exploded in flames went right past his wide body. When he turned around he looked like a different guy.
I was hiding in his shadow and right near the door. Propane is pretty scary stuff.

[Hackneyplumbing]

I HAD about 30 of those funky pre-bent thermocouples. I have two left. Thanks for the business whirlpool!

[JB74]

the tech that changd out your parts for half the price of a water heater did you a great dis-service... .

Maybe he did... but other than possibly needing the anode rod replaced and having buildup in the bottom of the tank, everything else seems in good condition. I thoroughly cleaned the thing out top-bottom as far as the burner chamber, flu, underneath, etc. And with an all new valve and burner assembly now, it's been running like a champ again.

[master plumber mark]

Terry,,,,

Check out the new web site I just launched with information
about troubleshooting whirlpool water heaters.....

http://whirlpoolwaterheaterrepair.com/

it is in flash or you can click over to html at the bottom of the page....

[Terry]

Mark,
Thanks for posting that. By the way, my son Jamie just mentioned that yes, we are getting more water heater work lately.
Thanks for selling me that domain name.

[master plumber mark]

I have not looked , but did you ever get around to optomizeing that domain name yet.
with its own web page??...

we do probably around 15 heaters a week and
Jamie will be useing muscles he never knew he had...
and maybe he never wanted to know about

it certainly keeps you in shape...
and the coin is not too bad at usually a grand each...

http://whirlpoolwaterheaterrepair.com/

so does my new web site look fairley civilized???





http://plumberindianapolis.com/

[Hubbard]

Oh, boy... Just this morning I ordered a Whirlpool hot water heater from Lowe's. The estimated arrival date is April 23 so now I'm wondering if I should cancel the order and start all over. I notice this thread started several years ago... has the problem really not been fixed since then? I'll take any advice I can get on this. Here's what I ordered...

Model #: N40T121-403
Whirlpool 6th Sense 40-Gallon 12-Year Tall Gas Water Heater (Natural Gas)

[BeastSlayer]

I wish I had seen this before I bought my replacement water heater.

I installed mine two months ago but had to detach and replace the flexible water outlet and inlet pipes to the Whirlpool Water Heater because of some major leaks.

The re-ignition was without a hitch and the lights indicating smooth operations is blinking normally (after every 3 seconds).

The problem is that water pressure at the shower seems a lot weaker than before, it takes longer for heated water to come out and children complain of alternating blasts of cold water or inadequate heated water when two people are in the showers (when it was not a problem before).

I adjusted the knob to a tad near the hottest as suggested in the manual but this did not seem have solved the problem.

Thank you in advance for any helpful advice you can provide.