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From: jpexg@mit-hermes.ARPA (John Purbrick)
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: Pilot light out? A brief tutorial in gas heater service
Message-ID: <2315@mit-hermes.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 8-Mar-85 14:37:20 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-herm.2315
Posted: Fri Mar  8 14:37:20 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 10-Mar-85 04:57:48 EST
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Distribution: net
Organization: The MIT AI Lab, Cambridge, MA
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 > My heater hasn't been working all week. I finally looked at it
 > and discovered the pilot light was out. Lighting it restored
 > normal function.
 > 1) How could this happen? Would a power failure have anything to
 > do with it?
 > 2) How did it know the pilot was out?

I had the pilot on my furnace go out a few months back, but it worked as long
as the red bypass button was held down. Diagnosis, bad thermocouple. The man
at the hardware store said sure, the thermocouple gets eroded by being in
the pilot flame all the time and a reasonable lifetime is 7 years. The
replacement cost $4.50 and took 5 minutes to install. Note that the tube
connecting the ends of the thermocouple unit comes in various lengths--get
the right one!