Water Heaters - Pilot wont stay lit..

I have one of those nasty Whirlpool Flame Lock water heaters purchase 3 years ago this month and has a 12 year warrenty on it. It died last week and after reading much on the internet called Whirlpool and they sent me out a new Thermocouple. I installed the new thermocouple this morning with a couple "extra parts" that came with it ( a thermocouple adapter valve and the straight connectors that attach to the thermal switch on the manifold door) and followed the re-installation directions me to a "T". Now, when I hold down the the "reset button" and press down on the "ignitor" I do get a pilot light, however, when I let up on the "reset button" my pilot flame goes out. I have tried holding down the reset button (pilot light on) for 1 minute, 2 mintues, and even 3 minutes but it still, when I slowly let up on that reset button, out goes the pilot flame. Was I suppose to hook up those extra parts (the thermocoupler adapter valve and the straight connectors to the thermal switch) to the water heater.? Would those "extra" parts cause the pilot light to die every time I release the red "reset button"?
Help, please...!!! I have been without hot water since last wednesday :-)...
Penny

Make sure the thermocouple is located in and being heated by the piliot flame and that the other end of the thermocouple tube is properly mounted and seated into the gas valve. If that doesn't work, it's something else - like the gas valve itself.

I work for a heating and air company so i know a little about water heaters not everything though. You need to make sure that the thermocouple is sitting in the flame properly. That would be the first place to start. if you have a multimeter where you can read millivolts you can test it by hooking one lead to the very end of the thermocouple where it goes into the gas valve and the other end to the wire that goes inbetween the gas valve and thermocouple. Once you have hooked up your meter then hold the button down and watch your meter it should read 25 to 35 millivolts DC. if you dont have that then you probley need to readjust the flame or position of the thermocouple. That should get you started on fixing it.

I have one of those nasty Whirlpool Flame Lock water heaters purchase 3 years ago this month and has a 12 year warrenty on it. It died last week and after reading much on the internet called Whirlpool and they sent me out a new Thermocouple. I installed the new thermocouple this morning with a couple "extra parts" that came with it ( a thermocouple adapter valve and the straight connectors that attach to the thermal switch on the manifold door) and followed the re-installation directions me to a "T". Now, when I hold down the the "reset button" and press down on the "ignitor" I do get a pilot light, however, when I let up on the "reset button" my pilot flame goes out. I have tried holding down the reset button (pilot light on) for 1 minute, 2 mintues, and even 3 minutes but it still, when I slowly let up on that reset button, out goes the pilot flame. Was I suppose to hook up those extra parts (the thermocoupler adapter valve and the straight connectors to the thermal switch) to the water heater.? Would those "extra" parts cause the pilot light to die every time I release the red "reset button"?
Help, please...!!! I have been without hot water since last wednesday :-)...
Penny

Are you saying there are no wires on the thermal switch? The switch must be wired in, it is in series with the tcouple circuit.

just had this problem on my whirlpool water heater (4 yrs old) and i solved it by taking the end off the pilot light gas line right where it burns and in between the input line and the gas line tip (where it burns) there is a restrictor cap on the end of the line and in the end of it is a small hole. I cleaned it with a q tip and acetone and also took a small needle and poked the hole in restrictor cap to make sure it is clean .. you can see thru small hole if you put it up to the light but it is very hard to blow thru... if it gets some build up in the hole it will restrict the gas flow enough to snuff pilot out no matter how long you hold the button down..

hope this helps worked for me
$cott