[whatsnewell]

I still, remarkably, have the original gas (only) water heater in my coach....it is now 31 years old, and still going strong. This morning I got up and started the coffee percolator on the stove. I usually put hot water in our coffee cups to preheat them, but when I turned on the hot water I only got lukewarm. About once, or twice a month the pilot light will go out and so I just thought that is what happened and went outside to relight it. It would light, but would not stay on once I released the button. About a year ago I had to remove the pilot light "nozzle" as it was clogged, and was able to clear it out, so I though this was the problem again....the pilot light was there, but seemed smaller than normal.

However that was not the problem. After re-installing it the pilot light, while a little bigger, would still not stay lit. Okay.....maybe it's the thermal coupling....fortunately we were about half a block from a Home Depot....took about 10 minutes to install the new one, and it worked!!! Only cost 11 bux....nice when it is a simple fix.

All that being said, I am going to work on getting a new water heater installed after Spearfish....no point in waiting for the inevitable failure.