On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 21:13:01 -0800, "Julie Bove"
> wrote:

>We bought this house in 2004. Gas water heater in "garage". Garage meaning
>that this room has no heat and has a garage type door. The door is almost
>the width of my van, minus the side mirrors. The inside does extend
>slightly beyond the door but not by much. It does go slightly deeper on
>part of the one side where the small work bench is. Then beyond that is a
>small piece of wall, then the water heater set back between that piece of
>wall and a utility sink. Water heater is on a metal, elevated platform.
>The rest of the room is used for storage as it is too small to drive either
>of our vehicles into it.
>
>So... Dec. 31 at midnight, I went out there to get some soda pop and saw
>rusty water beginning to trickle out of the water heater. Husband
>immediately shut something off. The water to it? Not sure. At any rate,
>he did the right thing according to Day and Nite Plumbing. At some point
>that day, they came out and installed a new Bradford White tank. They also
>had to retrofit it and put one of those little tanks (overflow?) at the top.
>Plumber had a super hard time getting the new one in the tight space because
>the newer tanks are not quite as tall and much bigger around. He also redid
>the silver things (pipes?) at the top because he said they were comical.
>Past owner remodeled this house and badly so likely they did this. Whatever
>this pipe/tube thing was, it was far too long and rather than cutting it
>off, they just put a bizarre series of loops in it. Plumber said he had
>never seen anything like it.
>
>A few months went by. No problems. Then the pilot light went out. We
>hadn't had a windy day and I was baffled. I relit it although I had a lot
>of problems getting it to light. This kept happening, at first at 2-3 month
>intervals, then more like every few weeks.
>
>When we bought the house, there had been a small piece of pegboard cut to
>fit that had been sitting loose and propped at the bottom of the stand that
>the tank is on. Plumber took that out as it would not fit the space with
>the new tank, sticking out off of the stand as it is.
>
>My dad surmised that somehow the pegboard was preventing the wind from
>getting up under the tank and advised me to put something else there. Which
>I did. Three baking pans in assorted sizes. You see in the middle of the
>tank at the bottom, some parts jut downwards which is why I needed a small
>sized pan for the middle.
>
>Problems continued and got more frequent. When I found myself having to
>relight weekly, I called the plumber again. This time he said I may have
>caused the problem by putting the baking pans there. Obviously not as the
>problem had occurred prior and that is why I put them there.
>
>The wires on the front had been hanging loose. I never thought that looked
>right. He wound up replacing those, the thermocoupler and all but one other
>part in there. Can't remember what that was.
>
>Tank was fine for about 2 months then the problems began again. Getting
>worse and worse with annoying frequency until I had to relight it 6 times in
>one day! So I called again. Had been putting off calling because even
>though it is under warranty, the warranty does not include labor. And it
>seems to cost me a minimum of $250 each time they come out.
>
>Plumber said that he needed for me not to relight the tank and to call them
>right away to get a code from it. The problem there? It often goes out in
>the middle of the night. They can't come out right away despite them
>claiming to offer 24/7 service. And that code is gone after about a half an
>hour. So because they can never seem to get the error code, they are pretty
>much shooting in the dark as to what is wrong with it.
>
>So on Sept. 15, 2012, they wound up just giving me a new tank. Turns out
>that the one they had installed prior was totally dented up on the back
>side. I thought perhaps this was the problem. I sat there in the garage
>watching this other plumber like a hawk. My normal plumber had the day off.
>No problems so far as I could see.
>
>Can't remember how long this tank lasted before the pilot light went off.
>But it did. And at first it was like 2-3 months between times. But now?
>We are down to about once a week, sometimes twice a week. It's to the point
>where I find myself checking it hourly when home and always just before I go
>to bed. Sometimes it is windy when this happens but often not. Plumber did
>say that the only other thing that could be a problem is the roof vent.
>Which when I do call them again, I will have them check. But... This last
>time I played hell relighting it. Tried for about a half an hour before it
>would light. And of course in the middle of the night.
>
>So... Any clues? People keep telling me it is the thermocouple and online
>searches say the same but... Searches also tell me that the thermocouple
>should last longer than that. And the weird part is that once the problems
>do start, they seem to follow the same pattern of coming with increasing
>frequency. Also weird that the old tank never had to be relit.
>
>Could it be just because this one sticks out further into the room?
>Sometimes when I am working out there with the garage door to the outside
>open, it does go out. I am just getting frustrated! I want hot water and I
>don't want to keep calling the plumber. Also can't afford to go with those
>thankless things. Not sure how many we'd have to get. This is a small
>house but we do have two bathrooms. Also a laundry room and that garage
>sink. I think if I have read this correctly, I would need a tank for each
>sink. Not sure how the laundry room factors in so... Maybe 4 tanks? Also
>not sure where those tanks would be located but... Too rich for my blood so
>not an option.
>
>Anyone have any suggestions?

Couldn't you keep it to 100 woids or less?

Anyway your plumber is a MOROON... installed the same POS!

Should have installed a new tankless on-demand water heater... and you
already have the gas set up.
I love mine, should have done it years ago... in less than a year it
has already paid for itself. Watch the short video:
http://www.rinnai.us/tankless-water-heater
No tank, about the size of a carry on bag, sits out of the way on a
wall:
http://i43.tinypic.com/34slb7l.jpg