pool Posted August 18, 2006 Report Share Posted August 18, 2006 Is there a way to test a heater thermocouple to see if it's bad? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hottub.pool_boy Posted August 20, 2006 Report Share Posted August 20, 2006 Go to your man. website, or call their 800 line. it will usually need to put out enough miilvolts to keep gas flowing to the pilot. Move it, clean it, is it engulfed in the flame of the pilot? Check with the manufacturer. They'll have the answers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsk Posted October 5, 2006 Report Share Posted October 5, 2006 Go to your man. website, or call their 800 line. it will usually need to put out enough miilvolts to keep gas flowing to the pilot. Move it, clean it, is it engulfed in the flame of the pilot? Check with the manufacturer. They'll have the answers. Yes they make a tester for them But it's cheaper to just replace it. RK Electric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DKN1997 Posted December 11, 2006 Report Share Posted December 11, 2006 Is there a way to test a heater thermocouple to see if it's bad? get yourself a cheapie digital voltmeter, can be had for 20 cucks at home depot. set it for 2 on the dc volts scale. attach youmeter leads to the two wires coming off the pilot. ironicaly , the red one is the common, and the white one hot. does not really matter, but if you hook it up backwards, you will get the right reading, but there will be a - neg sign in front of it. take the burner tray out, disassemble and clean the pilot tubing/orifice and reinstall. light it. step one in the verifacation process is to see if the pilot stays lit when you release the manual knob on gas valve. now at least you know it's creating enough voltage to energize the coil in the gas valve to keep pilot lit. with the heater switched off and the knob in the pilot position (always run all tests on a MV heater in "pilot") test it. you should get 4-500 millivolts. On an unloaded pilot (wires disconnected, holding knob down to keep pilot going) the reading should be higher, say 550-650. some really old pilots used some sort of tube to transger the voltage from the pilot to the gas valve and then out to the safety circuit, if you have one of those, buy a new one. if your pilot burns ok, but will not create enough voltage to pass the tests and fire heater, you can buy just the thermocouple part, or generator, as it's sometimes called. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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