Some Like It Hot

another example of living like a king or queen

Today, thanks to a VERY HELPFUL reviewer, I was inspired to change my format and approach in writing. Hereafter I will always provide a couple of sentences describing today's post. I hope you like it.

The day I wrote this I expected I was going to be dwelling on the Buffalo Bills losing to the Kansas City Chiefs. Real life got in the way and before I knew it I was faced with the more serious adversity of no hot water on a cold Minnesota day. It was fun to post about at the end of the day and I realize I should try and post a day in the life more often.

Thomas Johann Seebeck discovered a wonderful property of the natural world. Dissimilar metals when heated would provide a voltage in proportion to the temperature difference. A pretty low-priced example in an everyday water heater makes comfortable life possible. I am so glad that people rejected the foolishness of mysticism and alchemists and embraced the scientific truths of the modern world. I can take a warm shower as a result. I hope that people can retain objectivity as life unfolds and sometimes challenges us as a result.

The Inspiration

Last Sunday evening, my hoped-for dreams of a Superbowl in Buffalo returned to the unreachable shelf in the cupboard. I watched a spectacular football game between the Bills and the KC Chiefs. It was, all in all, the best football game of the year. I was nevertheless disappointed when the Bills fell in overtime 42-36. This morning the post-game blues would continue into the morning for an unexpected reason. At around 730 AM I realized there was no hot water on a brisk 10F morning in Minnesota. Somehow the idea of not having hot water reminded me of a prior post titled “It’s Good To Be King”. It is a fun story of how we all live in the very best time to be alive.

The Setup

I awakened early this morning (Monday) around 6 AM to fresh snow in the driveway that needed to be cleared. I have been experimenting with a bit of exercise before breakfast for better blood glucose control. Removing the slight bit of fluffy snow would be a good way to get the blood flowing this morning. This was at most a 25-minute effort counting the driveway, deck, stairs, and patio. When I got back in around 7 AM the day was emerging. I had turned up the water heater before going to bed as it was behaving intermittently the previous day.

When I came back into the house this morning, there was only lukewarm water. This is not an ideal start for Minnesota in January. Since my dog wears a fur coat, lack of warm water is not a problem for Denny. He went outside and surveyed a cleared deck and patio and was able to pursue many spots before deciding how and where to begin his day. Back inside and time for “first dinner”. Dogs, by throwing in their lot with humans, have thrived better than any other animal on earth the last 15000 years or so. I will explore this in a future post. It’s a dog’s life!

I grabbed my portable tool bag and loaded up what I thought I might need. For starters, I found a portable torch (simulate heat), multimeter, assorted wrenches, a screwdriver, a jar for screws and parts (I never want to end with one too few), and a headlamp light. I also grabbed a few squares of foam since my utility room that hosts my water heater is a cramped space with a furnace, water softener, water heater, washer, dryer, and utility tub in a smallish space on a concrete slab. The concrete gets pretty cold in the wintertime and is hard all year round. In the modern world, the most indispensable tools are my portable Chromebook and YouTube. Almost any DIY effort is documented clearly on YouTube. Try explaining that to a “smart person of another age”.

Perspective is a wonderful thing and the reason I referenced the prior post “It’s Good to Be King”. The truth is for all the perceived power even a King or Queen might have held only 200 years ago (in the context of 250000 years of homo-sapiens), the current age is markedly better. The struggle to have something as simple as a hot shower was beyond their world in most cases. Imagine the absurdity of heating water on a fire and hoping there were no pathogens. I was confident that because of the knowledge available to me on YouTube, I had the means to fix this little problem.

My confidence led to an equal mix of procrastination and situational awareness. Deviating from my eat and sleep schedule can be difficult on my body so I try hard to stick to a plan. I went back upstairs and enjoyed my breakfast, content with the thought that we would have hot water in no time. I hedged my bets by sending a message to my handyman and to an online service to get bids in case the repair was beyond my capability. By about 815 AM I was back on the floor in the utility room and determining how the day might unfold.

The Details

I determined that the piezoelectric igniter (the plunger you push to light a modern water heater pilot light) worked properly and the pilot light was lit through the window. Step one -- Check. I increased the temperature to its normal range (I marked it with a Sharpie so it never gets set too high). I waited and the burner never lit. This meant that even though the water in the tank was cold, the water heater did not think so.

I was focused to address this problem as it was 10 F this morning when I did the shoveling. A warm shower would be a great reward for this small effort I was amidst.

From the YouTube video, it was likely that (1) a wire had a break in it or (2) something was wrong with the thermocouple. There were a couple of steps like turning off the gas and loosening the assembly for some testing. I proceeded to use my multimeter to measure some basic functions of a couple of wires to make sure the wires were not broken. There are only three wires on a water heater and I already knew one of them (the igniter) was working fine. Once the protective cover was removed, I could see the thermocouple looked dirty (carbonized) on its tip. The video explanation pointed to that as the next most likely problem. The guide was to completely remove the assembly to access the thermocouple, clean it with steel wool, and then see if things improve.

I got off the floor and, of course, could not find any steel wool (needed to lightly remove the corrosion from the tip of the thermocouple). I was able to do some basic testing for voltage at a few locations and it was likely the thermocouple was the culprit. While there was some voltage, it was not sufficient for operation. If you look at the picture at the top of the post, a thermocouple should produce a voltage based on the difference in two temperatures. I clipped everything back together, reinstalled the safety door, and finally turned the gas to the water heater back on.

The next step required patience as it included waiting five minutes for gas to vent from the system. I went upstairs and looked on Amazon and later Home Depot for the parts I might need. I concluded that a thermocouple would be inexpensive (<$15) and VERY EASY, even for a noob like me, to replace. I went back down to light the pilot light again. Success! Unfortunately, the burner did not ignite to start heating the water. I reported my progress (or lack thereof) to the people affected and read on for some more guidance. It was great since we could heat some water before completing the repair. This would be worth it on a very cold day! I got out my multimeter again and this time turned the water heater temperature UP to a higher setting (hotter water). The burners lit and we were heating water again.

I quickly turned everything off again shut off the gas and this time tested the system when a higher temperature was requested. My meter indicated a higher voltage which is all the signal the burner needs to light. Hooray for measurement technology (even if inaccurate) and all hail Thomas Johann Seebeck who discovered the magic of the thermocouple in 1821. This modern world “for the win” yet again.

I made the ride over to Home Depot around 11 AM and picked up some steel wool and a replacement thermocouple. Change back from $15 is welcome anytime. The goal of the casual DIYer (I am one of them) is to accomplish a project in one trip to the store if possible. It is a wonderful measure of success. As long as I was out I made a couple of other stops.

When I got home, the water at the sink was now warm to the touch so I went downstairs and lowered the hot water setting on the water heater for safety. I came up and had a little lunch and allow the unit to cool off. Finally, my just reward and a warm shower. While there was not an oversupply of hot water, I was easily satisfied. It was now after 1 PM and my outlook for the day had greatly improved.

The moving parts of a gas water heater. There is not a lot that can go wrong but if it does, a cold January day is when it might happen! The flexible silver hose is the gas line that serves the burner on the far right at the bottom of the water heater (like a gas range burner). Everything on the left part of the frame connects to the dial at the front of the water heater when it is all back together.

My confidence was now brimming and I went downstairs and shut off the water heater including the gas supply. Carefully removing the thermocouple and cleaning it as the video described was a quick and painless process. I rechecked the voltage with the multimeter and it had increased so I could safely lower the target temperature again. It seems there would be no need to replace the thermocouple and I now have a bolt of steelwool. It was 130 PM and regulated and available warm water had returned to the home. I would say that living like a king had become a reality but in truth, very few kings and queens in all of history could ever imagine life as great as ours. None of this was destined. Rather it all has come together on this little blue marble of a planet in an average solar system, part of an average galaxy (one of 200 billion or so). We are so lucky.

Closeup of the thermocouple (before cleaning) at 10 o’clock. The gas tube (2 o’clock) and the spark igniter at 6 o’clock. The principle is pretty easy. (1) the spark at the igniter crosses and ignites the fuel in the gas tube (the pilot light). Cleaning the carbonized tip of the thermocouple made it behave predictably again and send the right signal to heat some more water when we need it. That is all that was required to make things better.

As the evening winds down, the weather overnight and tomorrow will be very cold. It will be a great day for hot water. We never know what a day will present. We can only manage how we react to it. I now have an extra thermocouple. It was about $10. It is probably better to keep it in reserve if the problem emerges again. This will publish later in the week on Thursday. This is a repeat but the right song for the right night.