American Water Heater Company Model FG6150T403NO
I woke up to the surprise of a cold shower the other day due to my gas water heater that had an issue. It is an American Water heater Company Model FG6150T403NO. I was able to fix it, but wanted to post something with my model number as I didn’t see much on the internet about it. I also wanted to save someone from possibly buying the wrong part. After looking into the issue I figured it was a bad thermocouple. The pilot light would not stay lit. This can be a common failure on gas water heaters. I was about to buy a new one online and lucked out before purchasing, and found out that I have “Left Hand Threads” on my thermocouple. The part I was going to order had normal right hand threads and would not have worked. I looked all over to find a left hand threaded thermocouple without much luck. (I wanted it ASAP as I did not want to have cold showers for a week). Luckily I found a “kit” at our local Lowes home improvement store. It cost me $35 dollars and was money well spent. I was able to get it installed by following the directions that came with it. If your searching the net, search for “American Water Heater Company Water Heater Tune-Up Kit” and that should get you pointed in the right direction.
Your issue may not be the same as mine, so no guarantee this would fix your problem. This is just how I fixed mine. I am not a professional plumber or water heater expert. I am not advising anyone to fix theirs themselves as it can be dangerous if you do not know what you are doing. You can always just call up a professional and have them come diagnose and fix the issue. Knowing how much the part costs locally might give you a little extra bargaining power when they give you a price quote. This is just to give you an idea of what the issue might be.
Here is the old assembly. Basically with the new assembly I had to re-use a few things like the burner, but most of this in the picture below got replaced. I thought the installation instructions in the kit were good.
Once I pulled out the assembly, I had to vacuum out the inside with the shop vac.
With the new one installed I was never so happy to see the flame. ( With the old unit I could just barely see through the window it was so dirty.) My old door cover had a round window, this new one has a square window. Hot Showers again!
This is my label with my part number
And what it looks like now with the cover off….
