Plumbing help needed

[Kevin B.]

Any plumbers around? We've got a Whirlpool hot water heater, model FG1F4034t3NOV, with a pilot light that just started going out after each cycle. I'm thinking thermocouple, but I'm having trouble getting past the access panel under the regulator, and a little web crawling has turned up a couple instances of folks saying this thermocouple is not a serviceable part. This is apparently a very common problem with this model heater (like, recall and class action lawsuit common), and we're lucky it's lasted so long.

Is anyone a professional plumber that can confirm or deny that the thermocouple is replaceable, and advise what the trick is to opening the service panel? I've removed the bolts on each side, but it isn't budging, and I don't want to force it.

 

[jeeper]

I don't know the specific heater you are working on, but those sealed access panels come off with a little force or pry from a screw driver.. My experience has been that the gas line also has to be disconnected from the valve to remove the thermocouple....
Try pulling it off and sanding it clean again with some sand paper.. Has worked for me many times.