Welcome to my world…Same wonderful experience this week. My husband left for Texas the same morning the water heater stop producing hot water. Called Lowes and were told it was the Thermal Coupler, and guess what you get a new one for free. Well working full time, I had to wait until Wednesday before I could pick the part up, and had a friend install it…Guess what still no pilot light, called Whirlpool, gosh they were closed. Went to work Thursday for 40 minutes and took vacation time to deal with this. Got home and called Whirlpool on the phone 1 hour, where the gave me a number to call to have someone come out and fix it with labor and parts paid for. Called the number and after about 3 transfers was given another number “which was sears”. Called sears and after more transfers, was told that a person could be out the next day between 8-5. Gosh, already took time off work and get to do it again. I made the appointment, and then called Whirlpool back and said this is not acceptable. I was at this point given the “OK” to call a local repair person and they would repay me for the cost. I did and he came and could not fix it due to the parts and would take him a week to receive them. I am in tears at this point. I called sears back to make sure I had appointment still for the next day, and I did and they did give me a smaller window 1-5. I work full time and my vacation time is for vacation not this. But that is what I had. The repair called and showed up at 3:15. Knew the problem and said he replaces some three times a day. But when he replaced the “Gas Valve” (the real problem not the Thermal Coupler” he crimped a line on the new Thermal. He then tells me, he has to order the part and come back on Tuesday “this is friday” to replace it. Luckily, I had the old Thermal Coupler and said try this….it worked. I have hot water. After, a lot of time, a lot of problems and trouble. All of these companies need to be responsible for this product..American General the manufacture, Whirlpool the Corporation, and Lowes the Retailer. They are all aware and still continue to leave this product on the market know it has a defect…This is a water heater, gas is involved..do we need someone to die before this is addressed..I am disgusted with all three and will not ever purchase one of their products again

That is my biggest gripe about appliances, they just don’t do things right from the start. My daughter-in-law had a new washer come in just before her new baby was born. (She recycles and uses cloth diapers and cloth wipes, made herself from scraps). Washer didn’t work right from day 1. Water drained straight through and spin cycle didn’t spin. Took them almost a week to send out a replacement.

Member of my BNI group had new washer issues too.

Bev, you are lucky to be getting the inconvenience check.

I’m glad that it is fixed and the problem shouldn’t be recurring. Now if only Whirlpool had the part to begin with the first time it went out, I’d be a much happier camper.

Replacement came–didn’t work. We thought that was odd. To make a long, frustrating story short–after dealing with lots of people who didn’t seem to have a clue, Nate discovered something had been disconnected causing the water to not run from wherever to the washer.

In the meantime, we’re still waiting on the “inconvenience check” Maytag promised to send for our frustration—a whopping $75–which would just about cover all of the dirty clothes had we taken them to the laundromat.

I feel your pain–trust me!

Maybe you should switch to Sears *SMILE – have had my Sears washer and dryer for about 10 years and hot water heater about 8. I love Sears and the service techs are great!

Never had experience with Whirlpool. After your saga, won’t anytime soon (or later).

Best of luck dealing with this mess. I don’t like cold showers and the last time my water heater went out, went to girlfriend for showers while hubby stayed home to take his (was in the winter, and no way am I taking cold showers).

Take care and thanks for the update,

Heidi (the other one)