(With regard to this.)
Thanks to the building superintendent at the downtown building where I'm on the building committee, I now have a nice left-hand-threaded split nut holding the replacement standard thermocouple onto my water heater thermostat. And he got to play with his new multi-grinder-cutter-sander-younameit tool in the bargain. I'd have done it myself at home but I can't find my hacksaw in the mess formerly known as my garage.
Oh, and BIG THANKS to Og for making the suggestion in the first place.
No more duct tape. Whew.
Picture:
Couldn't really get in to get a good angle on it but you should be able to see the slot we cut and the copper shell of the thermocouple peeking through. (The unusable right-handed nut is, of course, hanging loosely underneath.)
Very nicely done! and now you have the 'Emergency" tool you can use to swap it again next time!!
I'd buy me three or four of those left handed bastards, if i had any say in the matter. And when the heater finally died I'd take the whole deal and jam it in the mfr's keister!!
I don't know if Sears is ever going to get more of these or not. That was literally the only place I could find them available, and then the bastards backordered me.
I figure if it fails again I'll be replacing the water heater anyway. It's two years out of warranty so I figure the tank will fail next.
One thing's for damn sure: I won't be replacing it with a Whirlpool/Sears/American Water Heater unit.
I complained to Sears about the indefinite backorder and they are refunding my money and cancelling the order.
Which, given that their general policy is not to cancel parts orders, made me perfectly happy.