Yes, I have replaced a few. The exact part may be NLA but there are
others that work fine. The RM182 version just has a shorter metal hose
than most Dometics but the longer ones can work just as well. Just coil
the extra hose neatly anywhere along the run.

Until recently most gas appliances, like home water heaters and
furnaces, had the same type safety valve and thermocouple setup as our
Dometics. There was a pilot light that needed to be manually lit. These
all needed a button held down during lighting until the thermocouple was
producing enough voltage to activate the electromagnet. The beauty of
these types was that no external electricity was needed for operation.
Once pilotless ignition came into prevalence, gas appliances needed some
sort of electrical power to operate.

The thermocouples in home water heaters and furnaces are fairly generic
and any decent hardware store will stock them in several lengths. I have
never tried to use one in a Dometic but they may well be able to be
used. The burner ends came in slightly different shapes and sizes.
Nowadays the generic replacements come with a small parts kit to allow
the fitter to adapt the burner end mount to various brands of appliance.

Mark

Paul Chubbuck wrote:

> Does anyone have experience with replacing this thermocouple?  How would you
> know that it needed replacing?  And how would you find a suitable
> replacement part?  I'm pretty sure Dometic won't have it, though I haven't
> checked.
>
> Paul
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: alfred bagdan [mailto:abagdan@shaw.ca]
> Sent: Friday, August 10, 2007 7:28 PM
> To: paul@takingflight.net
> Subject: Re: Dometic woes
>
> If you have a voltmeter, you could check the millivolts the thermocouple
> produces.  When they get old they produce less.  People who service furnaces
>
> replace them a lot.
> I'm not sure what the specs are, perhaps that can be looked up.
>
> Alfred
>