Sixty year old furnace.
(Please don't chide me about inefficiency - it is in warm area of country where for 8 months of the year the furnace doesn't run at all - so payback for new furnace would be long time from now.)
Has Baso brand pilot safety switch, and has been going through thermocouples.
It won't accept the cheap Honeywell universal ones from Home Despot, either. They will fit, but they either work once then fail, or not at all. It wants the genuine Ba$o ones from the out of the way specialty shop that is only open on weekdays, and the one I put in 8 months ago has just failed. When I inspected the furnace today, the pilot was out. We had some wind gusts, and one probably blew it out. I re-lit the pilot and held the button down for 30 seconds, as prescribed on the still legible decal on the Baso switch, but could not get the switch to go into the "on" position when I released the button. I tried at least five times. Since it failed on a Saturday evening, all I could get on short notice was a 30 mv Honeywell thermocouple from HD, and it would not work at all - the switch will not latch in the "on" position. I either need to figure out what is killing the Baso thermocouples, or get a whole different switch and thermocouple setup. I wouldn't mind doing that if it was more reliable and used a thermocouple that was readily available. Any suggestions?
At present, for the remainder of the weekend, our heating setup is as follows:
No furnace.
2 small electric heatersAnd a 75 foot garden hose taped to the bathtub spout, with a trickle of hot water going through it. The hose runs out into the hallway, in and out of two bedrooms, then back into the bathroom and into the tub.It is taped to the tub so it can't fall out.
Jim