Rheem/Ruud/Richmond Water Heater Gas Valve Repair AP15255D

Apparently in 2020 and 2021 Rheem had an issue where your water heaters pilot light would not stay lit and this was not caused by a defective thermocouple as people might expect. The failures are being caused by a Emergency Cut Off (ECO for short) that interrupts the voltage from the thermocouple before it gets to the gas valve. People online have been bypassing the ECO to get back up and running while they wait on a replacement valve under warranty from Rheem. Or in the case where Rheem denies your warranty claim because you're not the original purchaser this could be used to fix your existing valve. This instructable is meant to show you how to fix your old valve, inexpensively, so you can have a spare for when the warranty replacement also dies. This is done at your own risk!

Here's a youtube video which shows the bypass of the ECO and explains it a bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kOGhJwQTl8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJd7QWubNEA

Here's some other references about the problem:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/sa631p/richmond_water_heaters_from_menards_recall/

https://www.reddit.com/r/hvacadvice/comments/mr0ew6/is_this_gas_valve_a_good_replacement_for_my_rheem/

https://www.reddit.com/r/hvacadvice/comments/f412nr/water_heater_pilot_wont_stay_lit_with_this_thing/

T-25 Security Torx driver

Replacement 91 degree C thermal fuse

Pliers

1/4" diameter shrink wrap or better wide kapton tape

Lighter or heatgun

Sharp knife/hobby knife

On the back of your old valve you'll want to remove the 3 T-25 torx bolts which secure the thermal well to the back of the gas valve.

The thermal well will come off of the gas valve once the bolts are undone and the ECO is pushed out of its holder on the gas valve. Inside one of the pipes of the thermal well is some wires. Slide the wires out and this will contain the thermal fuse that we need to replace.

Use a sharp knife to cut a line along the factory shrink wrap which covers the thermal fuse and crimp connections. This will show you our failed component the 91 degree C thermal fuse. Undo the crimps and remove the failed thermal fuse. You can test this with a multimeter if you want to verify it's broken. It will be open when broken.

Crimp in your replacement thermal fuse. It just has to make solid electrical contact so the millivolts from the thermocouple can make it to the gas valve through the ECO. Once crimped we need to insulate the connection by covering it in a piece of kapton tape or cover it in heat shrink, shrink the heat shrink and slide it back into the thermal well. With heat shrink just avoid heating the actual thermal fuse as much as possible.

Route the wires back into the slot in the thermal well. Replace those 3 T-25 bolts and slide the ECO back into the connector for the thermocouple.