OT: gas range

[Slowpoke]

I bought a used Whirlpool 30" 4 burner self cleaning natural gas range and tested each burner igniter/control for spark. Now after installing it, turning on ANY of the 4 controls causes ALL 4 burners to spark at the same time. I didn't give it enough time to ignite the burners for safety reasons. Any help appreciated. Thanks

 

[MarkB_MI]

That is normal behavior for all the gas ranges I've used with electronic ignition. The igniter fires all burners.

The way it works is this: Each control valve has switch that tells the igniter module when it's on. If any valve switch is on, the igniter fires at all burners until it senses that all burners which are turned on have flame. The flame is sensed by measuring conductivity from igniter electrode to ground between sparks; flames conduct electricity, air and gas do not.

You'll notice that if any flame is blown out, the igniter will fire until it restarts.

 

[NEsota]

We bought the same used range(scratch and dent) I think, but with the Kenmore name. Our issue was that the oven would not always reignite when hot. There would often be a too loud 'POOF' when it did light. Upon replacing the stove it appeared that the problem may have been due to a restricted gas supply line, because of a bend in the copper tube' used to connect to the stove. We should have found this out sooner.

 

[Brian Jasper co. Ia]

We have a Maytag brand gas range. It sparks all burners when any one valve is in the "light" position. It doesn't have any sort of automatic flame out sensing. Sounds like normal operation to me.

 

[Slowpoke]

I'm sure the Code does not permit a soft copper gas connector any more. A stainless steel flex connector is required.

 

[Slowpoke]

This is my first gas range. Thanks to all for the answer.

 

[Stan in Oly, WA]

Hi Slowpoke,

The answers you've gotten suggest that there are a number of ways gas ranges deal with ignition and loss of flame. Mine goes into the ignition (sparking) mode on all four burners when any knob is turned on the first few degrees of rotation. When the burner lights, you have to turn the knob past the ignition setting or it will stay on and keep sparking. The other side of that coin is that you can turn knob past the ignition setting so that the gas is on but there's nothing to light it. Same thing if something puts the flame out---a gust of air when it's on its lowest setting will sometimes do it, or a pot boiling over and drowning the flame. Then the gas can stay on until someone notices the smell, or worse. It's not that old a range, or a no name brand, either.

Stan

 

[TomR Ont]

Slowpoke,
we have the same stove, pilot works the same.

what I don't like is there is not much space on the dial from low to med and high.

when the burner is turned up or down you would think in this modern world they could put in an notable indent to signify approx volume.

also when there is a power failure, when the power comes on the stove locks then you have to unplug it then plug it back in.

 

[Slowpoke]

My range is just the opposite: turn the knob fully clockwise to ignite, then back off to high or lower.

 

[Bob]

A man jumps out of an airplane with a parachute on his back. As he's falling, he realizes his chute is broken. He doesn't know anything about parachutes, but as the earth rapidly approaches, he realizes his options are limited; he takes off the parachute and tries to fix it himself on the way down. The wind is ripping past his face, he's dropping like a rock, and at 5000 feet, another man goes shooting up past him. In desperation, the man with the chute looks up and yells, "Hey do you know anything about parachutes?!"

The guy flying up looks down and yells, "No, do you know anything about gas stoves?!"

 

[NEsota]

Bob's contribution reminds me of a film clip used in a boiler training program, in it they set up a household type 30-40 gallon caypacity water heater in a privy size enclose. The over-heat, over-pressure safeties are disabled and this set-up is in a field, several hundred feet away from anything else. The normal heat input is applied while being filmed from a distance. The film shows the little enclosure blowing apart and the water tank being launched maybe a hundred feet in the air.
I later confirmed these results when I forgot that I had a can of shaving cream being heated on the top of the range, it was in a gallon can with water. Well, something came up and I left the house in a hurry, forgetting about shaving. Upon returning I found: a blackened gallon can that was shaped like a fire-cracker had gone off in it, the iron grill work over the burner was shattered, stove top was bent and the drywall in the ceiling had a (perfect circle hole) shaving can size in it. Experiment confirmed and she now has a new stove. Best not to try at home.

 

[bc]

It's a safety issue. If a valve to a burner leaks, the igniter will go ahead and start the burner burning. Otherwise leaking gas would accumulate until it goes over to the burning burner creating an explosion.

Back in the day they had a separate pilot for every two burners. If the front pilot wasn't working then we'd turn on a back burner until the front one lit usually with a swoosh.