Gas hob conundrum, I need help fast!!

[Slime]

Hi all
I have a free standing New World gas cooker, which has been very good until today!
For no apparent reason, two of the four hobs will not ignite.
It's the front left, which now ignites very occasionally, and the back left which just will not ignite at all.
Gas is not the problem, they both light instantly with a match.
Any thoughts? Hopefully I'm missing something obvious.
Over to the experts.

Slime.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The ignition uses a high voltage pulse, jumping across a small gap, which is in the flow of gas. The tops of the burners usually just lift off for cleaning and you should then be able to see the spark gap, press the button and see the arc. The spark gap may be covered in crud.

 

[jj4091]

The ignition uses a high voltage pulse, jumping across a small gap, which is in the flow of gas. The tops of the burners usually just lift off for cleaning and you should then be able to see the spark gap, press the button and see the arc. The spark gap may be covered in crud.

On ours the spark jumps across to the burners from the igniters , removing them & cleaning the bottom of them & the top of aperture they sit on ( which holds the igniter ) is usually enough to give a good connection & restart them sparking. And of course the whole area needs to be dry so as not to conduct the spark to the top of the hob.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

On ours the spark jumps across to the burners from the igniters , removing them & cleaning the bottom of them & the top of aperture they sit on ( which holds the igniter ) is usually enough to give a good connection & restart them sparking. And of course the whole area needs to be dry so as not to conduct the spark to the top of the hob.

Exactly the same as is normal. It is not the connection which important, so much as ensuring the high voltage doesn't leak away and is forced to jump the gap.

 

[foxhole]

May have some blocked holes near the igniter.

 

[CBW]

Check for spark and how clean the ignition is.

 

[jj4091]

Exactly the same as is normal. It is not the connection which important, so much as ensuring the high voltage doesn't leak away and is forced to jump the gap.

It is the connection that matters Harry as if the burner is not earthed the spark will never jump the gap but track to the nearest point that is handy ( the burner mounting usually ).

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

It is the connection that matters Harry as if the burner is not earthed the spark will never jump the gap but track to the nearest point that is handy ( the burner mounting usually ).

It obviously needs some sort of earth/ground connection, but the connection needn't be particularly good, because this is very high voltage. 20 to 30Kv which is more than able to jump a bad connection. There really is no way an all metal hob can not have the burner adequately earthed so far as the igniter is concerned.

 

[Slime]

I had a look this morning and there is no spark at the rear left hob, no spark at all.
I should mention that this hob is very rarely used, could that be relevant?
If it just needs cleaning, how would I go about that?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I had a look this morning and there is no spark at the rear left hob, no spark at all.
I should mention that this hob is very rarely used, could that be relevant?
If it just needs cleaning, how would I go about that?

Remove the pan support, then lift the burner off - it shouldn't need any tools. Under that, you will see a white ceramic post with the high voltage contact protruding out of it, there should be a spark from that to the top of the burner, which is still in place, if the button is pressed. Compare working ones, with none working, they should be clean of debris. If that doesn't help, it could be that the igniter unit is faulty. The igniters usually have separate output windings, for each burner, so if one fails others will continue to work.

 

[gasbanni]

It will be the thermocouple leads under the hotplate they'll be shorting.......its not the spark generator/ ignition button otherwise you'd have no spark at all.

A ten minute job for someone that knows what they're doing ....... probably insulating tape wi do the trick ....but a new ht lead is cheap enough.

Your problem is getting someone who knows exactly what they're doing !

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

It will be the thermocouple leads under the hotplate they'll be shorting.......its not the spark generator/ ignition button otherwise you'd have no spark at all.

A ten minute job for someone that knows what they're doing ....... probably insulating tape wi do the trick ....but a new ht lead is cheap enough.

Your problem is getting someone who knows exactly what they're doing !

He suggested he could light the ring with a match to use it, if he can do that successfully, then there is nowt much wrong with the thermocouple. Ignition issue.