3 replies to this topic

[mark5974]

Your troubleshooting guide for diognosing ignitors, safety valves etc. it great!!  I've concluded my ignitor is bad, and now have a new one in hand.  My new part has bare lead wires, does it matter which one I attach to the thermostat lead and which goes to the safety valve lead?

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

[user=469]mark5974[/user] wrote:

Your troubleshooting guide for diognosing ignitors, safety valves etc. it great!! 

Thanks, glad it helped! 

The ignitor is not polarity sensitive so it doesn't matter if you switch the wires, just make sure they're going to the right places.

[mark5974]

New ignitor is in, and the oven works!    Except...

 

Now there's a faint gas in the oven.  The only gas line related thing I touched during this experience was the on/off lever on the regulator during initial troubleshooting.  I've checked the obvious, and seem to have tight connections.  I then turned off the regulator lever and let the air in the oven clear for an hour or so, no smell.  Within 20 seconds of flipping the lever back on I detected the smell again.  

In your experience, can gas leak around the on/off mechanism on the regulator?  Or, can a safety valve leak?  Short of buying a gas sniffer, how can I find the leak.    

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

I've been on some calls where, after the replacing the ignitor (which was definitely bad) it revealed that it was masking an addditional problem with the gas valve not snapping open and shut. You can test this by turning the oven on and then off, then go underneath to where the brass gas orifice is set into the bas of the burner tube and poke a match in the primary air port. If you get a little yellow flame, then you know you have a sloppy valve and that's your next repair.

Or it could just be that you're low on gas. If you're on propane, the ethyl mercaptan smell gets very strong as the tank nears empty.

Or is could be nothing, everything might be normal.