We have an older Sears natural gas stove/oven. In the past few months, when you light the oven, by turning the gas on (it has a pilot light), it doesn't light right away. It might take up to 30 seconds and then it comes on with a BOOM!! Sometimes it causes the door to fly open a couple of inches. What could be causing this??
Gas is building up until it comes in contact with the flame. Your burner probably needs to be cleaned.
geeez, i turn the gas immediately off & wait if it doesn't ignite within 5-10 seconds (tops) - but to wait 30 seconds ???? accident waiting to happen - the fact it blows open the oven door should be a BIG clue !! unless you want the Darwin award, that oven should not be used - period - until it's properly repaired/cleaned.
Reminds me of an old Bugs Bunny episode - with the gangster hiding in the old house on the hill, and the cop at the door, with our hero Bugs hiding the mobster in the oven - then telling the cop, "would I throw a lighted match in the oven if he was in there?"....then holds the oven door shut while it blows up inside.
Shhhhhh.....don't give this guy any more clues. Maybe he'll be incinerated before he can reproduce. People like this raise children who are equally unable to come to logical conclusions about what they see right before their eyes. We don't need any more of them.
I agree with John, clean the burner especially near where the pilot light is. If you can take it out to clean it that would be better.
JThank you Joey and John for a suggestion of what to try before calling a service man.
And JoeSpareBedroom, you can kiss my Irish red ass!!! You too, cheesiepoofs=A0!
I asked for advice on what to try to fix it myself. I wasn't looking for criticism.
Please stop reading this newsgroup and call a licensed plumber. Your house and your life is in danger from an explosion.
Tomkanpa,
Since you've received another posting offering no help, I thought I would expand on the suggestion that John and I gave you.
This problem is common to any gas oven and gas grills.
Over time the burners ports clog up not allowing any gas to come out. Sometimes you can look at the burners when they are working and you'll see areas that are not burning. That's because the ports are clogged. Cleaning the ports is something a homeowner can do themselves and is considered 'preventive maintenance' so....no need to rush out and hire someone. All this is assuming that the burners are still in good condition....no rust throughs.
They actually make burner cleaners that are inserted into each port to clean them out. I also like to lighly brush with a brass brush the outside of the burners also. Soaking the burners in a cleaning solution might also help, but it's important they be absolutely dry before reinstalling them. It's time consuming, but each one of those many ports needs to be cleaned, especially the ones near the ignitor point. You should see a drastic improvement not only in lighting fast, but a better distribution of the heat once cleaned. So, check out your family style hardware store for the burner port cleaners which is better, but using a wire just smaller than the port diameter is better than nothing.
Good luck and don't forget your outside gas grill might also need this cleaning !
Joey
Also suggest that you make sure the pilot light is burning normally. If its jet is corroded or clogged it my be burning badly (e.g. too small) and/or pointing in the wrong direction so that gas build up inside oven until it finally 'explodes'. Sounds very dangerous! Fix immediately.
And JoeSpareBedroom, you can kiss my Irish red ass!!! You too, cheesiepoofs!
I asked for advice on what to try to fix it myself. I wasn't looking for criticism.
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Sounds to me like you tried lighting that oven more than once, and noticed its "interesting" new behavior. Is that true? Did you do it more than once?
From: JoeSpareBedroom Date: Sun, May 21 2006 10:03=A0pm
Sounds to me like you tried lighting that oven more than once, and noticed its "interesting" new behavior. Is that true? Did you do it more than once?
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More than once? Yes! But it lit normally after the first time it lit with the BOOM! But then once again, it came on with the explosion.
Sounds to me like you tried lighting that oven more than once, and noticed its "interesting" new behavior. Is that true? Did you do it more than once?
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More than once? Yes! But it lit normally after the first time it lit with the BOOM! But then once again, it came on with the explosion.
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I think you understand my point, then.
Thanks to John, Joey and Stan, the oven is fixed.
The burner and pilot light assembly needed to be cleaned. The holes in the burner very close to the pilot light were clogged. In fact there were two holes that were in a location to obviously be the first ones to light. I didn't even know these holes were there until I started wire brushing the burner. When you turned the gas on, it came out of the burner but not from the holes by the pilot light. It took a little while for the gas to get to the pilot light. . I removed the burner and pilot light assembly. I wire brushed them and then blew them out with compressed air. I re-assembled it, lit all the pilot lights and lit the oven a half dozen times. Each time in about
3-4 seconds, the burner lit right next to the pilot light and the flame traveled around the burner, VERY quietly, until the whole burner was lit. It took about one second.replying to tomkanpa, nanlaw wrote: This happened to me after changing out the igniter... turns out that I had installed the new igniter on the inside of the bracket and it was resting too close to the burner tube. Luckily, I had taken a picture of what the old igniter looked like before I took it out... always take a picture, BTW. Easy fix, was to reinstall the new igniter on the outside of the bracket so that there is a space between it and the burner tube.
replying to Joey, Blab wrote: Thank you. That is the answer I was looking for.
replying to Joey, Blab wrote: Thank you. That is the answer I was looking for.
This guy is lucky to be alive - or not burned and disfigured for life.
replying to nanlaw, W Boatwright wrote: Not that this is of particular interest to anyone, but we have a 30 year old Weber Genesis gas grill with a side burner. The grill and the burner are both used on average at least twice a week and lights instantly as soon as the gas is turned on and the igniter is pushed. The grill racks are cleaned regularly, but the burners and valves have never needed cleaning. The grill uses natural gas. I'm going to inspect the ports, valves, and burners just for kicks, as I don't believe there's anything that requires service.
replying to nanlaw, W Boatwright wrote: Not that this is of particular interest to anyone, but we have a 30 year old Weber Genesis gas grill with a side burner. The grill and the burner are both used on average at least twice a week and lights instantly as soon as the gas is turned on and the igniter is pushed. The grill racks are cleaned regularly, but the burners and valves have never needed cleaning. The grill uses natural gas. I'm going to inspect the ports, valves, and burners just for kicks, as I don't believe there's anything that requires service.
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