Older Gas Stove Question

I just moved into a new apartment over the weekend that is pretty old (I would say the building was probably built between the 40's and

50's).

The stove in this new apartment is a gas stove which is an old Roper I'm assuming from the apartments original construction, which works fine, but I noticed last night that even with the burners all off, the oven off and no discernible heat coming from any of them that there was still heat coming from the very center of where the burners are.

The burners are arranged on a metal square, and there's nothing in the center of them, I left the stove for the evening figuring that maybe that area had just heated up from use of the burners, it was still warm/hot to the touch this morning and this afternoon.

Admittedly I'm a novice with gas stoves, particularly older ones like this. The only thing I could think of was that there was a pilot light under there, and that was causing the heat. It was hot enough that you wouldn't want to leave your hand on there, but not hot enough to burn you at a touch, and the temp didn't seem to change much. I didn't want to mess with the panels at all, so I left it, I gave a call to my landlady just to check, but I believe she may be out of town for a few days. Any help would be appreciated.

Oh, and I haven't noticed any sort of smell of gas or anything like that.

Reply to
rohneric
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Unless you have spotted a pilot somewhere else, you have a pilot light there. I bet that the whole top fold up for access to it (after you remove the grates and drip pans). Oh. And you probably also have a pilot for the oven, too.

Reply to
M Q

The Roper range will have 3 standing pilots.

One for the oven.

One for the left two burners & one for the two burners on the right.

Rob

Reply to
trainfan1

Almost certainly, this is where the pilot lights are (1 between the left front and back burners, 1 between the right front and back burners). I've had a Roper gas stove of about this vintage. Lift up on the front edge of the metal square (the stove top; remove the burner grates first so they don't go clattering off) and you'll see them under there. You'll want to familiarize yourself with them, since pilot lights sometimes go out and need to be relit (it's handy to keep a box of kitchen matches around for this, or one of those long lighters sold for barbecue grills and fireplaces). By the way, when you wipe off the top of the stove, be sure to wipe off this area thoroughly, or the heat from the pilot lights will cook any grease onto there and make it very hard to remove.

As the other poster mentioned, there is most likely one in the oven, as well. You can usually see it by opening the bottom drawer (the broiler on these older models) and peeking in (look up toward the oven area).

Jo Ann

Reply to
hillacc at yahoo.com

I don't know about the Ropers or Chrissie or Jack, but there are certainly gas stoves with 4 burners and one pilot in the middle of all four of them. If it's hot in the middle but not on the left or right, you can be pretty sure that's what you've got.

Gas stoves are great. Pilots may waste gas but they have big advantages over electric starters. For one thing, you'll be able to cook during a power outage. Some or all of the ohter don't permit that. On older ones, the top generally lifts up and has a rod to hold it up, for cleaning. I used to clean every 3 years. Don't know about newer ones. (What you call older I would probably call newer.)

Reply to
mm

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Any gas stove top can be used during a power outage, modern or not.

Rob

Reply to
trainfan1

I'm told no. By people who have them.

Reply to
mm

Every modern gas stove I have seen, the stove top burners can be lit with a match if there is no power. This is certainly the case with my Jenn Air, I have done it. The oven is a different story, you won't be able to use a modern oven without power, the gas valve and controls are electronic.

Reply to
Mike S.

You were told no by people who have gas ranges but no matches, then.

Rob

Reply to
trainfan1

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