Showing posts with label stove. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stove. Show all posts

Stove Top Burner or Burners Not Lighting

Today we are going to talk a little about Gas Stove Burners.  Every once in a while you run into an issue with 1 or more burners.  Usually what I've found is that if one burner has stopped working, it doesn't get fixed.  It's usually when the second one goes is when you start looking for information on how to fix it.

Well, right now you are going to learn the biggest reasons why your gas stove burners can stop working, how to troubleshoot them, and what you need to replace to fix the problem.

This will actually be pretty simple to get you back up and running.  When you turner your gas burner knob to the light position, this sends a signal to the spark modulator, then the spark modulator sends the spark to the burners, easy enough right.

First thing we need to do is identify the problem that your having so I can tell you where to look.  So here is example problem number one.  When you turn the front right burner to light, nothing happens but you can hear the gas.  All the rest of the burners work fine.  Too make this easy, you have a bad ignitor wiring harness.  This is the piece that goes around each burner valve and tells the spark modulator that you are in the light position on one of the burners.  These come as an assembly, so if one is bad you end up replacing them for all your burner valves.

Here is example problem number two.  When you try to turn on the front right left burner, all the other burners spark, except the front left.  Well, you have a bad spark modulator.  When it receives the signal from one of the burner valves that its time to light, it sends a spark to all the burners.  Each burner has its own wire that comes from the spark modulator.  Now you have one burner with no spark, some of these are wired together, so one wire will control the two left side burners and the other wire will control the two right side burners.  If that's the case then if part of the spark modulator went bad then you would loose spark to half your burners.  Got it?

OK, here is the last, but most common problem that you will have with your stove, I saved the best for last.  Here are the symptoms of problem number three.  You turn your burner to light, the burner you are trying to light has spark, but it won't light and you can light it with a match.  This one is going to be just a little difficult to explain, but I will try my best.  In the area of the burner where your see the spark, behind the little white piece there is a hole, this hole goes into the center of the burner.  This is where the gas initially lights to light the whole burner.  If that little hole gets plugged with grease and grim, the gas cannot get to the spark and light the fire.  Usually a needle of some sort is what you would use to clean the hole.  If you closely inspect this with a flashlight you will see what I'm talking about.  I have a thin piece of wire that I carry with me when I'm out doing service just for this reason.

There you have it, hopefully with what you've learned in this post today, you are able to troubleshoot your range and have all your burners back up and working like they are supposed too.  Please take a minute to leave a comment telling me how you made out with your stove.  If you watched the video on this post, hit the "LIKE" button on the video, that helps out alot.

Thanks Again and Good Luck with your Repair!

How to Clean a Smooth Top Stove - #1 Best Way

Today we are going to talk about cleaning your glass top stove.  Too many times I will run a service call on someones appliance, other than the stove, and notice how dirty or stained up their glass top range is.  Every single day I end up giving someone a cleaning lesson on how to keep their cooktop looking brand new for years to come.  Of all the stoves that I've cleaned for people, one thing I have found out is,  nobody does it like I do.  Not sure why.  It is actually a very simple process.

You want to think of the smooth top on your stove like the paint on your car.  You must clean and protect it from dirt, grease and grime.  Regular cleaning is an absolute must when you own one of these.  There is no way around it.  But, if you want it to look like garbage, then stop reading now.  If you are interested in keeping your cooktop looking like its brand new, read on my friend.

There are a couple of supplies that you are going to need to begin.  Number one being being cooktop cleaner. Whether it's generic or Cerama Bryte or whatever, you will need this.  Do not use anything else other than cooktop cleaner.  Stop using Windex, bleach water, soapy water or whatever home concoction you have been using.  By using these products you are making cleaning your glass top much harder than what it really needs to be.  Seriously.

The next most important cleaning supply you are going to need is a green scotch brite pad.  These are very cheap and readily available pretty much anywhere.  There is no reason to not have a box or two of these around.  These are very effective for cleaning off burnt grease and and water stain marks.  Don't even think about using your washcloth. It does not have the scrubbing power.  The glass top on your stove will be just fine.  You will not hurt it at all.

Number three is going to be a razor blade scraper.  You will need this if you have not kept up with your cooktop cleaning duties.  I can tell you right now that you will not be able to properly clean your stove without one of these.  So make sure you have one when you are ready to begin.  You would be surprised of how many people don't realize or are afraid to use a razor blade on their stove.  Now you know that it is OK, let's move on to the last thing you will need.

The last supply that you are going to want to have are some paper towels.  You will need precisely two full sheets.  Do not use the paper towels that feel like cloth.  They may work for other cleaning purposes, but not for this.  Just trust me on this, they suck for this job.  Cheap paper towels work the best.  This is based off me cleaning hundreds of stove tops for people as a courtesy.

Now that you know what you need, let me tell you how to accomplish this mission.  Make sure that you are not cleaning your stove when the top is still hot from cooking.  Let it cool before you begin.

Step one is going to be applying the cooktop cleaner.  You want to use a generous amount to make sure that you can rub on a thick coat of this stuff.  Step two is going to be to use your green scotch brite pad to rub and scrub as much grease and grim off the cooktop as you can.  While the cleaner is spread around this is where you want to razor blade the areas that will not scrub off.  Once you have gotten off all the grease and grim that you can, its time to buff it clean.  Use a paper towel or clean rag to wipe off most of the excess cleaner.  You want to leave a thin coat still on the top.  This thin coat will haze over.  After it hazes over, go ahead and use a clean part of your rag or a new paper towel to finish buffing the top to a shine.

This method will work every time.  This should be the only way that you clean the top of your stove.  I am without a doubt sure that if you clean it like this regularly, your top will look brand new the entire time you own your glasstop stove.

Make sure you watch the video on this page.  This is me giving a demonstration on what this article is about. Give the video a thumbs up on YouTube.  Leave some comments if you have any questions or just want to say something.  I do my best to respond to every comment left on my YouTube channel.  Thanks for taking the time to read and watch this.  Good Luck with your new cooktop or your dirty cooktop that is going to look its best in years.
To read more on Caring for you Stove follow this link.

Broken Stove Top

Todays post is going to be on glass top stoves.  How to take care of them and how NOT to break them.

On two separate occasions  today I had to "break" the bad news to some customers that their precious  smooth top stove is going to cost an arm and a leg to repair.  Two instances that could have been easily avoided.  I won't complain too much though, unfortunately your pain is my financial gain, right?  I am the Appliance Repair Man!  I secretly tell my wife, I hope  people break their sh*&, pay my bills! lol.  OK, I'm done, for now.

Cerama Bryte
Taking care of your smooth top stove is not going to be rocket science but you will have to spend more time cleaning it then you would your standard coil burner stove.  The glass of a smooth top stove is some pretty sturdy glass, but it's not bulletproof.  If the stove is new, please make sure that you use the Cerama-Bryte on the top before you use it.  Think of it like waxing your car.  It makes it so much easier to clean when you make your first mess.

This next tip is probably the most important advice to follow when owning a ceramic smooth top stove.  Do not put your salt and pepper shaker on the top of the control panel.   That includes your pretty little kitchen decorations that you may be tempted to fancy up your stove with.  Don't do it, just don't.

Of course you want to make sure your pans are flat on the bottom.  If not they will rock around and potentially cause a crack to magically appear on the glass top.  If the bottom of your pans have burned up whatever on them, that will leave marks on the top.  Maybe not permanent but hard to clean off marks.

Use caution when your putting your pots and pans on the stove.  If you set them down too hard on the top you can break the glass.  These are some things that you need to pay extra attention to when you own a ceramic smooth top stove.

Another thing you don't want to do is turn on a burner without a pan on it and leave it run.  A few seconds you'll be fine.  I'm talking about turning it on, then doing other kitchen duties while that burner is just blaring away at the glass with no pot on it.  Your just asking for a $300 plus repair.  And that's not being very green now is it?  If I have left anything out that you feel should be in there, just let me know in the comments, I'll edit the post and include it.

Now on to cleaning the top.  The good old green scratchy pad is the best for big messes.  If you have something burned on there use that along with some dish soap and put some elbow grease on it.  That will take off most everything.  Now if you've finally decided after 10 years to finally clean the top, you may have to resort to more drastic measures.  This is where some common sense will go along way.  After you have scrubbed away with your green scratchy, for an hour and you still have rings around the burner, grab a razor blade scraper.  You can use this on the top, it will be fine.  Just keep the blade flat and make sure its new.  Cover the top with some cerama-bryte, spread it around and go to town scraping off the really hard to get off  burned on grease and grime.  Be patient and don't use power tools, I've seen it all, trust me.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post!  Please comment if you have any questions or if you just have anything to add.