Before you call
Burner will not light or will not hold a flame
Most burner problems are dirt, and most of that dirt is where you can reach it. What follows takes about twenty minutes and fixes the majority of "clicks but will not light" complaints.
Safety
If you smell gas with all the burners off, do not touch any switch and do not use the phone indoors. Leave, and call the gas utility from outside.
- 1
Lift off the burner cap and head, and check the slots are clear.
Boil-overs block the ports, and a partly blocked burner lights unevenly or lifts off. Clear each slot with a pin — not a toothpick, which snaps and leaves a piece behind — and make sure the cap seats flat when you put it back. A cap sitting proud gives a yellow, uneven flame.
- 2
Dry everything thoroughly if the hob has been cleaned recently.
Water in or around the igniter stops it sparking, and it is the single most common cause of a burner that stopped working right after a clean. Give it a few hours, or a hairdryer on cool.
- 3
Watch which igniters click when you turn one knob.
On most hobs all of them click together. If none click at all, it is the spark module or the switch. If they click but one burner never lights while the others do, the fault is at that burner and it is usually the electrode position or a blocked port.
- 4
Check the flame colour once it does light.
It should be mostly blue with crisp edges. Yellow, lazy, or sooty flames mean the air-to-gas mixture is wrong, which wastes gas, blackens pans, and produces more carbon monoxide than it should. That is worth a call rather than living with.
Where to stop
When to call a technician
Not for our convenience. These are the points where carrying on is either unsafe or makes the repair bigger.
- You can smell gas at any time, including faintly and only sometimes.
- The flame is yellow or sooty after cleaning the burner properly.
- No igniter clicks on any burner.
- A burner lights but will not stay lit when you release the knob — that is the flame-safety thermocouple, and it is a safety device rather than a nuisance.
An on-site diagnosis is $65.00, credited toward the repair if you go ahead. If this page has already fixed it, better still — you owe us nothing.