Colbyt wrote:

"Terry" wrote in message
news:_mNjf.587120$x96.426589@attbi_s72...

"Colbyt" wrote in message
news:7MMjf.592796$_o.586930@attbi_s71...

"Sawney Beane" wrote in message


And a very important side note. Wear gloves when you handle the
igniter.
The oils from your hand can cause a premature failure if any part of the
"ceramic" is touched. Learned that one the hard way.


I've never had one fail due to touching it. Rough handling, yes

I can't see a little skin oil doing anything to the silicone carbide.
After
a split second of heating, no oil.


I am far from an expert in the field. Repeating what I was told after a
very premature failure that was not repeated after wearing gloves. Was told
that the oil causes overheating.

Colbyt

It made me suspicious that the warning, apparently intended to be
read after the customer had handled the ignitor, didn't say *why*
touching it would cause failure. I knew skin oil would break a
quartz bulb by causing it to absorb radiant energy unevenly, but
that wouldn't apply to an ignitor.

When I bought one locally, the distributor said it was skin oil. I
suspected that was a myth to explain why some ignitors soon failed.
One manufacturer sells nitride converstion kits because repairmen
get so many callbacks after replacing crystalized silicon carbide
ignitors. I think the failure process begins when stress, shock,
or vibration causes a tiny surface crack. If it takes time and
perhaps thermal cycles for the crack to grow, the cause is unclear
when it fails.