On Thursday, 15 March 2018 19:38:12 UTC-4, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...
I have a BlueStar gas range, six burners, oven+broiler, all gas. A few days ago the oven quit working: the pilot light comes on but there is no igniter heat or gas flow at any position of the oven control knob, including broil.


I'm confused. I thought appliances that had pilot lights did not have igniters.




A bit of googling and we figured it was the igniter. I had the igniter fail in my boiler a while ago so I was familiar with this.

The old igniter has a cold resistance of over 300 ohms; when the oven knob is on, 120 V appears across it but no current flows (I have a clamp ammeter). Got a replacement igniter, cold resistance is about 50 ohms.

But it still doesn't work. There's still 120 V across the igniter but still no current flows.


That would seem to be impossible. If it has a resistance of 50 ohms and 120v across it, current has to flow, per ohm's law.



He is probably calling a gas solenoid valve the igniter. If so, ohms
law for DC does not apply,but for AC. To find the current, you would
need to know the inductance of the coil, or maybe must the name tag of
the solenoid.

In fact I was calling the front panel indicator lamp the "pilot light", sorry for the confusion. The igniter and the gas valve I'm pretty sure I got right.

The fact that the indicator lamp is lit suggests that the thermostat is calling for heat, and obviously that there's power.

I think the gas valve is the next thing to look at; possibly it's failed in a way where it "passes" 120 V by induction but won't pass current.

I don't know what to make of the difference in cold resistance between the old igniter and the new one. I can believe that as they age their resistance changes but I don't know how it might factor into this situation.

Anyhow, thanks for the comments, the gas valve is on the back of the range so it's more of a hassle to get to.

Chip C
Toronto