appliance repairman here?

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pishta

pishta

I know I'm right....
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My gas oven is as dependable as my sisters old Fiat. We put a pot pie in for 90 minutes at 350 and when the timer went off, we pulled it out and the thing was nowhere near done. Checked the hanging thermostat in the oven at it said 225! We've been having low temp/extended baking times for a few months now sort of off and on, literally. I preheated to 350 this morning for 40 minutes and the damn thing got to 225. I checked the igniter (electric) and its glowing like a light bulb but no flame. Could the gas servo be faulty? I turned it off and then turned it back on to 350 and the igniter started to glow and the gas kicked on (does not always do that) and the gas lit as designed. Even shut off at 350 and lit back up at 325 twice in 15 minutes. so whats up? Almost bought a new igniter but mine glows like a filiment, a light yellow. Should it be near white? Temp seems accurate too when it works. Oven is Fridgidaire, 15 years old.
 
check the connections on your thermocouple or replace it, I had the same problem but mine set off a alarm when it didn't get a good reading from the thermocouple
 
I have always had good luck fixing appliances by searching on google. Sounds to me like a faulty thermostat (thermocouple).
 
what exactly does a thermocouple do? Does it sense the ignition temperature of the ignitor before switching on the gas? I can see how if that was faulty the gas would never turn on.
 
These other guys most likely have it figured out.

I kinda of ended up working as a appliance repair guy for roughly three years with zero formal training. YouTube and google helped me out a lot.
 
Mine was doing the same thing. It ended up being the igniter which also acts as a kind of termocouple that controls the voltage to the safety valve. Basically wasn’t allowing enough current to the safety valve for it to open. I also replaced the temp sensor and all’s been good, had it apart so figured replace both parts. Ran about $30. Look up your model on line and get the replacement part numbers and do a web search. By the way the igniter was glowing and lighting fine.
 
ignitor is cheap, ill start with that. Thanks.

"...And finally, it is possible for an oven ignitor to glow red and still be defective. That's because the resistance of the ignitor is what determines whether or not gas will flow from the oven safety valve. If the resistance of the oven ignitor is only down slightly, it can still glow red but not draw enough current to allow the oven safety valve to open giving the illusion that it is not defective..."

BTW the ignitors glow a lot brighter than red! Almost a white.
 
There is usually a thermocouple in front of the pilot flame. It is there to make sure the pilot is on and will not let the gas valve to open without a pilot. If your main burner is lighting its not your pilot or thermocouple. There will be at least one temperature sensor in there that tells the main burner when to come on and off (call for heat). If the main burner comes on but shuts off before reaching set temp, its probably the temp sensor.
 
Temp sensor is what I was thinking not so much the thermocouple
 
Fixitnow.com might help.
RepairClinic has parts and recommendations for parts versus symptoms.
 
1.........Electronic or hot surface ignition ovens DO NOT USE a thermocouple. Thermocouples are only used on pilot systems

2........Look up your brand model and see "what you have." Last time I messed with one (mine is an electric range) there was only the integrated valve and a hot surface device

3....If it has (2) above, and the ignitor glows it may be the valve is not opening, or that the ignitor has changed resistance. It's a crap shoot. The ignitor is cheaper so try it first.


3A........MAKE CERTAIN you actually have gas pressure.......Do all burners work as normal? Then you can assume "so"

4......If there is no controller other than the gas valve itself and a new ignitor did not fix it, then yeh........gas valve.


5....If the ignitor is NOT heating, then it could be the ignitor or the valve. With power disconnected, remove wire leads from the ignitor at the valve, check the ignitor for continuity and the gas valve terminals for continuity. Whatever shows open is bad

Generally ........not just ovens......hot surface ignitors can be a PITA because they are usually made from some brittle material, and "I guess" get more so with use. They can crack and become intermittent, start to heat and then quit, etc etc, or just plain "sometimes." I ALWAYS have a spare ignitor laying around for my gas furnace. I've replaced two
 
pishta said:
My gas oven is as dependable as my sisters old Fiat. We put a pot pie in for 90 minutes at 350 and when the timer went off, we pulled it out and the thing was nowhere near done. Checked the hanging thermostat in the oven at it said 225! We've been having low temp/extended baking times for a few months now sort of off and on, literally. I preheated to 350 this morning for 40 minutes and the damn thing got to 225. I checked the igniter (electric) and its glowing like a light bulb but no flame. Could the gas servo be faulty? I turned it off and then turned it back on to 350 and the igniter started to glow and the gas kicked on (does not always do that) and the gas lit as designed. Even shut off at 350 and lit back up at 325 twice in 15 minutes. so whats up? Almost bought a new igniter but mine glows like a filiment, a light yellow. Should it be near white? Temp seems accurate too when it works. Oven is Fridgidaire, 15 years old.
Click to expand...

pishta said:
ignitor is cheap, ill start with that. Thanks.

"...And finally, it is possible for an oven ignitor to glow red and still be defective. That's because the resistance of the ignitor is what determines whether or not gas will flow from the oven safety valve. If the resistance of the oven ignitor is only down slightly, it can still glow red but not draw enough current to allow the oven safety valve to open giving the illusion that it is not defective..."

BTW the ignitors glow a lot brighter than red! Almost a white.
Click to expand...

Hey Steven,
It's the igniter itself, as we had exactly the same problem you are having.
We found out that the igniter actually causes a certain amount of resistance that starts the gas flowing.
So, even though the igniter glows bright red the thermocouple isn't controlled by heat, but the amount of resistance.

I think it was 11 bucks shipped and now the oven works like new again.
 
Our gas stove takes 50 minutes to heat up to 375*F. Seems too long? I like how inexpensive gas is, but this stove doesnt seem very efficient.
Good luck, following...
 
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