Gas cooktop igniters

[mattl]

I've been using gas cooktops for over 30 years. Lately the igniters on my Siemen's  (I'd guess Bosch) cooktop work but the burners often fail to light on the first, second and even third try - they will eventually light. 

 

The igniters will spark, the gas will flow and light, but once I release to knob it goes quickly out.  This happens regardless of how high the burner is set, this unit does not have a lighting position as some ranges do.  Sometimes I'll try lighting 2 burners at once and the odds a better that one will light.  The cooktop is about 13 years old and other than that is fine. 

 

Soon I'll be putting new countertops in, would rather not have to replace the cooktop but I'd like to know the fix before I make a new cutout for the cooktop.

 

[fan-of-fans]

I have heard that sometimes the ignitors get weak over time. Sometimes they also get a coating of cleaning product on them which causes issues.

Do be careful though because I used to know someone with a Maytag gas range once that did the same thing. They said theirs would shoot out flames once it did light, because of the gas build up before it lit. Of course I'd expect that to take more than a few seconds to happen.

 

[rp2813]

I have the same problem on my Gagge-naubueno cook top.  I sometimes have to blow at a burner to make it light, as if the damned thing was 80 years old. 

 

There's a safety feature built in that requires the knob to remain depressed until a sensor near the flame heats up to a certain point.  If you let up on the knob before then, the flame will go out.  Since Bosch owns Gaggenau, I wonder if your cook top has a feature that works similarly (likely better) but has developed issues. 

 

[sudsmaster]

I have a 24 year old Frigidaire Gallery Gas-On-Glass cooktop, and as I recall, the thing needs to be plugged into a power outlet to keep the igniters going. When I installed it, I put an outlet under the counter-top just for the igniters.

During a power outage, though, I can just use a BBQ lighter instead, and when we were having our rolling power blackouts in California some years ago, around 2001 during the Enron debacle, that's what I did. So far I haven't noticed any problems with the igniters when there is power.

 

[mattl]

Prior to the Siemen's I had a glass on glass KA gas cooktop.  Still have it, had planned on parting it out just never got around to it.  Worked but the individual grates and disk got pretty sad looking.

 

[askolover]

Mom's 1992 Caloric always had trouble lighting from day one.  If it didn't ignite after a couple of clicks, she'd just use a long butane candle lighter and light it manually.  We both have Frigidaire units now and they NEVER fail to ignite.