# Ovens....



## Eagleeyes (Aug 1, 2007)

For the life of me, neither myself nor DW can light our oven. We have tried and tride. I think it worked once when the trailer was new, 3 years ago. We'll be getting a new trailer again, but I was wondering if there was any trick to this effort?

Also, the water heater doesn't want to turn on using the gas. It simply clicks on and off, and on and off again, but doesn't seem to light. Aside from running water to see if its hot, is there any other way to tell if its on?

Bob


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## battalionchief3 (Jun 27, 2006)

You could open the blow off valve a little and see if steam or hot water blows out, you see the danger in this though I hope....

Do you have any gas in the tanks? Do the burners work? Does the fridge work on gas? Just asking, sometimes this gets overlooked.


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## h2oman (Nov 17, 2005)

What Battalion Chief said. Turn on the gas to the stove and keep sparking until the burners light. That will mean that the air has been purged from the lines and are now filled with gas. That may help your hot water heater probelm. Also, you need to heat up the thermocouple before the pilot will stay on on the oven. Push in the the oven knob and light the pilot while holding in the knob. Continue holding the knob in until the thermocouple gets hot from the pilot flame. Then let go of the knob. If the pilot stays on you are good to go with the oven.

John


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## egregg57 (Feb 13, 2006)

h2oman said:


> What Battalion Chief said. Turn on the gas to the stove and keep sparking until the burners light. That will mean that the air has been purged from the lines and are now filled with gas. That may help your hot water heater probelm. Also, you need to heat up the thermocouple before the pilot will stay on on the oven. Push in the the oven knob and light the pilot while holding in the knob. Continue holding the knob in until the thermocouple gets hot from the pilot flame. Then let go of the knob. If the pilot stays on you are good to go with the oven.
> 
> John


 H20 man hit it on the head. Once we did this it works everytime!


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## pjb2cool (Apr 8, 2004)

egregg57 said:


> What Battalion Chief said. Turn on the gas to the stove and keep sparking until the burners light. That will mean that the air has been purged from the lines and are now filled with gas. That may help your hot water heater probelm. Also, you need to heat up the thermocouple before the pilot will stay on on the oven. Push in the the oven knob and light the pilot while holding in the knob. Continue holding the knob in until the thermocouple gets hot from the pilot flame. Then let go of the knob. If the pilot stays on you are good to go with the oven.
> 
> John


 H20 man hit it on the head. Once we did this it works everytime!
[/quote]

We had the same problem also...What H20 man said has worked for us as well. I hope it is the fix for you too...Good luck.


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## Eagleeyes (Aug 1, 2007)

battalionchief3 said:


> You could open the blow off valve a little and see if steam or hot water blows out, you see the danger in this though I hope....
> 
> Do you have any gas in the tanks? Do the burners work? Does the fridge work on gas? Just asking, sometimes this gets overlooked.


Yes...Yes...and...Yes....

Although not sure all of the burners had been on during that trip.

Bob


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Since the Oven pilot is a two stage pilot everyone should know that the primary pilot has no thermocouple but the gas flow is so low it will never build to a dangerous level.

The secondary pilot has a thermocouple that controls the main gas valve. It has to heat up to open this valve.

Watch the flame when lit and in the "Pilot On" position, the flame will be very small. Turn the knob above 150 and the secondary pilot will light and the flame will go from 3/8" to about 1 to 1.5". Once the safety thermocouple heats the main burner valve will open.

The Pilot On position gas flow is so low that it can take 5 minutes to get lit. So the trick I use is to hold the lighter under the pilot and turn the stove to 175. This opens the secondary pilot and it will light within 2 to 3 seconds. The pilot will then heat the thermocouple and once hot enough it will open the main valve. I leave the oven on for a minute and then turn it back to "Pilot On". This operation normally purges the air from the primary pilot and it will stay lit and all will be good.


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## h2oman (Nov 17, 2005)

Good tip Andy.


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## Rollrs45 (May 7, 2007)

Not to ask a stupid question, but are you reaching all the way to the back of the stove when you go to light the pilot? That is where the pilot light on my unit is. I've never had a problem..... I bought one of those "torch" style long neck lighters and it does the trick every time. I also light a burner first to make sure there is no air trapped in the line.

Mike


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

CamperAndy said:


> Not to ask a stupid question, but are you reaching all the way to the back of the stove when you go to light the pilot? That is where the pilot light on my unit is. I've never had a problem..... I bought one of those "torch" style long neck lighters and it does the trick every time. I also light a burner first to make sure there is no air trapped in the line.


Related to my question above, I would think you would definetly want a grill lighter to do that procedure!!!


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## h2oman (Nov 17, 2005)

Rollrs45 said:


> Not to ask a stupid question, but are you reaching all the way to the back of the stove when you go to light the pilot? That is where the pilot light on my unit is. I've never had a problem..... I bought one of those "torch" style long neck lighters and it does the trick every time. I also light a burner first to make sure there is no air trapped in the line.
> 
> Mike


You got it. Just keep holding the knob in and the lighter and pilot will heat up the thermocouple. Then when you let go of the knob after 30 sec or so the pilot should stay lighted.


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## Scoutr2 (Aug 21, 2006)

I agree with all the advice about getting the thermocouple to heat up first. But you might want to get in there with a flashlight and make sure that the thermocouple isn't corroded or covered with a haze.

Those things only produce a few mili-volts and it doesn't take much to insulate them enough so that they won't work properly - especially if you haven't used the oven in a long time. I had this problem with my home furnace, just this past winter. The burners would light, and then go out after about 3 seconds. The "Flame Present Sensor" (a thermocouple) was a bit corroded after 5 years and wasn't sending a signal to the control board, so the burners would go out - then retry again in a minute, etc.

Also, a spider could have taken up residence in the venturi or burner. This would block the flow of gas.

Either of these could cause your water heater gas mode problem, as well.

Just my $.02. Hope you figure this one out soon.

Mike


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Nathan said:


> ...The Pilot On position gas flow is so low that it can take 5 minutes to get lit. So the trick I use is to hold the lighter under the pilot and turn the stove to 175. This opens the secondary pilot and it will light within 2 to 3 seconds. The pilot will then heat the thermocouple and once hot enough it will open the main valve. I leave the oven on for a minute and then turn it back to "Pilot On". This operation normally purges the air from the primary pilot and it will stay lit and all will be good.


Interesting, how quick between the second pilot lighting and the main burner lighting???









[/quote]

From the time the secondary pilot lights to heat the safety thermocouple to the point of opening the main gas valve normally will be 4 or 5 seconds. Using a long reach camp lighter is the easiest thing to use. The main burner does not light with any big bang or lots of fire but is really small and very low intensity.


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## shaela21 (Aug 16, 2005)

One trick that I found that works for lighting the oven is to light one of the burners on the stove first. This draws the gas up to the oven and I have found the pilot lights on the first try. I hope this also works for you.


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## Scoutr2 (Aug 21, 2006)

shaela21 said:


> One trick that I found that works for lighting the oven is to light one of the burners on the stove first. This draws the gas up to the oven and I have found the pilot lights on the first try. I hope this also works for you.


Great tip! I'll try that next time out. My DW always has me light the oven because she struggles with it. I guess I'm kinda used to lighting stubborn pilot lights - from our pop-up days of lighting the fridge and the HW heater all the time (no automatic on those!).

Thanks,

Mike


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