Stop sparking!

June 30, 2012 1:49 AM

The sparkers on my gas cook-top keep 'sparking' even when everything is turned off. There is no gas flowing to the range but the little spark plugs keeping sparking by themselves. From my lounge room I can hear them and it's getting worse and worse. Any ideas? Should I just get someone in to fix it? European stainless steel cook-top around 10 years old. I saw this AskMefi, but it doesn't quite answer my question.
posted by evil_esto to home & garden (6 answers total)

I had this on my cooker. Turned out the button to trigger the spark had gotten gummed up. At first a good clean-out solved it, later on the button/switch needed to be replaced.
posted by fearnothing at 3:34 AM on June 30, 2012

In most ranges, there's an electrical switch on each burner knob that switches on the igniters when the knob is in the correct position. Typically, all the igniters are on the same circuit, and spark simultaneously regardless of which burner knob is turned on. Anyhow, what's probably gone wrong is that one of those switches has failed and will need to be replaced. The other possibility is that you got some water, cleaning fluid, soup, etc. under the knob, it got into the switch and temporarily shorted it out. If the continuous sparking has just been going on for an hour or two then it might fix itself as the switch dries out. If this has been going on for days, just schedule a repair person.
posted by jon1270 at 4:43 AM on June 30, 2012

I had a stove that first did that when it rained so hard that water blew down the venthood and soaked it, and then after that it would go off again if it was especially humid. I would turn off the breaker to the stove for a while and point a fan at it to dry out whatever was unhappy. One time this took two days, but usually it only took an hour or two.

Do de-gunk your knobs, though, as best you can. Stuff can build up under there and create enough pressure to push on the igniter.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:40 AM on June 30, 2012

We used to have that problem sometimes after cleaning our range; it went away when we left it 'apart' longer to dry.
posted by Lady Li at 8:52 AM on June 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

A lack of proper electrical grounding will cause what you describe. You can get a simple tester for less than $10 to check the electric outlet where the cook top is plugged in. If ground is good at the outlet a multi meter test at the switch can diagnose your problem.
posted by X4ster at 10:51 AM on June 30, 2012

I have the same problem with my stove. I unplug it and that usually does the trick.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:14 PM on June 30, 2012