Our Shiputzim Chief Security Officer YZG (aka “Mr. S.”) is not only known for his Solomonic wisdom and his ability to concoct fake TV shows, but also for his erudite halachic discourses.
But today, YZG has graciously agreed to share some of his vast technical knowledge.
Take it away, YZG!
Disclaimer: The following post may not interest readers who don’t live in Israel and own American gas ovens. Proceed at your own risk.
Replacing Your Gas Oven’s Ignitor
A Guest Post by YZG
The ignitors on many American gas ovens don’t last very long. For instance, we have to replace ours every 1-2 years.
Fortunately, it’s a fairly simple process, and you can save a lot of money by doing it yourself.
Here, then, is a step-by-step DIY guide to replacing the oven ignitor. (I’m assuming that you have a replacement part. If not, they’re available in the US from sites like www.repairclinic.com.)
This is what the ignitor looks like:
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The first step is to remove the shelf covering the bottom of the oven. Once you do this, you should be able to see the ignitor attached towards the back of the long bar (called a “burn bar”) in the middle of the oven, as you can also see in this picture:
Unscrew the two screws on the top which are holding it on:
There will still be two wires going through some insulation and which are attached to somewhere in the under part of the oven, as shown here:
You’ll need to unplug this from underneath. Here’s how it’s done:
Remove the drawer on the bottom of the oven so you can access the underside of the oven. You should see a metal plate, like this:
After you unscrew and remove the plate, you’ll see a plug as shown circled in red:
Disconnect the two halves in order to unplug the ignitor. Then carefully pull the wires out, through the insulation, from above.
That’s it. You have successfully removed the old ignitor.
You’re now ready to install the new ignitor:
- Put it in place and screw the two screws back in.
- Push the wires through the insulation, being careful not to leave any spaces or holes in the insulation. Sometimes the ignitors will come with some extra insulation which you can add to the hole if you want.
- Plug the ignitor into the other half of the plug.
Congratulations! The ignitor is now installed.
What’s left now is to test it and then put everything back together.
To test the oven, turn the oven on. The ignitor should slowly start glowing, and after about a minute, the flame in the oven should ignite. If the ignitor doesn’t glow, it’s either not plugged in all the way or it might be cracked. If the flame doesn’t ignite, either the ignitor isn’t positioned properly, or there is some other non-ignitor-related problem.
Once you test that everything is working, you can put the rest of the oven back together.
Thanks, YZG! Excellent job!
שבת שלום ומבורך!
