Old Gas Stove Pilot Light

Modern gas stoves use a piezoelectric igniter to generate a spark that ignites your gas.

Old gas stove pilot light.

The older gas ranges need to have the pilots burning 24 7. The pilot orifice is at the end of a small tube just above the oven burners. Regardless it s always good to have. If you re concerned about children in the house at least if the stove had a pilot and one of them turned a knob the burner would light.

The pilot light is a small gas light meant to burn continuously in order to light a larger burner when needed but it may go out if a draft extinguishes the light its valve is dirty or the. It took a while to get the pilot light lit so i know some gas escaped into the room. Before you light it turn on the two back burners on the stove to bleed air from the gas line. Without a pilot there would just be gas flowing for who knows how long waiting for a spark to ignite it and potentially causing everyone to pass out in the meantime.

This afternoon when i got home after work i smelled gas as soon as i walked in the door. A correctly adjusted pilot flame is steady and blue between 1 4 and 1 2 inch high. Push in the oven control while you hold a lighter in front of the pilot orifice. The pilot is typically shut off before the stove is moved or installed or in seasonal situations where it might not be used for an extended period.

If the flame goes out repeatedly or if it s yellow at the tip it s getting too little air. Some ranges have two pilot lights one for each side of the range. If there s no pilot light usually you just turn on the gas wait just a bit then light the burner. Open the oven and expose the pilot and burner assembly by removing the cover plate and flame spreader if there is one.

We just turned on the gas and lit the pilot light on the oven yesterday evening. This may require the help of another person. One pilot light usually serves all the top burners of a gas range. I can t recall ever seeing a gas stove with knobs anywhere other than up front but if you can find one with knobs on the console that would probably be ideal.

Older models use a pilot light in the oven and another for each burner as their method for lighting the flame.