Short answers · 02 of 5
I Smell Gas When the Burner Lights — What Now?
Stop using the range and get everyone out. Viking's instruction is to light nothing, leave switches alone, and make no call from indoors; ring your gas supplier from outside, and the fire department if nobody answers there. Once the house has been cleared, Viking Repair Service Denver, (720) 704-2791.
- 1 igniter
- 2 burner base
- 3 burner cap, set aside
- 4 burner grate
In this frame: burner base with the igniter standing clear.
How we check it
What a trace at lighting is
Gas reaches the port a fraction before the spark catches it, so a whiff in that moment, gone as soon as the ring settles, is ordinary on any gas range. What we take an interest in is whether that moment has been getting longer. A burner that hesitates gives more away every time it lights, and the reason for the hesitation sits at the port or at the igniter rather than anywhere upstream.
A smell you can find with every knob at rest is a separate matter, and it belongs to the paragraph at the top of this page instead.
Why we come second
Viking sets the order out plainly, and none of it is repair work. Light nothing. Leave switches where they are. Make the call from outside rather than from the kitchen, to your gas supplier, and to the fire department if nobody answers there. Then do what the supplier tells you. They decide what gets shut off and when the house can be used again.
We pick up the range afterwards, and only the range. Every burner is lit and watched from the side. Caps and heads come off, go back square, and ports get cleared where they need it. Each knob is checked to shut its valve properly at rest. The supply line and the fitting behind the range belong to a gas fitter and stay with them.
Tell us what the supplier found, and whether they left the range turned off. That decides which end of the job we start at.
What you can look at yourself
- Settle which of the two you have. A trace that vanishes as the ring catches is ordinary. One that lingers, builds, or is there with nothing lit means leave and ring from outside.
- Count the burners. A whiff at one and nothing at the other five points somewhere quite different from a smell that follows you round the kitchen.
- Note anything that moved the range lately: a floor going in, cabinets coming out, a deep clean that involved pulling it forward. Whoever attends will want to know.
Clifford Nakamura
- Certified
- EPA 608 certified
- Bench
- Service technician — controls and intermittent faults
- Trade
- 22 years in the trade