Why Does My Viking Burner Keep Clicking?

Every Viking surface burner here lights electrically; there is no standing pilot anywhere on the rangetop. The click you hear on turning a knob is the ignition system working, and Viking says so: you should hear it on all surface igniters, and if you do not, the guide has you turn the control off and check the range is plugged in and that nothing has tripped or blown.

Why it carries on afterwards

The system watches the burner and relights it if the flame goes out while gas is still flowing. So it is always asking one question: is this burner alight? When the answer comes back wrong — the spark leaking to earth through cracked ceramic, or the supply behind it ungrounded or wired the wrong way round — it keeps asking, and you keep hearing it. That is why the meter goes on the outlet before it goes anywhere near the burner.

The one you can settle yourself

A wet or dirty igniter is the third cause and the easiest. Viking asks for burner caps to be pulled straight up and cleaned after every boil-over, because a dirty cap causes improper ignition and uneven flames. Warm soapy water, dried properly, and never a dishwasher or a self-clean cycle — both rust them. A blocked port is cleared with a straight pin, never a toothpick and never opened out.