Troubleshooting Notes
Igniter failure can be verified one of three ways. The easiest and most common way to see if the igniter is working is to start your stove or grill and visually look for the orange glow; however, some appliances do not have a visual way to do this, so you may have to physically feel around in the burn pot after the stove has been on for a few minutes to “feel” for heat being generated. If you can see the glow or can feel the heat from the igniter, chances are that the igniter is actually working. If this is the case, retry the startup process. Make sure your burn pot is seated correctly if it is removable. Make sure that your ash pan, door or hopper lid is closed as this will provide an airtight seal on the stove, which most igniters will require for proper ignition. If you still do not have any luck, give the stove a good cleaning, including the vent, and try again. If these attempts fail, further troubleshooting will be required, which leads us to the third method.
For this method, you will need a DMM (Digital Multi-Meter). Gain access to the igniter and remove it from the stove or insert. While you are taking the igniter out, verify that it is installed correctly with the correct mounting equipment, screws, etc.. With the igniter removed from the stove, you will need to look over the part to find the rated watts, it’s usually stamped on the metal somewhere. If you cannot find it, look on our website for the correct igniter; the information you are looking for will be under “technical specs”.
If your Ohms reading is within 10%, more or less than the rating (46Ω +/- 10%), it’s good. If the igniter has a “contained short” or a short within itself and not grounding out, your Ohms reading will be very low...usually in the single digits. Generally, you cannot have a faulty igniter with too high of a resistance reading unless an igniter is installed that is way out of spec. An example of this would be your stove requires a 300W igniter but the stove has a 250W igniter installed. The reading in this scenario would be 52Ω. The reading would be correct to the igniter but would be the wrong value for the specified 300W igniter. That’s why it’s usually good to look at the part itself for the watts rating.
It is advisable to ALWAYS replace your door gasket when you are replacing an igniter. A leaking door gasket is often a contributing factor to igniter failure.
Troubleshooting Igniters
Igniter failure can be verified on one of three ways. The easiest and most common way to see if the igniter is working is to start your stove or grill and visually look for the orange glow; however, some appliances do not have a visual way to do this, so you may have to physically feel around in the burn pot after the stove has been on for a few minutes to “feel” for heat being generated. If you can see the glow or can feel the heat from the igniter, chances are that the igniter is actually working. If this is the case, retry the startup process. Make sure your burn pot is seated correctly if it is removable. Make sure that your ash pan, door or hopper lid is closed as this will provide an airtight seal on the stove, which most igniters will require for proper ignition. If you still do not have any luck, give the stove a good cleaning, including the vent, and try again. If these attempts fail, further troubleshooting will be required, which leads us to the third method.
For this method, you will need a DMM (Digital Multi-Meter). Gain access to the igniter and remove it from the stove or insert. While you are taking the igniter out, verify that it is installed correctly with the correct mounting equipment, screws, etc.. With the igniter removed from the stove, you will need to look over the part to find the rated watts, it’s usually stamped on the metal somewhere. If you cannot find it, look on our website for the correct igniter; the information you are looking for will be under “technical specs”
If your Ohms reading is within 10%, more or less than the rating (46Ω +/- 10%), it’s good. If the igniter has a “contained short” or a short within itself and not grounding out, your Ohms reading will be very low...usually in the single digits. Generally, you cannot have a faulty igniter with too high of a resistance reading unless an igniter is installed that is way out of spec. An example of this would be your stove requires a 300W igniter but the stove has a 250W igniter installed. The reading in this scenario would be 52Ω. The reading would be correct to the igniter but would be the wrong value for the specified 300W igniter. That’s why it’s usually good to look at the part itself for the watts rating.
