Old Gas Stove Pilot Light

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

Old gas stove pilot light.

We just turned on the gas and lit the pilot light on the oven yesterday evening. The older gas ranges need to have the pilots burning 24 7. It took a while to get the pilot light lit so i know some gas escaped into the room. A correctly adjusted pilot flame is steady and blue between 1 4 and 1 2 inch high.

Open the oven and expose the pilot and burner assembly by removing the cover plate and flame spreader if there is one. This may require the help of another person. Some ranges have two pilot lights one for each side of the range. One pilot light usually serves all the top burners of a gas range.

This afternoon when i got home after work i smelled gas as soon as i walked in the door. Modern gas stoves use a piezoelectric igniter to generate a spark that ignites your gas. 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. If there s no pilot light usually you just turn on the gas wait just a bit then light the burner.

We used the oven last night and everything seemed normal. Regardless it s always good to have. 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. The pilot light is still lit on the oven though.

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. If the oven has a pilot light you will see a gas tube that may or may not. Push in the oven control while you hold a lighter in front of the pilot orifice. The pilot orifice is at the end of a small tube just above the oven burners.

If the flame goes out repeatedly or if it s yellow at the tip it s getting too little air.