Jason, Need some help on a thermopile I bought from you. My original completely failed. The one I bought from you was a direct fit. Installed it seem to work AOK. The pilot light stays lit. After a month of use I am having trouble getting the valve to open. Once it opens it will stay running until I shut it off. Checking the pile voltage with the pilot lit is only about 200mv. When I turn on the burner switch the voltage drops to 120mv. This seems low to me. The pile is immersed in the pilot flame. Any thoughts? Do you think the pile is ‘weak’? Or is this typical operation? Lastly, the valve???
Thanks
Rodger
Roger,
Thank you for your question. I have experienced this many times with gas stoves. What I have found is sometimes there is a bit of carbon that gets stuck in the pilot orifice which partially blocks the gas. This gives the pilot a very orange flame when it should be blue. If this is what you are seeing with your stove you need to clean your pilot assembly.
There are two ways you can do this. The first is the easiest. If you have an air compressor or a Can of air for cleaning computers you can shoot a blast of air into the pilot (with it off of course) and see if that removes whatever is in the way. Start the pilot again and see if you get a nice blue flame.
If you still have an orange flame you need to disassemble the pilot assembly and clean the pilot orifice. The pilot orifice has a small hole in it that allows a very small amount of gas to escape, mix with the air and light, creating your pilot flame. This is what can get clogged up.
The orifice sits right up under where the gas line for the pilot comes into the pilot assembly. That line is usually held in place by a 3/8 inch nut. Loosen the nut until you can free the pilot gas line from the assembly. The pilot orifice may fall out once the gas line is out of the way. If it does not come out uses a coat hanger or other wire to fish in from the top of the pilot assembly and you should be able to push it out.
Once the orifice is out you should see some white or black powder on the end of it. Clean that off and reassemble the pilot. Light it up and see if you have a blue flame. If so, you have solved your problem and should see a good mv reading of around 300mv or better. Once that is working your stove should turn on and off easily.
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