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Gas cooker woes!

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Gas cooker woes!

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pooroldcodger

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Well our gas cooker today was well down on temperature. The roast potatoes took for ever! With an oven thermometer in, the oven was at the equivalent of gas mark 5 temperatures when it was on full blast nuber 9 setting.
So after we had eventually eaten I checked the burner flames on the hob. I turned all 4 on, and watched the biggest burner as I turned the other 3 off. As I turned each one off, the main burner flame got progressively bigger, suggesting to me that not enough gas was available to run all 4 at the same time.
We are on ormal natural gas from the mains.
Does anybody know if your whole house supply can be down on pressure, or am I looking at some kind of cooker gas valve fault? The cooker is about 3 years old.
 
Our neighbour just had the pipe between the street and the house replaced last week (for free) by the gas company. Turned out it was under-sized for modern standards and his fancy new gas boiler wasn't getting enough to burn properly. In fact, the first thing they did when they turned up and measured the pressure was turn it off completely because it was dangerously low. They got it up a bit by turning the pressure to the district up (it was down a bit for some maintenance).

I'd recommend getting the gas board out - tell them your cooker is burning with an exceptionally low flame. They'll come out and check the pressure for you. It could be they've turned the pressure down across the district, or it could be a bit of dirt in the pipes that needs cleaning out. You definitely need to get it checked though, gas isn't something to muck about on. Ring them first thing in the morning.
 
Any corgi / gas safe plumber should be able to do a pressure test at the meter...

I would hazzard a guess you have a problem with the oven's thermostat you might be able to see the capillary tube which goes from usually just above and inside the oven door to the gas control valve near the gas inlet...

as the oven comes up to your chosen temperature the capillary tube gets hot and the gas inside it expands closing the gas supply down thus reducing the heat as the oven cools it opens the gas valve again
 
Thanks for your reply. Would that also be affecting the gas on the hob burners as well?
Is there anything to see on the thermostat that might tell you it's faulty? Can it get blocked or kinked or something?
 
Andy Monty said:
Any corgi / gas safe plumber should be able to do a pressure test at the meter...

I would hazzard a guess you have a problem with the oven's thermostat you might be able to see the capillary tube which goes from usually just above and inside the oven door to the gas control valve near the gas inlet...

as the oven comes up to your chosen temperature the capillary tube gets hot and the gas inside it expands closing the gas supply down thus reducing the heat as the oven cools it opens the gas valve again
Click to expand...
Well the National Grid guy came out really quickly (very impressive) and he established that the gas pressure to the property is spot on, so I guess I am now looking at a cooker problem. I still can't work out though why the gas hob flames get higher progressively as you turn one off at a time, as though there is not enough gas supply to feed all the burners and the oven at the same time.
 
pooroldcodger said:
Well the National Grid guy came out really quickly (very impressive) and he established that the gas pressure to the property is spot on, so I guess I am now looking at a cooker problem. I still can't work out though why the gas hob flames get higher progressively as you turn one off at a time, as though there is not enough gas supply to feed all the burners and the oven at the same time.
Click to expand...

They usually will turn out quick if someone thinks they have lost pressure usually low pressure = gas been lost somewhere and the potential for a big Bang ;)



Its the same as your tap water.. turn the bathroom taps on then go flush the bog.. same effect . ;)
 
Yes I can relate to the water pressure thing. Like when somebody flushes when you are in the shower and you have a mains fed shower! For some reason I didn't think the gas burners would be so much affected by each other though.
So anyway, it is starting to narrow down to a faulty thermostat by the sound of things.
 
pooroldcodger said:
Yes I can relate to the water pressure thing. Like when somebody flushes when you are in the shower and you have a mains fed shower! For some reason I didn't think the gas burners would be so much affected by each other though.
So anyway, it is starting to narrow down to a faulty thermostat by the sound of things.
Click to expand...

they look something like this:

4431920006a.jpg



Legally this work Must be done by a gas safe person for safety's sake if nothing else....

GasExplosion-gb13176.jpg
 
When cooker thermostats go they usually fail to low (bypass mode) you'd get a really low flame,
The problem is, 90% of houses out there the internal gas pipe is undersized so the hob burners increasing as you shut them off one by one can be normal but you've maybe never noticed it before (usually worse with heating or hot water on).

Sounds like a blockage in the gas line, or cooker.
If you are brave enough and this is legal, disconnect the cooker hose bayonet fitting and look into the end to see if it's clear, if it's clear then thats about all you can legally do.
The funny thing is some people take the burner tops off to clean round/under them on the hob, and lets just say some aerosol carb jet cleaner were to accidentally get down the gas injector holes then left to evaporate, it may accidentally clean them.
But i don't recommend trying that because it would be proper naughty if you are not Gas Safe registered. :nono:
 
Last edited:
GrandeGuy said:
When cooker thermostats go they usually fail to low (bypass mode) you'd get a really low flame,
The problem is, 90% of houses out there the internal gas pipe is undersized so the hob burners increasing as you shut them off one by one can be normal but you've maybe never noticed it before (usually worse with heating or hot water on).

Sounds like a blockage in the gas line, or cooker.
If you are brave enough and this is legal, disconnect the cooker hose bayonet fitting and look into the end to see if it's clear, if it's clear then thats about all you can legally do.
The funny thing is some people take the burner tops off to clean round/under them on the hob, and lets just say some aerosol carb jet cleaner were to accidentally get down the gas injector holes then left to evaporate, it may accidentally clean them.
But i don't recommend trying that because it would be proper naughty if you are not Gas Safe registered. :nono:
Click to expand...
I wouldn't want to try doing any of those naughty un-safe things. |Thank you for pointing out to me what I shouldn't be doing.(y)
 
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