Totally Off Topic -- Gas Range Problem

[vanagon40]

I have a Kenmore gas range, probably a little less than 10 years old, converted to LP gas.  Kids are now mostly grown and moved out, so this range has had a relatively easy life.  Never had any problem until:

Sunday, January 22, 2012.  Preheat the oven to 325°.  Put a ham in the oven at 7:30 a.m., go to church, come home around 10:00 a.m. and the oven is warm at best, nowhere near 325°.  Change the oven temp to 350° and the oven fires up and gets to the desired temp, but does not hold it.  For the next couple of hours I continue to adjust the temperature up and down around 350° and keep the oven hot.  Ham eventually cooked.

Sunday evening, January 22, 2012. Run the self-clean option.  Never have done this before, but seemed to work as expected.  (My thinking was if this was a car with low speed stumbling, I would take it out on the highway and “blow the carbon out of the cylinders.”)

Later that week.  Bought oven thermometer.  Set the oven to 350° for no reason other than to test drive it.  Oven fires up and cycles on and off to maintain temperature.  Two hour later, oven temp has remained at 350°.  Problem solved?

Sunday, January 29, 2012.  Preheat the oven to 325°.  Put a turkey in the oven at 7:30 a.m., go to church, come home around 10:00 a.m. and the oven is warm at best, nowhere near 325°.  Change the oven temp to 350° and the oven fires up and gets to the desired temp, but does not hold it.  Change the oven temp to 355° and the oven fires up and cycles on and off and maintains temperature (although oven thermometer reads closer to 325°).  After an hour, oven thermometer is reading closer to 350°.

So, other than going to church, what is my problem?  The gas tank is almost full, the burners work fine, and the oven seems to hold temperatures over 325°.  The on/off/temperature selection/boiler hi/broiler lo selections are all digital.

I raise this problem in this forum because I know there is such a wide range of expertise among the members.  What is the best way to trouble shoot this?  I have not even looked at the schematic, but I immediately suspect a faulty thermostat somewhere.

Any and all suggestions are appreciated.  (I am in the process of changing offices and employers, so right now is kind of hectic.  Please do not interpret my lack of a prompt response to any question or suggestion as indifference.)

[old2soon]

Thermocouple?? Only thing i have. RIDE SAFE.

[laserpat]

maybe the gas valve or thermocouple although thermocouple usualy does not go intermittant works or doesn't

[Fathertime]

Thermometer, not thermocouple.  Unit fires up (thermocouple) but does not hold the set temp (thermometer).  Ymmv

[Michvalk]

I had the same problem with my last oven/range. Sometimes would work, sometimes wouldn't. It was easy to fix. 20 minuets at Menards for a new one. Spousal unit happy, everyone happy. 

[NCGhostrider]

Sounds like a thermostat problem.   It is what actually maintains temperature in your oven. 

The thermocouple verifys flame is present when the gas is flowing, shuts it off when it does not detect flame/heat from burner.  This keeps gas from just flowing and the subsequent boom.   It can be intermittent and cause your gas appliance to shut down after working for a few minutes, but usually when they fail, they fail and with good reason they are designed to fail in such a way that the burner won't stay lit, i.e. gas is off.

In my opinion there are several scenarios that could cause your problem, I lean towards a thermostat problem.  I am not an appliance repairman, but I did spend the night in a Holiday Inn Express once, and I used have an uncle that was the preferred appliance repairman in our town, his dad and my grandfather was also.   I learned a bit from them.


If you search online there are places that have rudimentary diagnosis procedures and sell parts.

One such place is www.repairclinic.com   You will need your model number. 

If you have a local appliance repair shop, they may be able to assist you.  Unfortunately, most of those shops have gone by the wayside because of disposable appliances. 

Good luck


Someone remind me to tell about how when I first met my wife her Maytag gas dryer wasn't heating...and I volunteered to fix it after I covered her house in lint...

Craig
99 I/S     

[Cliff]

Probably the temp sensor located in the oven (usually top right rear corner)  usually you can remove the 2 scrrews holding it in place and then carefully pull it out to bring the wires out till you get to the connector.  Unplug it from the connector and use a multimeter to test it using the ohms function should read 1091 ohms at a room temp of 75 degrees F.  easy to replace and no too costly.  If you cannot remove the screws to get to the plug you will need to access it from the backside of the range.

[olddog1946]

10-4 on the temp sensor...it is actually nothing more than a temp sensitive resister that changes resistance as the temp changes..almost all brands will read approximately 1100 ohms at room temp..

[Bonzo]

Maybe a cracked ignighter,  if they are cracked they will light some time, but never get to heat because when it gets to hot the crack will spread, the amperage through the ignighter will drop below 3 amps and shut off the gas valve. That is if you have a carborundum ignighter.

[vanagon40]

Okay, I pulled the temperature sensor which is identical to the Sears stock photo above.  Ohmmeter showed 1075 ohms.

Here is the odd part.  The wires were folded in half and jammed in behind a flat panel as shown in the first photo below, rather than simply running through the hole as shown in the second photo (the wires were actually folded much more sharply than shown in the first photo).  Of course it has been this way since purchased new, so I'm not sure this would cause the problem now.  But, since Sears wants $75 for the sensor, I reinstalled it correctly and I'll wait to see if the kinked wires were causing a problem.