Troubleshooting a gas oven ignitor

[Duer 157099]

Gas oven, electric (hot surface) ignitor.

I don't have a clamp ammeter to test the current draw.

Broiler ignitor works fine, as do stove top burners.

Oven ignitor does not glow at all.

Is it fairly safe to assume that the oven ignitor just needs to be replaced? Or should I be thinking gas valve may be the issue? But then, gas valve should not affect whether glowbar glows, right?

I don't see any fuses anywhere so I'm ruling that out (for now).

I found a replacement ignitor on ebay for about $25, just want to make sure it's a solid guess first.

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Here's a site that may help you in figuring things out

http://www.appliance411.com/faq/gas_range_ignition_systems.shtml

Scroll through the info, and on down the page is good troubleshooting info

on edit:
And here's a site on how to change out the electronic ignition
http://www.applianceaid.com/gas_ignitor.html

[Duer 157099]

2. Thank you, those are helpful links

In particular, these paragraphs were very helpful. Seems I cannot just assume it's a bad ignitor (darn)

On models utilizing a 'dual' gas valve, both the bake and broil gas and ignition systems should be considered totally independent of each other. Even each side of the dual gas valve should be looked at as two separate 'single' gas valves. Just because one side of a dual gas valve might work does NOT mean the other side of the valve should work too.

Oven not heating and ignitor NOT glowing

Power must flow from the control system to the ignitor and through the oven valve. If there is any break in that circuit, the ignitor will not glow and thus the gas valve not open. The ignitor not glowing could be caused by the ignitor or the gas valve being open (infinite resistance - no continuity). If both have continuity (ie. at least some resistance) and the ignitor is still not glowing, a problem in the control system or the rest of the electrical circuit would need to be investigated.

An ignitor and oven valve having continuity does not necessarily that they are good, just that they're not electrically open, which is only one way that they might fail. If either has NO continuity at all (ie. infinite resistance) they are likely defective and need to be replaced.

Observations/tests necessary to diagnose problems

Inspection required Does the ignitor glow when the oven burner should be heating?

If NOT glowing at all:

Inspection required Does the oven ignitor have continuity?

Inspection required Does the oven valve have continuity?

Inspection required Is the oven control system providing power to the oven components?