Surprises just keep coming ... new 5er

pnichols wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
My Suburban oven works that way, but only because I installed a sparker of my own.

Hmmm (see my post above) ... where did you find sparker line with insulation that can take oven temperatures hour after hour for years?

(A sparker lighting a burner is entirely different - as a cooktop burner's flame goes straight up carrying the heat with it so as to not heat the sparker wire's insulation down below where the burner's gas comes out.)

how to find a spark ignitor with insulation that can take oven temps? NOT a problem at all.

go to lowes/home depot etc. and get a 4 spark ignitor replacement for a BBQ. It will have at least one ignitor with high temp insulation since most BBQ have a rear rotisseri or similar spot that requires a high temp insulation. The ones with a high temp insulation will even often give a temp rating, mine was over 700F, well above even the broiler temp. and only a few inches of insulation is exposed to oven temps. most of the wire goes directly out the back of the oven up the oven air vent which drops in temp quite rapidly as it mixes with inside air. Install the whole system, 3 for the burners and the high temp ignitor for the oven.

Got that, installed it in the oven. DW loves it. and with a battery ignitor no pushing continually, turn the oven to pilot, push in the thermostat, push on the ignitor, let it spark for 5 seconds or so, 99% of the time, pilot is on.

and no worry about gas coming on without a pilot. if pilot goes out, pilot gas is shut off by the thermocouple cooling down, and main gas can't come on until the pilot runs long enough to get the thermocouple up to temp to provide enough voltage to allow the main gas line to come on.

Actually much safer than the burners on many cooktops which will come on w/o a pilot and don't have a shutdown system in case the flame goes out other than YOU turning off the burner.


The failsafe system with the thermopile providing power to gas valve has been around for decades, probably 50 or 75 years and has been shown to be very reliable. About the only failure mode is the thermocouple failing, and if it fails it will NOT provide enough voltage to keep the pilot lit let alone turn on the gas valve.

I've had ours installed since 2011, we camp close to 90 days/year and probably use the oven on 1/2 those days. DW says it's the best mod I did for her on the trailer.