Oven ignitor

My pilot light is a normally closed device. Lighting it requires heating the sensor (thermocouple?) until it opens and allows propane to flow to the pilot. While on it maintains its flow with its own flame. No heat, No gas to pilot . Turning the oven temp on/up enlarges the pilot flame to heat the burner sensor which is also closed until it feels the larger pilot flame. No larger pilot flame, no burner gas.
That is how I understand the MH industry safety features built into RV propane ovens.
I could be wrong but that is what I have observed, once a season, when I have to get down on my knees to relight our oven.
It is way in the back and barely visible but only takes a few seconds with a long handled BBQ lighter.
Goodluck

I put one in our oven. Went to home depot, bought a replacement 4 burner ignitor kit for BBQ, which included one ignitor line with high temp insulation.

Used the kit to replace the existing 3 burner ignitors and added one to the oven.

Works like a charm. DW says it's one of the best mod's we've done to the trailer.

Here is a link to my post of 2010 where I installed a battery powered ignitor for the stovetop burners and added a sparker for the oven pilot light. Sorry the picture links are all broken due to the demise of TinyPic and I no longer have the pictures to relink them.

It's still working great. I just open the oven door, hold the gas valve button in and press the ignitor button. You can see the reflection of the pilot flame in the bottom of the oven when it lights.

"How would the pilot know to turn off its own gas supply?"
On our Suburban stove/oven, there is a safety device 'thermocoupler' on the supply line to the oven burner. The heat from the pilot light keeps the valve open, when the oven is being used or just the pilot on. If there was not a pilot light, or expensive electronic ignition, there wouldn't be any temperature control for the oven.
When you set the oven temp for 350, the burner will heat to 355+/- and then shut off, when temp drops to 345+/- the burner relights from the pilot light to maintain your cooking temp, same at in the oven at home, gas or electric.
If the pilot goes out, the thermocouple closes of all the gas.
On ours, the oven knob has markings for OFF, Pilot, and then the temperature settings 200-400 broil. I usually leave it in the off position, but if I know the oven will be used quite a bit, it's just left in the pilot position, very minimal gas use, minimal heat in the oven, just don't use the oven for storage of flammable items.

Ken

2oldman wrote:

K Charles wrote:
When the pilot lite goes out the gas going to it shuts off. Why would you smell gas?

How would the pilot know to turn off its own gas supply?

Thermocouple.

dedmiston wrote:
I haven't seen an RV oven with a pilot. Not that they don't exist, but I haven't seen one.

The oven in our last trailer was a nightmare to light. Our "new" trailer isn't so hard to light, but you still have to lean down there to see it.

Having an igniter would be fantastic.

Every RV I've ever owned used a pilot light in the oven; '79 Roll-a-Long, '88 Jamboree, '04 Itasca. In fact, I have a hard time believing that your current trailer (2015?) doesn't have an oven pilot light.

Lightning55 wrote:
I can't be the first guy to ask this question: Does anyone make a oven ignitor kit that can be added on? Every time my wife wants to use the oven she has to get down on her hands and knees to light the burner. She loves her trailer but hates the oven. I would be her hero if I could install an ignitor.

Actually they do. A couple of types. one uses a 9 volt battery and the other is a push button pizo device. You can find 'em at BBQ stores.

But mounting it may take a bit of .. ingenuity

The device consists of a power/control unit that generates a high voltage either by bending a crystal (pizo) or a battery inverter package (9 volt) a high voltage wire you route down to the wire lead that mounts near the burner (about a quarter inch from the pilot tube) the power unit has to be grounded to the pilot as well. }
I considered it but never quite got round to it.

Don't know how well it will work.

With such a device installed you still have to follow the pilot lighting instructions. Set to Pilot, Push and hold. Push the ignightor button.. Several times in the case of the Pizo. hold knob down for one full mintue. visually verify pilot lit (mirror can help) and then release knob. if pilot stays lit turn knob to 350 or whatever and JOY.

I wished to turn off water heater in my apartment and wonder of wonder it came with both a flame detector indicator and a pizo ignightor I was amazed. Worked too.

2oldman wrote:

K Charles wrote:
When the pilot lite goes out the gas going to it shuts off. Why would you smell gas?

How would the pilot know to turn off its own gas supply?

Maybe because you aren't pushing the knob in, nor is the thermal switch activated.

K Charles wrote:
When the pilot lite goes out the gas going to it shuts off. Why would you smell gas?

How would the pilot know to turn off its own gas supply?

2oldman wrote:

K Charles wrote:
Our pilot stays out for months at a time. It goes out when we get the tank filled and when we put it away for a while.

I would love to leave my pilot on like you, but during auto tank-switchover it goes out, and of course, always at night. Then I wake up to gas smell.

When the pilot lite goes out the gas going to it shuts off. Why would you smell gas?