Forum Discussion

nlol's avatar
nlol
Explorer
Apr 21, 2020

Wedgewood oven problem

Model RV1735SSPS mfg 2013

Installed 2015 Northern Lite TC

I purchased camper (virtually unused) 2019

Oven doesn't work. It appears the oven has never worked. Pilot and main burner do not light. Stove top burners work properly.

Trouble shooting: Oven control is fed gas through the same manifold that feeds stove top burners. Stove top burners work properly. Loosening the screw that holds the oven control unit in the manifold produces a leak that is easily lighted - so, LPG is getting to oven control unit. There are 3 lines from controller to oven: one line feeds the main burner; there are two lines to the pilot assembly - one copper, one aluminum. (The copper line is neatly pinched in a way that makes it look intended. Two lines makes no sense to me)

Loosening the control unit outlet lines and turning/depressing the oven control knob in the pilot, and all other positions, produces no gas at the controller's output ports. There is no gas at any of the 3 output ports. I've ensured the oven control is fully depressed and I've warmed the pilot light thermo-couple with a torch and get zero gas flow.

The lack of gas anywhere seemed strange and unlikely to me, however, a repair, or new control unit, appeared to be the obvious solution. I bought and installed a new control unit, hoping to repair and keep the old unit as a spare. The new control unit gives the same result as the original control unit; gas at the controller inlet connection, but no gas at the controller outlet ports no matter what control knob manipulation is done.

The obvious conclusion is that both control units are bad with the same fault. Unless I hear that this control problem is common, I deem that highly unlikely. That leaves me stumped. So please, can anyone enlighten me on what is wrong? Is there a known repair for this control unit problem?
  • I very much doubt that both the original and replacement control valves are bad.

    There are at least a couple of different setups of oven control valves. In one older setup, there are actually two control valves: the thermostatic valve, which the knob attaches to, and a safety valve for the main burner which is located between the thermostatic valve and the burner. In this setup, the pilot when first lit is a very, very tiny flame. When the thermostat is turned to a point that heat is called for, it adds gas to the pilot flame and also supplies gas to the safety valve. A thermostatic bulb at the pilot burner controls the safety valve; when it warms up sufficiently, from the larger pilot flame, the safety valve opens and the main burner lights. Once the desired temperature is reached the thermostatic valve shuts off the gas to the safety valve (and thus the main burner) and lowers the flow of gas to the pilot. The safety valve soon closes when its thermostatic bulb cools sufficiently, and the process repeats as needed. On this setup, it is not necessary to hold the oven knob in when lighting the pilot, but the little tiny flame can be a bit temperamental to get lit.

    Another setup uses a thermocouple or similar to make sure the pilot stays lit, and has no separate safety valve. I think this is more common these days. For that, it's necessary to hold the control knob in on the pilot setting when lighting the pilot to have gas flow and keep it held in until the thermocouple warms up enough for it to stay lit. I think generally with this design the pilot flame does not change in size when heat is called for.

    Anyhow, I suspect you problem is either operator error (not holding the knob in when lighting the pilot, for instance, or being mistaken about where the actual pilot flame should be on the burner assembly) or a dirty, clogged, or misadjusted pilot burner.