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Atwood range electric start mod.

garyemunson
Explorer
Explorer
Our Wedgewood gas range had a turn-to-spark igniter for the stovetop and a manual light pilot light oven. Having seen some new RVs with electric lighting ranges I thought I'd look into adding that feature to ours. The second picture shows the original igniter. It mounted to the front panel of the stove with two screws. I removed it and found the hole for the shaft was too small for the electronic igniter I purchased from eBay. I used an electrician's 1/2" hole punch to enlarge the hole to accommodate the electric unit threaded mount. I was able to shift the knockout about 1/2" higher than the centerline of the original hole to give the electronic igniter enough room to mount. I bought an igniter with 4 outputs to serve the 3 range burners and the oven. I also bought one of the push-to-light single igniters only for the electrode they come with. It was hard to get a clear picture in the oven burner area but as luck would have it, the hole on the electrode for the usual mounting screw was just the right size to slide over the oven flame sensor. Once I slipped it on, I used some tie wire to secure it. I gave a slight bend to the electrode to be sure it would make a spark right in the path of the pilot light. Use TWO needle nose pliers to grab ONLY the wire electrode as you want no pressure put on the ceramic body of the electrode. The wire threaded up the back of the oven to the top burner area and run to the electric igniter. One difference I encountered was the terminals on the wires were all for round pins while the igniter has flat terminal. A slight squeeze made the round terminals oval and they slid right on securely. The top of the stove removed by pushing it to the rear. The back brackets are springy and this motion allows the mounting tabs on the front underside of the rangetop to move back beyond the tabs on the stove itself. Once it is back far enough, the front will lift up and then you can pull it forward off the rear brackets and access the burners. While doing this, I noticed the insulation on the original igniter wires was cracking and once I'd hooked up the electric igniter I'd see sparks jumping from the bare wire to the base of the stovetop. I realized this was probably why we were having to turn the old spark knob a number of times to start the burners. The wires are solid core and quite stiff and I found it was quite easy to reroute and bend them to be suspended in air away from any metal. This upgrade has worked REALLY well. Lighting the oven pilot used to be a real chore getting down on my knees and trying to see in the dark where to hold the match while holding the oven knob in the light pilot position. Now, both the oven pilot and top burners pop right on as the electric igniter provides a strong, rapidly repeating spark at all four locations! A really nice thing about this mod is nothing was changed with the original system. I could easily replace all the original parts if I wanted. The larger hole I punched for the new igniter would be covered by the turn knob on the manual igniter.









https://www.ebay.com/โ€ฆ/New-BBQ-Gas-Grill-Replโ€ฆ/192521269480โ€ฆ

https://www.ebay.com/โ€ฆ/Universal-Piezo-Spark-โ€ฆ/372531618140โ€ฆ
4 REPLIES 4

jkwilson
Explorer II
Explorer II
Another benefit is that it is quiet!

I did the same with mine. I haven't done the oven yet, but I have the idea in my head that the igniter lead I got for my oven is jacketed in braided metal. I'll try to remember to check.

ETA: I got This one and one of the igniter leads is covered with a braided fabric jacket. Whether it will hold up in the oven remains to be seen, but I believe the post I read where I got the idea at least gave me the idea it would.
John & Kathy
2014 Grand Design Reflection 303RLS
2014 F250 SBCC 6.2L 3.73

garyemunson
Explorer
Explorer
Not seeing any issues with the igniter wires. The insulation seems to be some sort of high temperature plastic although after 4 years the insulation on the existing igniters had cracked and shrunk. If your range burners don't light on the first turn of the knob (like ours did when our RV was new), they are probably cracked and shorting the spark to the range metal somewhere. As I mentioned, the wire inside the insulation is quite stiff and it's pretty easy to 'dress' the wires to where they are not touching any metal and they will stay where you bend them. That said, I'd be concerned about going crazy with bending them too much or the stiff wire might just break. Be careful.

Dutch_12078
Explorer II
Explorer II
I installed the same setup for my top burners, but for the oven I just reach in with a long BBQ lighter positioned about where the pilot is, and wiggle it around a bit until I see the reflection of the lit pilot on the shiny bottom. All while standing and just bending over some.
Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F53 chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
Bigfoot Automatic Leveling System
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/Blue Ox baseplate

bob213
Explorer
Explorer
Is that wire in the oven going to be alright without some type of thermal wrap on it? Nice job. Sure will be nicer than trying to light with lighter.
You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality โ€“ Ayn Rand