Electronic Ignition for Stovetop (w/pics)

[12thgenusa]

I finally got tired enough of the piezoelectric igniter on my Atwood stovetop that I decided to replace it with a battery-powered igniter unit. You know what I’m talking about. You twist the knob; bam, bam, bam . . . bam, bam, bam and sometimes the burner lights and sometimes not.:M
I removed the old igniter and took some measurement to determine the available real estate. I found a replacement electronic igniter for Charbroil grills from Home Depot for $30 that looked promising.
The hole for the original igniter was 5/8” and the new one requires 7/8”. If you have a unibit step drill, that would work nice. But since I don’t and didn’t want to spend the $$ I used a stone grinder bit and “hogged” the hole out to 7/8. You need to “cheat” the hole slightly up and to the left for a little more clearance for the igniter.
Pull the wires off the old igniter and slide them on to the new, order does not matter. Even though the old igniter has round pins and the new has spade pins, the terminals slide on with a tight fit and work fine. Due to the higher voltage of this unit I saw occasional flashover between the terminals when it was activated. I solved that by adding a second layer of heat shrink over the terminals.
The new igniter has four terminals and since the stovetop only has three burners, that left one to add a sparker for the oven pilot light. The new unit comes with spare 37” and 32” igniter wires. I joined the two together and they were long enough to reach across the stovetop, and follow the oven control plumbing down into the oven. The longer wire looks like it has a high-temp coating, but I also wrapped the part that is actually in the oven with high-temp fiberglass tape. I needed a sparker so I removed the one from my gas grill side burner, which I never use anyway. After removing the burner assembly from the oven, I “guesstimated” the location for the sparker and drilled a 7/16” hole in the pilot support plate. Once the sparker was in place, I reinstalled the burner assembly. The sparker electrode had to be “tweaked” slightly to get a reliable spark to the outlet end of the pilot light tube.
If you don’t add the oven igniter, you need to install one of the supplied wires on the fourth terminal and coil and stow the wire so that it won’t short to the stove. If you don’t do this, the bare terminal on the igniter will flashover to the others.
After installing the single AA battery and turning on the gas, it was time for a test run.
Aaaahh . . . The stovetop burners light almost instantly, quietly and reliably. The electronic ignition sparks about six times per second for as long as you hold the button as opposed to three sparks per half-revolution of the knob on the old one.
The oven pilot lights nicely. I’ve found that if you turn the oven knob to “pilot” and hold it for about 10 seconds and then push the igniter button, it will light almost instantly. I was a little concerned about the wire in the oven, so I heated the oven to 500 degrees for a test. Everything looks good and smoke check passed.
DW is HAPPY, and you know what that means . . .:B

Before


Old Piezoelectric Igniter


New Electronic Igniter


Oven Pilot Light Sparker Installation


After

[martipr]

In regards to having gas collect in the oven. There is a safety system (thermocouple) that prevents gas flow unless the pilot is lit. Just like on a gas water heater. One safety rule that everyone should follow however: Never light the oven or a gas grill unless it is open.

Concerning using aluminum duct tape to protect the wire, aluminum is one of the best heat conductors known and will conduct the heat directly to the wire.

[AnEv942]

Ours had a single screw at front of burner (center) attaching it to the oven tray.
2 more scerws once burner seperated allowed removal of tray, for access.

With access, remove the thermocouple and pilot gas line (shiny brass threads. Entire burner free to remove. Shown is our added striker bracket.

Ours is Atwood is an '01.

[ausable]

Having problems removing the oven burner, any tips?

[Cummins12V98]

New Suburbans come with a push button.

[Del_kimball]

To 12genusa
Great tip about electronic ignitor just did it and DW is happy
Thanks for the tip you should patent the idea
Del va beach

[tenbear]

Agreed! Great mod. Installed mine in 2011 and its still going strong.

[JOHNZ]

Stumbled on this mod several weeks ago and it was an ah-ha moment for me. Ordered an igniter from Amazon for less than $20 delivered and installed in about 15 minutes. Best bang for the buck mod I ever made. More importantly my wife who hated the old "turn and bang" igniter just loves it. Should be standard equipment on every stove.

https://www.amazon.com/Char-Broil-Universal-Electronic-Igniter-Kit/dp/B004DCABX2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467374072&sr=8-1&keywords=char+broil+igniter

[RTBabich]

Just finished the conversion on our stove, works great! For those who don't need igniter wires the BBQ factory 03350 Spark Generator is available at Amazon for $5.55. It looks very similar (if not identical) to the Char-Broil 4586094P unit at Home Depot for $21.99. The module is 2 5/8" W x 2" H x 1 1/2" D with 6 contact ports. Our 2008 Magic Chef 3 burner stove has a single igniter in the center distribution point for the 3 burners. The original igniter wire used a round connector which when squeezed flat fits snugly on the contact. I put blobs of silicone in the unused contact ports. When the spark generator is triggered you can see there are 3 paired contacts. I used the appropriate paired contact to run a return wire to a case screw to complete the circuit since I only have 1 igniter. We have a convection/microwave - no propane oven, so only one igniter total. The spark generator needs a 7/8" hole so I screwed a block of wood behind the panel using the original screws holes, measured where the center of the button would be and used a 7/8" hole saw to cut the new hole.

[Passin__Through]

Thanks very much for the info and pictures! I just recently completed this mod on my 5er and it works beautifully. At the same time, I added a spark ignitor, salvaged from an old water heater pilot assembly, to the oven burner pilot, so no more getting down on my knees to light it in order to bake biscuits in the morning.:)

Can't wait for our next camping trip to try it out.

[C_B_]

My oven has a thermocouple. If the pilot were to go out, the thermocouple would cool off and shut down gas flow.


C.B.

[12thgenusa]

j-d wrote:
Does your Oven have a Safety of some kind to shut the gas to the PILOT off if the Pilot goes out? Ours does not, and for that reason I decided not to do one piezo with an electrode in the Oven as well as three on Stove Top. We've had the Oven Pilot go out, and fill the oven with LPG. I would not want to spark it every time we lit a surface burner and have one of those times ignite an oven full of LPG.

The oven is vented to the stovetop surface at the back. You would smell the gas long before there was a combustible mixture in the oven.

The oven control on which the original mod was done requires pressing the knob to override the thermocouple safety and emit gas to the pilot. I'm fairly certain that if the pilot were to go out, the gas valve would stop flow to the pilot as soon as the thermocouple cooled, which would happen very quickly.

That said, the Oven lights very easily if the Pilot is primed a few minutes before sparking it with a long BBQ lighter. It lights even more easily if I request a baking temperature before lighting. The pilot flares up when the oven goes into baking mode, and that flare up admits more LPG for less delay in lighting.
This oven has "Pilot" as a dial position. No pressing or the like involved.
I might consider a second Piezo, dedicated to the Oven. That and a mirror made from a stainless steel spatula to be able to look at the pilot.

I can easily see the reflection of the spark and the pilot flame in the shiny lower surface of the oven. No mirror needed.

[doxiemom11]

Our rig is 15 yrs old and we have not problem with the ignitor on our Atwood that is just like pictured.

Other hosts this summer purchased a 2014 rv -- no ignitors - back to lighting with a match - both the burners and the oven. Their 5 yr old camper - same make/model had an ignitor. Manufacturers eliminating any type of automatic pilots or ignitors? I hope not.

[j-d]

Does your Oven have a Safety of some kind to shut the gas to the PILOT off if the Pilot goes out? Ours does not, and for that reason I decided not to do one piezo with an electrode in the Oven as well as three on Stove Top. We've had the Oven Pilot go out, and fill the oven with LPG. I would not want to spark it every time we lit a surface burner and have one of those times ignite an oven full of LPG.
That said, the Oven lights very easily if the Pilot is primed a few minutes before sparking it with a long BBQ lighter. It lights even more easily if I request a baking temperature before lighting. The pilot flares up when the oven goes into baking mode, and that flare up admits more LPG for less delay in lighting.
This oven has "Pilot" as a dial position. No pressing or the like involved.
I might consider a second Piezo, dedicated to the Oven. That and a mirror made from a stainless steel spatula to be able to look at the pilot.

[C_B_]

12thgenusa wrote:
I finally got tired enough of the piezoelectric igniter on my Atwood stovetop that I decided to replace it with a battery-powered igniter unit. You know what I’m talking about. You twist the knob; bam, bam, bam . . . bam, bam, bam and sometimes the burner lights and sometimes not.:M
I removed the old igniter and took some measurement to determine the available real estate. I found a replacement electronic igniter for Charbroil grills from Home Depot for $30 that looked promising.
The hole for the original igniter was 5/8” and the new one requires 7/8”. If you have a unibit step drill, that would work nice. But since I don’t and didn’t want to spend the $$ I used a stone grinder bit and “hogged” the hole out to 7/8. You need to “cheat” the hole slightly up and to the left for a little more clearance for the igniter.
Pull the wires off the old igniter and slide them on to the new, order does not matter. Even though the old igniter has round pins and the new has spade pins, the terminals slide on with a tight fit and work fine. Due to the higher voltage of this unit I saw occasional flashover between the terminals when it was activated. I solved that by adding a second layer of heat shrink over the terminals.
The new igniter has four terminals and since the stovetop only has three burners, that left one to add a sparker for the oven pilot light. The new unit comes with spare 37” and 32” igniter wires. I joined the two together and they were long enough to reach across the stovetop, and follow the oven control plumbing down into the oven. The longer wire looks like it has a high-temp coating, but I also wrapped the part that is actually in the oven with high-temp fiberglass tape. I needed a sparker so I removed the one from my gas grill side burner, which I never use anyway. After removing the burner assembly from the oven, I “guesstimated” the location for the sparker and drilled a 7/16” hole in the pilot support plate. Once the sparker was in place, I reinstalled the burner assembly. The sparker electrode had to be “tweaked” slightly to get a reliable spark to the outlet end of the pilot light tube.
If you don’t add the oven igniter, you need to install one of the supplied wires on the fourth terminal and coil and stow the wire so that it won’t short to the stove. If you don’t do this, the bare terminal on the igniter will flashover to the others.
After installing the single AA battery and turning on the gas, it was time for a test run.
Aaaahh . . . The stovetop burners light almost instantly, quietly and reliably. The electronic ignition sparks about six times per second for as long as you hold the button as opposed to three sparks per half-revolution of the knob on the old one.
The oven pilot lights nicely. I’ve found that if you turn the oven knob to “pilot” and hold it for about 10 seconds and then push the igniter button, it will light almost instantly. I was a little concerned about the wire in the oven, so I heated the oven to 500 degrees for a test. Everything looks good and smoke check passed.
DW is HAPPY, and you know what that means . . .:B

Before


Old Piezoelectric Igniter


New Electronic Igniter


Oven Pilot Light Sparker Installation


After

Just got done doing this mod to the oven.

Thank you VERY much 12thgenusa for the detailed instructions

If your going to do this mod the you'll want Charbroil replacement part # 4586094P from Home Depot.

Our HD'S did not stock this item had to order it online.

C.B..