Oven Going Out / Thermocouple

[arcsum68]

Hey all.

Did some searching and found tons of posts where people have the same issue that I seem to be having where the oven will light perfectly fine and then go out. The general consensus seems to be that either the pilot light is not big enough, or the thermocouple is not in line with the flame and gets blown out when the main burner comes back on to bring the oven back up to set temp after the initial heating process. I looked and do not see any adjustments for the pilot light, and the flame and the thermocouple do appear to be in line with each other, though its difficult to tell and I am not sure just how perfect it needs to be.

I will take any advice, but I was wondering if the thermocouple itself could still be the problem. Do these things work intermittently? My trailer is a 2014, however it was only used a handful of times before I bought it and the oven looked like it had never been used. The fridge and thermostat still had the factory plastic protectors on them!

[way2roll]

Awesome! Thanks for reporting back.

[arcsum68]

Hey all, got it all working perfectly now. I replaced the pilot assembly for $15 and I could immediately tell just from the pilot that it was different. The pilot light was much stronger. Fired it up and let it run for about 45 minutes without any issues. The part was $15 and arrived earlier than expected from Amazon. Install was pretty straight forward, removed the "diffuser" (4 screws) and 2 screws held on the burner and pilot assembly. Took me about 15 minutes. Thank you all for your help as usual, great community here.

[arcsum68]

Suburban was not much help. The only thing they brought up was that the manifold/gas valve in mine was changed the following year. Apparently the newer version has a square tube and the gas valve was changed. I really cannot see that being the issue, I can have all 3 burners on and the oven with nice blue flames. Gas delivery to the entire system is not a problem. I am going to order the pilot assembly and see where that takes me.

[arcsum68]

dougrainer wrote:
Your problem is the Pilot goes OUT after the first time the main burner comes on and cycles OFF after the Oven has reached preset temp. NO ADJUSTMENT OF THE PILOT IS NEEDED. I have yet ever adjusted a Oven Pilot light flame in 41 years. They are usually dirty or clogged. NOT the problem in your case. In older Ovens this type problem was fixed by replacing the Oven Temp control assbly. But, in newer ovens it is a defective Pilot assbly, usually. There are 2 things that fix your problem. Doug
1. Defective Oven tstat
2. Defective Pilot assbly

I 100% agree, which is why I was not going to adjust it. After doing some additional reading I believe there is a problem with the pilot orifice getting hot and constricting the flow of gas. Looks like it's a $15 part, but I am going to call Suburban today and see if they can confirm this and check for any other TSB's and/or recalls.

[dougrainer]

Your problem is the Pilot goes OUT after the first time the main burner comes on and cycles OFF after the Oven has reached preset temp. NO ADJUSTMENT OF THE PILOT IS NEEDED. I have yet ever adjusted a Oven Pilot light flame in 41 years. They are usually dirty or clogged. NOT the problem in your case. In older Ovens this type problem was fixed by replacing the Oven Temp control assbly. But, in newer ovens it is a defective Pilot assbly, usually. There are 2 things that fix your problem. Doug
1. Defective Oven tstat
2. Defective Pilot assbly

[ktmrfs]

is the thermocouple in the flame? Is the pilot flame blue and reasonably large? the pilot orifice is small, possible that a spider web or debris is obstructing the flow, which may not provide enough heat for the thermocouple. Or the thermocouple is not aligned well

[arcsum68]

OK, usable data!

Knowing what I have learned (thanks all) I went ahead and fired it up and recorded everything with the door open. Great idea right? Well my phone overheated and didn't save any of it, and no it was not IN the oven! I am not sure how long it took, but when I checked at 17 minutes the pilot was flickering and popping. I did get a smaller clip of it that I can share if anyone wants to see it. I figured I would let it go, because I wanted to see if it would stay lit, it did. At about 25 minutes I figured I would close the door, I knew it would inevitably go out so I sat there and listened to it. Sure enough, within a minute I heard it stop popping and opened the door to watch the main burner stop shortly after. Thermocouple is obviously fine and the issue is the pilot. I did notice that there is actually an adjustment, I was looking in the wrong place. I am going to call Suburban tomorrow to see if there are any known issues before I go trying to adjust the pilot, but I am pretty sure either the pilot light is too small or there is an issue with the regulator.

If anyone has an good info, feel free to share. I will post back either way.

[arcsum68]

Old-Biscuit wrote:

arcsum68 wrote:
Sorry, totally should have mentioned that.

Suburban SRNA3SBBE

After lighting the Pilot the thermocouple should be directly over the pilot flame....it is what heats the thermocouple and allows gas control to send gas to burner based on oven knob setting/thermostat

When oven temp is reached the Main Flame should NOT go out...should diminish in size --- normal for this type of thermostat and this
flame size will maintain a constant temperature with in the oven.
If oven temp drops below setting then thermostat will increase Main Flame size to bring oven temp back up

Pilot flame.....heats thermocouple
Main flame size increases/decreases until oven knob is turn back to Pilot position OR OFF (which secures Pilot Flame also)


So is Pilot Flame heating thermocouple?
Does Main Flame stay lit...just change sizes?

Thanks OB, I learned all about thermocouples a handful of years back when I was having an issue with my water heater. RV oven problems are new to me, but I understand how the thermocouple itself works.

The pilot IS heating the thermocouple, it has to be or the oven would never light, at least that's the way I understand it. I did read people saying they adjusted theirs by tweaking the mounting assembly, but mine seems to be setup fairly well, I will take another look though and maybe try to get a picture.

I have not sat there and watched the flame, yesterday when I was troubleshooting it stayed lit for over 15 minutes, so it's not something that happens immediately. Also not sure how I would know if the flame gets lower, I would have to have the oven door open and I doubt it would ever get to temperature like that. Maybe I could throw a heat gun on the thermostat to see what happens?

[Old-Biscuit]

arcsum68 wrote:
Sorry, totally should have mentioned that.

Suburban SRNA3SBBE

After lighting the Pilot the thermocouple should be directly over the pilot flame....it is what heats the thermocouple and allows gas control to send gas to burner based on oven knob setting/thermostat

When oven temp is reached the Main Flame should NOT go out...should diminish in size --- normal for this type of thermostat and this
flame size will maintain a constant temperature with in the oven.
If oven temp drops below setting then thermostat will increase Main Flame size to bring oven temp back up

Pilot flame.....heats thermocouple
Main flame size increases/decreases until oven knob is turn back to Pilot position OR OFF (which secures Pilot Flame also)


So is Pilot Flame heating thermocouple?
Does Main Flame stay lit...just change sizes?

[dougrainer]

arcsum68 wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
Need Brand and Model of Oven. There is a non published TSB on I believe Atwood ovens where the problem is what you describe and it involves replacing the Pilot assbly. NO adjustments would fix this problem. Doug

Suburban SRNA3, sounds like this is not an issue for mine, but thanks for mentioning it. I did hear about some recalls for my brand but havent found anything specific.

UNPUBLISHED! You will have to contac Suburban with Model and serial number and explain what it is doing. They then may send out the replacement part. Or send it to a Service center if yours is that problem. Doug

[arcsum68]

dougrainer wrote:
Need Brand and Model of Oven. There is a non published TSB on I believe Atwood ovens where the problem is what you describe and it involves replacing the Pilot assbly. NO adjustments would fix this problem. Doug

Suburban SRNA3, sounds like this is not an issue for mine, but thanks for mentioning it. I did hear about some recalls for my brand but havent found anything specific.

[arcsum68]

Darryl&Rita wrote:
Thermocouples either work, or they don't. The nut holding it to the gas valve may be loose, causing intermittent loss of connection. Use a wrench to just snug it up.

Thanks, I did that as part of the troubleshooting steps following the other threads, no change after doing that.

[arcsum68]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Nice that you have a pristine 2014 !

Brand/Model of stove/oven would be more helpful to resolve your issue

Could be low LP Pressure (oven have their OWN LP Reg set to 10"WC under stove top cover)
Could be pilot light issue
Could be thermocouple and or connection
Could be....

Brand/Model ???

Sorry, totally should have mentioned that.

Suburban SRNA3SBBE

[dougrainer]

Need Brand and Model of Oven. There is a non published TSB on I believe Atwood ovens where the problem is what you describe and it involves replacing the Pilot assbly. NO adjustments would fix this problem. Doug