Replacing a Gas Stove Electric Igniter

For the past few months, my oven has been taken longer and longer to heat up and cook. I did not know anything about how a gas stove really works and I was afraid that I was going to have to either hire someone to come fix it or buy a new oven. Before I jumped into hiring someone or buying a new oven, I decided I would research the problem and attempt to fix it myself.

After some research, I came to the conclusion that I had a faulty igniter. The information that I found seemed like it would be an easy fix. I located a replacement igniter for just under $25 from Sears. I figured that if I messed something up, that at least I would only be out $25 and my time.

A gas stove with an electric ignition burner has an igniter that glows similar to a light bulb. This igniter gets hot and once it reaches a certain temperature, it triggers the oven valve to open and the gas flame appears. In a working oven, the flame should appear within a minute of turning on the oven. My oven was taking more than 10 minutes for the flame to appear. This is a picture of the faulty igniter. It did glow, but just was not getting hot enough to start the flame.

Once I determined that the problem was the igniter, the fix only required the use of a few tools.

A Robertson (square) screwdriver, flat-head screwdriver, wrench, and wire cutter were the only tools needed for this fix.

The new igniter came with two porcelain wire nuts.

Before doing anything else, I made sure the oven was unplugged and that the gas line to the oven was turned off. I did not remove my oven door, but it probably would make the fix a little bit easier to reach. If you chose to do this, now would be the time.

I then removed the oven racks.

The bottom of my oven is held in by two flat-head screws at the back of the oven. I removed the screws, slid the oven bottom forward and lifted it out.

The Oven Baffle was then visible. My baffle was held on by one nut, which I removed with the wrench.

I set the oven racks, bottom, and baffle aside. Then I could finally get to the actual problem.

My igniter was held in by two Robertson screws and washers. I just removed the screws and cut the wires to the faulty igniter. Since my model of oven had two wires coming from the ingniter, I made note of what each wire was connected to. This was to ensure I connected the new igniter wires to the proper location.  

Since I had never done this before, I decided to cut my wires longer than what they ultimately needed to be. I wanted to be able to cut it shorter and try again if I made a mistake. I stripped the wires and lined them up to the wires attached to the oven.

I placed the wire nuts on the wires and gave them a twist.

I then attached the new igniter and made sure that the wires were in the correct locations. To me, it looks like the new igniter has a little happy face!

The fix was done at this point, but I wanted to test it out before I put everything back together. The new igniter lit right up and started the gas within 30 seconds. So I just put everything back together in the opposite order.

This was actually a quick and easy fix and it saved me a ton of money since I could do it myself and I did not have to buy a new oven.