Born Free Leap'n Lions RV Club Info & Discussion Forum

Greetings, I am new, in fact this is my first post.
I just bought a 2014 BF Spirit. The stovetop right burner lites, but won't stay lit. As soon as I release the starter, the flame goes out. I did try holding the starter down for as long as 2 minutes.
The left burner lights and stays on just fine.

Does anyone have any ideas what the problem might be?

Thanks,
Larry

Hi Larry. Welcome to the Forum and welcome to Born Free ownership. Great coach, and a great group of owners here. I don't want you to think you're being ignored so I thought I'd post to your thread. I'm not familiar with what stove top was installed in the later model mohos... I've not seen one with a "hold to light" button so I fear I won't be much help here... if your coach was ten years older, I could help... sorry. I hope someone will pitch in and give you some advice though.

Good luck!

Not sure what stove was installed in your coach and exactly how your switch works. On our coach, we have to turn the control knob to a specific spot then press down to start the sparker. The burner lights and we then turn the knob to the desired level. Sometimes it can be finicky and we have to turn the knob while the sparker is sparking, or the flame goes out if we release the knob. Try that and see how it works.

Other than that, I could only suggest finding a local repair place to look at it.

Doing some online research, the only two burner stovetop I can find with a "button" is the SMEV. Is this what you have in your coach?

If so, the push button is a piezo-electric lighter. If your burner won't stay lit, it's likely suffering from fuel restriction/starvation. Barring an actual malfunction or manufacturing defect, fuel restriction in propane systems often occurs from spiders getting into the system and partially or fully blocking the passage with a web. It happens more frequently with water heaters as they're exposed to the outside, but it can happen in a stove as well.

In older stoves, each burner had a burner tube with the gas orifice at one end with an air regulator that could be adjusted and the burner on the other... and a long pipe cleaner inserted into the burner tube to clean out anything that may block the gas/air flow. My '06 Atwood stove has a different setup with copper tubing to a mounted orifice immediately under the burner, so when there's a problem with flow, it's actually in the burner attached to the stove top.

All that said, I suspect that your stove has a similar setup with a copper tube to an orifice immediately beneath the burner itself. If you can pull the stove top up, inspect and gently clean the inside of the burner, replace all of the parts and try to light it.

If you're not comfortable figuring out how the stove top is removed, or that doesn't fix the problem, then you need to find a dealer who stocks and can repair your stove. Good luck!

Thank you for the quick replies.
The stove top is a Thetford series 160. The burner control knob is pushed in and turned to the Lite position. It does lite but will not stay lit.
I will try moving it to a different position after starting.

Since it does lite, I wouldn't think it would be a line clog, but I will inspect it.
I suspect it could be a manufacture defect, because when I purchased the coach the previous owner said she never used the stovetop.

Larry&CherylPrice wrote: Since it does lite, I wouldn't think it would be a line clog, but I will inspect it.
I suspect it could be a manufacture defect, because when I purchased the coach the previous owner said she never used the stovetop.

You'd be surprised how little of an obstruction in the gas line or air supply that it takes to cause a problem with the burner flame. Let us know what you figure out!

If it's like my cooktop, each burner has a flame sensor/igniter. Typically this is a thermocouple that generates an electrical current that will hold the gas valve open when heated. Try cleaning the igniter electrode and make sure that it is positioned the same as the working burner. If that fails it could be a bad thermocouple or a bad valve. If possible, swap igniters and see if the problem follows.

tomzleapin wrote:If it's like my cooktop, each burner has a flame sensor/igniter. Typically this is a thermocouple that generates an electrical current that will hold the gas valve open when heated. Try cleaning the igniter electrode and make sure that it is positioned the same as the working burner. If that fails it could be a bad thermocouple or a bad valve. If possible, swap igniters and see if the problem follows.

Tom, what make/model of stove do you have? They had thermocouples on the old stoves with pilot lights, of course, but I don't believe I've ever seen one in a stove burner with a manual-light or piezo-electric ignitor burner.

Thanks!

Roger

My cooktop is a Smeg 24" residential model. When the Suburban cooktop started giving me grief I replaced it with the Smeg. I'm assuming that the Thetford that Larry has is an electrical spark igniter, not a piexo-electric.

My home stove is natural gas and it has pilot lights. It does not have any thermocouples. The gas used for the pilot is such a little amount that there is no danger of it blowing up (at least I hope that's true).

Here's the Smeg in my coach:

Thanks, Tom... that's quite a stove. I've not seen one before. Thanks for sharing that.

Roger

The line may have air in it. If you had the propane tank turned off, then turn it on for a trip it will have air in the line. I use an open flame lighter and hold it above the burner till gas is flowing freely and all the jets are burning. This will purge the air from the line. I do this before every trip.
Steve