'Tuning' a gas stove

D107

I have seen comments online about getting a gas technician to 'tune your oven and stove burners' but I can't find anything more detailed about it. Once the range is cleaned thoroughly and burner pinholes are clear etc. what else can be done? Adjustments?

I know one thing some people forget to do is latch the oven closed when baking; seems obvious but oven appears to be closed even without latching, so not only is heat escaping, but according to what I've read, the combustion mix doesn't work right.



thanks.

Tim McElwain

Yes there is a procedure

which should be carried out by a professional. I have the entire procedure outlined in one of my manuals.



By the way what "latch" are you talking about when using the oven? Simply closing the oven door provided it is not warped should be fine. If you are talking about the lever for putting the oven on "Self Cleaning" that should only be latched when you are placing the range in the "Self Cleaning" mode.

D107

door

Yes, obviously you're right about the latch. We've never used it with the latch closed except I must have misread some directions. However recently after baking we found our CO detector read an 8ppm. So we put the oven through self-cleaning (with the rangehood fan vent on and kitchen window open), ––and of course latch closed––and cleaned the stovetop, which wasn't too bad--all the burner head holes were clear. We haven't baked since but we'd like to know what caused the CO readings. Dirty oven?

Tim McElwain

Do you have a low level CO

detector? You must have for it to have alarmed at 8 PPM CO. That is I assume a detector in the same room with the gas range? Have someone check your range with a combustion analyzer to see exactly what is coming out of the vent.



Many things can cause incomplete combustion on a gas range, such things as the oven bottom out of alignment, insufficient air for combustion, recirculation of combustion products due to a mis aligned oven door, air born chemicals in the kitchen from spray propellants, etc.

D107

NSI

Thanks, yes we have the NSI low-level detector just outside the kitchen on the other side of the wall; the one outside the bedroom also had same reading which makes sense since the stairs go right up from outside the kitchen. I have one in the basement boiler/hwh/drier room as well, 0 readings there. Reading went to zero once windows were opened. Oven was cleaned, 0 readings from stove use since then, but as you say we should get a tech to check this out. In five or six years this has happened maybe three times. This seems kind of specialized; are there oven range specialists? They would have to know ranges thoroughly. I know it's sometimes hard enough to get a decent combustion test for boilers etc.As I mentioned our range hood fan above the stove is vented directly outside.



Thanks again.

D107

PS

Oven and stove were on tonight for over an hour, all 0 readings. Also good to remind people not to forget to turn on the rangehood fan--that could certainly cause problems. I've seen some kitchen contractors try to talk customers out of venting to the outside; they just want to vent to nothing.

Tim McElwain

For proper service you want to contact

the manufacturers of your range and get a referral from them. You could also contact local appliance repair companies, ask if they do a combustion analysis with an electronic analyzer, if not then do not hire them.

Jim Davis_3

oven tuning

I have never read an installation manual that told how to tune an oven.  Manufacturers and appliance techs usually do it by eye. 

An oven is a heater(food heater).  They are tuned 100% by the CO readings.  Ovens have air adjustments and fuel adjustments.  They can be adjusted up or down.  The CO tells us which is the correct way or the incorrect way.

Tim McElwain

Jim is correct

the range manufacturers do not put that info in their manuals, in fact many gas appliances do not tell you how to correctly tune them.



As for the ranges this is why I developed a procedure for tuning gas ovens and waist high broilers. I also have a procedure for kitchen heater ranges.

Mark Eatherton

Tough to tune….

Any time you have a flame spreader plate, and flame in contact with it, you get flame quenching, which cools the flame and produces CO. I've never had a whole lot of luck getting these things to burn real clean, The best you can do is the best you can do, then ventilate.



Some friends of our had a thanksgiving dinner, and roasted the big bird in the gas fired oven in their kitchen. Their DOG alerted them that there was a CO problem shortly before their CO alarm started going off. He started barking uncontrollably in the kitchen and then started vomiting…



ME

Tim McElwain

Maybe Steamhead will

chime in here and tell about his oven CO condition. He had been to my classes if memory serves me correctly and had gone home only to discover high levels of CO in his oven. I will let him tell the rest of the story if he happens to pick up on this thread.

Tim McElwain

Seems like a good place to mention this . . .

Anytime you go into a customers home to do a combustion analysis on the heating system do a test on all the fossil fuel burning appliances that can be operated. Wood Stoves, pellet stoves not running are exempt.

D107

So,

Based on some of these comments, I'm thinking that the other cause of higher CO readings --aside from alignment, or fuel/air mixture, and more mentioned above-- would be a dirty oven which might increase 'flame quenching'. Seems that when we self-clean the oven the problem goes away.

Mark Eatherton

Electric ovens make CO...

when in cleaning mode… You are essentially burning off partially burnt food.



ME