If you are a house cook and/or a home maker, it’s pretty likely you have encountered trying to turn on your home gas cooker, but nothing happened. Yes, everyone’s worst nightmare, an appliance going bad.

Now, whether or not you were successful in repairing your gas cooker, here are some useful tips and information to help avoid or lessen such disastrous and unexpected events from happening.

About Gas Cookers

With all the advances in technology, it is no secret that gas is still the least expensive fuel for cooking. Although electric cookers are becoming all the rage this past few decades, gas cookers prove to still be a bit more efficient. Gas cookers give instant heat to whatever you put on the stovetop. And since gas cookers have so much fewer moving parts than electric cookers, gas cookers usually break down less often. That being said, things can still go wrong, and this is where your self-help skills will come in handy.

Whether you’re the cook or the handyman of the house, it will always be a frustrating day when your favorite gas cooker suddenly decides to break down. Whether your gas cooker is an oven, a range cooker, or freestanding gas cookers, repairing gas appliances is never that easy. However, there are still things you can do on your own before you would have to decide to call an expert.

What Do You Need For Self-Help Repairs?

Ovens have gas cooker parts available from the manufacturer or the local store you bought them from. To fix your gas cooker from your home, all you need are these three simple tools, which can be found in any home:

• wrenches
• screwdrivers
• sewing needles

Initial Steps You Can Take

When caught off guard, it can be quite distressing when your gas cooker does not heat evenly. But before you make that expensive support call, here are some simple steps you can follow to repair a gas oven on your own:

• Remove the oven doors. Most doors unbolt easily, or they can be removed by simply lifting the hinges. Remember to lay out used newspapers when doing any kind of repair to your gas cooker. This will help lessen the mess you will eventually create while tinkering with your gas cooker.
• Check the upper burner. They may have a burner cover which you will need to remove. Then get your screwdrivers, wrenches and other tools to do some tune ups on any loose or moving parts. If you find some parts need to be replaced, you can go to your local store to shop for replacements.
• Contrary to what some people believe, a good clean down is actually part of a good maintenance routine for your gas cooker. Use warm soapy water and a scrub to take out all the grime and soot from the burner openings. Use needles or paper clips to clean the holes of the burner openings. For the tougher stains, you may need to smother the oven with oven clear for about 15 minutes. A second washing with warm soapy water should do the trick afterwards.
• For cookers with double ovens, do the same for the other burner. For lower burners, you need to also remove the bottom pan and scrub away the accumulated dirt and grime. Repeat the same steps above until everything is squeaky clean.

Checking Your Gas Cooktop/Stovetop

On occasions, it may be your stovetop burner that stops working on your gas cooker. The problem usually stems from the gas burner pilot openings accumulating soot or food rubbish. No need to fret and think of discarding your stovetop right away just because you have a spare electric cooker. These four easy steps should help you get that gas stove up and running again:

• Before doing any cleaning, maintenance or repairs, turn the gas supply off first. Then simply raise the gas burner lids and check each burner carefully. Due to grime build up, each burner opening and pilot light opening need to be checked and cleaned thoroughly.
• Using your trusty sewing needle, clean the dirt from within the burner holes. You have to be careful though to not make the holes irregular by excessive poking.
• Sometimes it is the igniter itself, and not the burner holes, than need cleaning up. Test the igniter on every burner. Observe if dirt or grime is preventing the igniters from igniting properly. Use a soft scrub or brush with soft bristles to clean the igniter and igniter housing.
• Be thorough when cleaning each burner. You may need to take out each burner, clean their housings, and put them back together. Before you turn the gas back on, make sure each burner is assembled back properly. Put the lids back in place. Plug the gas connection back on.

Gas Cooker Repairs and Maintenance

• Check the pilot lights. They are usually the first ones to go out.
• If you have an internal range, check the plugs for malfunction.
• Ignition modules are also prone to malfunction.
• It is wise to clean your burner ports regularly.
• Air shutters also need regular cleaning and maybe some adjusting
• When doing gas cooker repair or repairing the gas lines they are using, only have them done by a professional and licensed repairman.

Word From The Wise

Do NOT use steel wool pads when cleaning your burners and ovens. Steel wool pads leave small metal shavings when used, and they are likely to cause shorts or sparks when igniting your burner or oven. In gas or electric ovens, shorts or sparks can be a cause of an untoward ignition or explosion, or on the other hand, be a cause for your oven to not ignite at all. For cleaning purposes, you can use a non-metal scouring pad.