Propane Range

Greetings all,

I've been enjoying my first propane range/oven for the past two years. It was new at that time. Recently, some of the flames were getting more yellow, longer and would leave black deposits on the pans.

I took off the burner cap and saw some light colored deposits on the burner orifices. The burners appear to be cast aluminum. I raided the kids craft box for a pipe cleaner and cleared all the orifices. They cleaned up easily and left little piles of light colored dust behind. All works well now.

Is this normal? Is it from the propane? Perhaps from cleaning chemicals?

TIA [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Sounds like your burners need adjusting. Cleaning the orifices was good but apparently did not solve the problem. If you are not familiar with propane appliance repair, it may be time to get a serviceman out. Your flame should burn a nice blue with no consistent yellow. Occasional impurities from the propane may come through, but not consistently or for very long. As I recall, the more yellow you get, the closer you are to being low on propane, too, so I would check that out first. Your metal pots should not turn black if the propane flame is adjusted properly.

It has been said that the odorant (merkaptan typically) may be concentrated in the "dreggs" of the tank and cause problems if you run your tank too low prior to a refill. It will cloud the mineral glass window of a gas log fireplace.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

I haven't had that problem on a range/oven, but I've had it on the little heater in our cabin. When we lived there, I automatically cleaned it every fall. The deposits we got were more white colored. The pilot tended to build up the worst and as the deposits built up, the flame would slowly change from small and blue to big and yellow. I believe this happens because the deposits reduce the pressure of the gas coming through the oriface. (But, I'm probably wrong).

I've been told that all propane has 'impurities' like water and that this is what causes the deposits. On the other hand, I've been told if I buy propane from company X, that I won't have the problem since they only sell 'premium' propane (which is also why is costs so much more). Go figure, propane has grades?

Steve

Yellow propane flame is due to the mix being too rich, i.e. not enough air or insufficient mixing of fuel and air. Not enough fuel (too lean of a mixture) is blue and probably is a noisy unstable flame if it maintains a flame at all.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

We have a jenn-air cooktop that has the grill and the burners. When I set it up I had to make two adjustments to get the flame right. The first adjustment was an air shutter adjustment. This made by moving a shutter on the orifice in or out to creat a different flame. Per the manual: Closing the shutter too far will cause the flame to become soft and yellow tipped. Opening the air shtter too wide will cause the flame to blow away from the burner ports. Proper adjustment will produce a sharp, clearly defined, even blue flame.

The second adjustment you had to take the control knobs off and stick a skinny screwdriver in through the hole. This adjustment was to get the correct flame size. You turn clockwise to reduce the flame and counterclockwise to increase the flame.