02Grill symptom 2 of 8
Wolf outdoor grill Denver · 5,280 ft
Igniter glows, burner stays dark
A glow under the grates settles the electrical half of the question: the igniter has power and it is doing its job. What is missing is gas arriving at that port while the knob is held in. Wolf Repair Denver Pros looks at the tube, the port and the supply before condemning an igniter: (720) 702-9054.
What you are looking at
- The igniter glows orange under the grates for the full five seconds and the burner above it never takes.
- One burner does this while the others on the same grill light first time, every time.
- It caught without complaint last weekend and today the same knob does nothing.
Wolf puts the hot surface igniter inside a flash tube below the burner grates, not out on the burner itself. The glow you can see and the burner you want alight sit at two different places, and flame has to travel from one to the other. Anything lying in that run, and a sheltered steel tube collects things, leaves you with a glow and no fire. A line closed all winter can also hold enough air to swallow the first attempt.
What to check yourself
- Try a neighbouring burner. If it lights straight away the supply into the grill is fine, and the fault sits with one tube rather than with the house.
- Hold the knob in for the full five seconds after the glow appears; if nothing catches, turn it off, wait five minutes and try once more.
- Shine a torch down the flash tube and along the burner from outside. Webbing, a nest or a drift of grit is enough to stop gas reaching the port.
If you can smell gas, stop. Shut the supply off at the grill, put out any flame, open the hood, and move away before you call your gas utility or the fire department from outside. That call comes before this one, and it is not a call for an appliance shop.
What happens on the visit
- Supply pressure read at the grill inlet while the burners are running, against the water column Wolf publishes for the fuel your rating plate names.
- The flash tube and the burner ports cleared properly, which means the burner out on a bench rather than poked at in place.
- Every burner returned with its orifice seated inside the air shutter. Wolf warns plainly that gas can escape outside a burner assembled any other way.
Follow-ups
Does a glowing igniter mean the igniter is fine?
Not on its own. A hot surface igniter can still glow and run cool enough that the gas never takes, which is why it is measured rather than admired. What a glow does prove is that power, the breaker and the GFCI are all doing their part, and none of them needs chasing.
Can I clear the burner tube myself?
Clear what a brush reaches from outside the grill, and stop there. Taking a burner out to clean it through means putting it back with the orifice inside its air shutter, and Wolf is blunt about what follows when that is wrong. Wolf Repair Denver Pros handles that end on (720) 702-9054.