Kindling Range Service — independent Wolf cooking-appliance repair in Jacksonville, FL. Call +1 (904) 867-2707. # When a Burner Lights and Then Goes Out A gas burner that lights and dies a few seconds later is a flame sensing problem, not a gas supply problem. Here is what is actually happening and why. Source: https://jaxwolfco.com/kitchen-notes/burner-lights-then-goes-out/ Updated: 2026-08-15 Category: symptom Tags: gas burner, ignition, flame sensing, symptom There is a specific complaint we hear several times a month, and it is worth explaining properly because the obvious response to it is the wrong one. You turn the knob. The burner clicks, lights, burns normally for two or three seconds — and then goes out. Turn it again and the same thing happens. Nothing about the flame looked wrong while it was there. Almost everyone's first instinct is that the gas supply is inadequate. It almost never is. ## What the appliance is doing A modern gas cooking appliance does not simply open a valve when you turn a knob. It opens the valve, ignites, and then looks for proof that a flame actually exists before it commits to leaving the gas on. If it cannot find that proof within a couple of seconds, it shuts the gas off. That is the entire behaviour you are seeing. The burner lit, the appliance failed to see the flame, and it did exactly what it is designed to do. The system worked. Something in the proving circuit did not. Proof of flame is done in one of two ways depending on the appliance. Some use a thermocouple or thermopile: a junction of two metals that generates a small voltage when it is hot, and that voltage holds the safety valve open. Others use flame rectification, where a small current is passed through the flame itself — a flame conducts, and it conducts better in one direction than the other, so the control can distinguish a real flame from a short circuit. Both methods depend on something small being in exactly the right place relative to the flame, and clean. ## Why turning the gas up does not help If the flame is present and the sensor cannot see it, more gas does not make the sensor see it. More gas can actually make it worse, by lifting the flame further off the burner head and away from the sensing element. Owners who have had a technician "adjust the regulator" for this symptom and found no improvement have usually paid for a correct diagnosis of the wrong problem. There are genuine supply problems — see below — but they present differently. ## The causes, in the order we check them **Deposit on the sensing element.** A thermocouple tip or a flame rod coated in carbon or in the residue of a boil-over is insulated from the flame. This is the most common cause by a wide margin and it is often correctable without a part. **Position.** If the burner cap has been lifted for cleaning and set back a few degrees out of register, the flame pattern shifts and the sensor may no longer sit in it. Caps and heads are keyed. Check that first — it costs nothing. **A failing sensor.** Thermocouples weaken with age: they still get hot, but they no longer generate enough millivoltage to hold the valve. Like a weakening oven igniter, this produces a long, gradual decline rather than a clean failure, and it is measurable. **Ground path.** Flame rectification needs a good ground reference. A corroded burner ground strap or a loose chassis connection breaks the circuit that the flame current returns through, and the control sees no flame even though there plainly is one. **Then supply.** A genuine gas supply problem exists and it looks different: the burner behaves perfectly on its own and fails only when the oven and several other burners are running. That is a pressure drop under load, and in Jacksonville it turns up in the older parts of the city — Riverside, Avondale, Old Ortega, San Marco — where the meter was upgraded at some point and the run from the meter to the back of the house was not. ## What you can try before calling Turn the burner off and let it cool. Lift the cap, check that the ports are clear — a wire, not a drill bit — and make sure the cap goes back on its keying rather than near it. Wipe the sensing element clean with a dry cloth or a light abrasive pad if it is visibly sooted, and put nothing wet near it. If humidity is the cause, and in August in Jacksonville that is a live possibility, the symptom will clear on its own once the surface is genuinely dry. Give it a few hours before assuming a part has failed. If it still dies after two seconds, that is a service call. It is usually a small part and a short visit. --- Kindling Range Service is an independent appliance repair company. We are not affiliated with, authorized by, or endorsed by Wolf or its parent company. All brand names and model numbers are the property of their respective owners and are used only to identify the appliances we service. Phone: +1 (904) 867-2707 — the only way to book a visit. Hours: Mon–Fri 8am–6pm · Sat 9am–4pm · Closed Sunday. We do not run an after-hours or emergency line. Service area: Duval County and the neighbouring St. Johns and Clay County lines, within about 40 miles of downtown Jacksonville.