I have a cooker with a gas hob and last night one of the burners wouldn’t ignite. Having looked at it, I noticed that the piezo wasn’t firing on that particular burner (although it was still firing on all the others). I lit it manually but then noticed that if I depressed the ignition control it fired the piezo on that burner. I then left it on for a while as I thought it might have had some moisture in it but this morning I have tried again and it still won’t ignite. It seems a bit odd as the piezo is clearly working (to a fashion) but it just won’t spark from a ‘cold start’.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Carbon on the electrodes / on the burner?

I have tried cleaning the electrode as best I can and have tried swapping burners over but still get the same issue.

Don’t all piezo igniters on cookers die within six months?! I have never used a cooker with working ones…

I can explain why it works with the flame on – the flame ionises the air which makes it easier to breakdown / form a spark.
Other than that clearly it’s struggling – I’d continue cleaning to make sure there’s a complete circuit electrode->burner->hob

Hmmm, after having another try the electrode isn’t firing at all now so @goldfish that makes sense – it was on its last legs and it has now died. Hmmm, it doesn’t look the easiest of jobs to DIY 🙁

@johndoh – I might have a dual fuel oven going spare in the next few days if you’re near the east mids

Thanks for the offer but I am in Yorkshire

Just use a lighter? As I say I’ve never had a piezo igniter work for more than a few months on any gas cooker I’ve ever come across. Don’t bother with trying to fix it when a Clipper will do 🙂

A similar thing happened with mine. The tip was too close to the hob ring, so the spark was tiny. Luckily my top plate is only held on with 8 screws, so pretty easy to disassemble, and bent back the tip a little.
I have got some spares ones if you need one, I took the complete unit from another hob for spares.

Don’t all piezo igniters on cookers die within six months?! I have never used a cooker with working ones…

Most are battery operated, which is usually in the bottom most compartment.
If the OP’s is the non battery type, its sometimes down to the wiring and could just be a case of being so old coupled with the generated heat.
Do we have a model/make and check the known faults via the online manual.

Most are battery operated

If it works off batteries (or any external power source) it’s not piezo. Good advice re the make/model and a bit of googling though.

I fixed one of ours on the weekend, the wire had fallen out of the bottom of the ignitor.

One of ours died on our 8 year old hob. Cleaning the electrode didn’t work. In the end ordered a replacement wire. Took about 15 minutes to fit. Easy job.

A genuinely enlightening thread. Never thought to try fixing them. Just used matches or a lighter to get the hob going once the piezo died.

Will bear this in mind next time I have a cooker with hobs (Aga currently so not an issue at present).