[Shop-talk] Troubleshooting a fluttering gas oven

[Jim Franklin]

I have a Magic Chef gas range and occasionally the oven will "flutter" and take a long time to come up to temp. I bought a clamp ammeter and tested the igniter current and it's at 2.9 - 3.0 amps, right where it should be. Of course there was no fluttering during this test :-)

Is it possible for these things to fail intermittently or are they pretty steady even as they're going bad? 

Not to introduce a red herring but sometimes I hear similar fluttering from the water heater, and sometimes the stovetop burners won't light, and sometimes their flame sounds like it has extra pressure, or another non-reactive gas in it because they make jet noises. 

This is a rental and I'm on good terms with the landlord and her dog is dying so I don't want to burden her with petty things if there's nothing really wrong, but I also don't want my roasts to not cook or the house to blow up. 

thanks,
jim