You really don't have a real problem.

I bet if you turn up the burner just a hair the clicking goes away, correct?

Whenever an ignitor tries to light one of the burners, it actually sparks all four burners-in other words, there is only one ignitor circuit. So this part is a non-issue.

What is happening is that the sensor is not picking up enough heat on the burner to sense that it is on, and thus it is trying to ignite the burner, to prevent a gas leak. I am sure the factory knows how to resolve this, and it's probably trivial.

Hi cpovey. Thanks for your optimism. I tried your suggestion by turning the dial up just a hair and the clicking continues. It seems I do have a real problem. According to the repairman, the ignition module that controls all four burners has gone bad in just 3 weeks and will need to be replaced. The new part from Prizer will hopefully arrive in 2 weeks. This stove has and continues to test my patience. I've done more waiting than cooking since I ordering this thing.
FWIW, I originally was going to purchase a Viking but read posts concerning their faulty ignitors. My neighbor has had his Viking 30" for 2 years now with no problems. He's offered to cook me breakfast. Yeah I know, the grass is always greener...

You simply have a case of 'infant mortality', the industry term for things that go bad within a month or so of install.

If it's any consolation, my ignitor module went bad too. Apparently, they received a bad batch of modules from the manufacturer. They have since changed suppliers.

The good news is that the new one took about 20 minutes to replace, and has worked perfectly for over a year.

I have the exact same problem on the exact same burner. Regardless of the setting, all burners click. I also have delayed ignition on the 22K burner.

In some way, it's good to know this has been a common problem, as a replacement is probably the best option.

mrzed, do all burners click constantly during cooking, or do all burners only click only while lighting?

This is pretty funny. Bluestar has an ignition problem within three weeks of delivery (apparently with multiple owners) and it's chalked up as "growing pains." If this was a problem with Viking there would be 100 follow-ups within 30 minutes discussing how evil Viking customer service is and how shoddy their products are (probably mostly by Bluestar owners no less)!

steve:

all burners click continuously during cooking (on simmer only).

xtenson, my thoughts exactly.

mrzed, Ok, the clicking just an added feature to test your commitment to the sect of Blue Star. If you can't still profess your devotion to the brand during the intentional growing pains period, a team of cloaked henchmen break into your home, snatch away the Blue Star, and replace it with (apparently) a Viking.

How tiring, xtenson, really.

Back to the constructive part of the forum. Yes mrzed, it sounds like the ignition module. Have you put in a call to the dealer? When we had a damaged igniter (cleaning mishap) Signature had a new (and spare) delivered the next day.

This is pretty funny. Bluestar has an ignition problem within three weeks of delivery (apparently with multiple owners) and it's chalked up as "growing pains."

Growing pains are not the same thing as infant mortality. Infant mortality means problems that occur shortly after install. Most product lines have some form of infant mortality, as some things are very hard to test. Dacor had severe infant mortality problems with their now infamous 30" dishwasher. Where I used to work, one product had an infant motality problem caused by minor power surges. It was not seen in the lab, because the lab had very high quality power, thus the product never saw minor power glitches during development.

'Growing pains' are totaly different, and are generally management and/or personnel/training problems, not product problems.

FYI, like most of us, I have three major appliances in the kitchen: Range/cooktop & ovens, fridge, and DW. All three of mine have had one service call within the first year.

This is not a problem limited to Bluestar. My Wolf does this occasionally when a burner is set very low. Most times, turning up the heat for a brief period helps. Also, keeping the burners and igniters clean helps too.

As to the control module issue cpovey had, that clearly is beyond the temp issue but was easy enough to fix. I hope my Bluestar (in the garage waiting to be installed) has the new module and I suspect it does since it was just delivered las week.

The igniter will spark until it senses by heat that the burner is lit. If it keeps sparking, there might be:
something wrong with the sensor on the igniter or,
bad alignment of the igniter so that the sensor doesn't pick up the heat from the flame in whop's case, or
a bad control module, or
if it is only on a very low simmer, the low on the burner is set so low that there isn't enough heat.

Our Blusstar doesn't do this on any of the burners even when on low.

The repair guy was by yesterday and we have ordered a new control module and 2 new igniters for our range. I wonder if the Canadian distributor may have had some older stock, and perhaps this was one of the ranges with the bad batch from before.

I'm not too concerned, assuming it all gets fixed in reasonable time frames. I purchased a Bluestar for the simplicity of the thing, so I am expecting this to be a one-time fix.

We have a Bluestar 48 inch, and have just this week developed
the same problem (continuously sparking igniter) on the same
burner (rear left simmer burner). Only instead of being just
three weeks after purchase, it's one year plus three weeks.
That means that it is just outside of the warranty, for this
portion of the stove (they warrantee the cast iron parts for
10 years).

And I don't want anybody to say "You really don't have a
real problem". I can't tell you angry my better half is
about this. Her expectations of a $4000 stove do not include
an igniter module failure after only one year.
A new igniter module for my stove costs $62, but has cost
Bluestar ten thousand dollars in sales. A friend of ours
admired our Bluestar range so much they were going to get
a Blue Star 48 inch range, with 2 ovens. Now they're getting
a Wolf.

Here's my final rant: I talked to the distributor, who was
a good guy, and he said that there was a bad batch
of igniter modules installed some time back, because of a
bad shipment of them from an OEM manufacturer. I'm shouting
now: If the distributors know that the igniter modules were
bad (defective), why aren't they replacing them for free?

Okay, I'm not shouting anymore. Why aren't they replacing
the modules for free? Because they're not defective. They're
inferior. Viking apparently has the same problem.

We love the stove. Crappy igniter module and kind of a
crappy warranty, though.

For what it's worth, my old Jenn-air cooktop would do that on one burner when it was really dirty or damp from a thorough cleaning. I really don't think it was faulty.

Are you sure you don't have a booger or something stuck on a sensor and everything is lined up OK? It could certainly be a crappy igniter module. But it might also be something piddly.

Owner of a Blue Star 6 burner rangetop

Part I.
About a year and a half with the unit, the igniters start sparking, with or without flame. This happens randomly during the day...spooky. Got the local distributor to come and look at the monster. The guy tries to undo a screw from the igniter and the thing breaks off from the thread (rusted!) Some of the screws apparently did not pass spec. Prizer Painter replaced the burner and sent some extra screws to replace questionable ones. They replaced both modules under warrantee but did not cover for labor or trip charges.

Part II
Six months later, the monster starts sparking again...now really out of warrantee. I decide to replace some of the igniters and both modules myself. (Only do this at your own risk.)
- worked like a charm

Part III
- six more months later, the low flame rear left burner starts to spark again....guess the new batch of modules didn't fix the problem.

The distributor suggested that the BlueStar should have its own circuit on our house breaker (ours has the the overhead hood blower connected with it as far as I can tell). Right! Next thing they'll suggest is getting a surge protector for it. So until I get an electrician to look into that, I'm resigned to unplugging the unit and use it retro-style. Turn on gas, use a $2 fireplace/bbq lighter from Home Depot as igniter. Very reliable and no more clicking. Prizer Painter should chop a few hundred dollars off their price and sell this as a feature.

Still love the performance of the BlueStar...can't recommend it to others who are not diehard fans of BTUs or who can not deal with the igniter inconvenience though.

Former owner of a Viking VGSU1626B 36" drop-in cooktop.

I've lurked on this website for several years and have always appreciated the input from all of the folks, it's been a great help in selecting appliances and knowing exactly what to expect.

I wanted to let folks know of our experience with our Viking cooktop. After owning it for about a year, it started the clicking randomly & usually at night.

The dealer had us on the ceramic igniter tips with brass toothbrushes saying that a build-up would cause it. It wasn't. We tried everything, dissassembled the burners, thoroughly cleaned everything, etc. We finally just unplugged it and used it manually for about a year.

When did get around to calling for service, the guy who came was very good & knowledgable (non-Viking), said that he had replaced about a dozen Viking ignitors in the past 4 months.

The new part was ordered and installed in about 7 days. The ignitor system worked flawlessly until we moved (about a year later). That was about two years ago. No one is immune from these types of failures. The key is getting someone who knows what to do and gets it taken care of.

We're now remodeling our new home and will probably choose the Bluestar this time. Hopefully, they've resolved the igniter problem.

Good luck with your Bluestar!

Just my $0.02 worth.

This problem sometimes occurs if the polarity at the outlet is reversed. Otherwise, if it's an ignitor or ignitor module, it should be replaced for free within warranty. The module should be covered even after the warranty period since there were some bad ones a year or so ago. I'd bug the distributor- sometimes they'll say, "well if it's your outlet, or you broke the ignitor, you'll have to pay, but if it's the module, we'll cover it. " At least that's what you should get them to say if it just went out of warranty - otherwise call Bluestar and ask them to get the distributor to do the right thing.

Some of the earlier bad modules were replaced with other bad modules because that's what was in stock at the distributor, or in the service truck's inventory.

Our Dacor range has had similar problems. It used to click 'forever', and sometimes ignite, sometimes not. Dacor replaced the igniters and wiring with a revised style - which was a huge improvement.

But now it often keeps clicking for 20 seconds or so after ignition. Dacor replaced the ignition module, but this didn't help much. So we are living with it. Drives SWMBO batty.

FWIW, the ignition module that Dacor uses is made by an Australian company - Tytronics. Ours uses model RI-306 - a 6-burner model. You can find them with google. I sent them email with some technical questions on this, but received no reply. Nice customer service... I wonder if Viking, and Bluestar also use Tytronics products?

One other thing: By both Dacors and Tytronics' technical documentation, it seems proper electrical grounding is important to these ignition modules. I tried both 3-wire and 4-wire setups, but have not seen much difference between the two.

more important than grounding, is the polarity. Neutral and Hot not getting switched in the outlet.

> more important than grounding, is the polarity. Neutral and Hot not getting switched in the outlet.

Well, on the Dacor dual fuel, it is a 220v connection. So polarity isn't an issue.

Is it a 115v connection on the Bluestars? Getting hot/neutral swapped would indicate a pretty sloppy electrical installation! (Hard to imagine someone not even bothering to test an outlet with a $5 polarity tester.)

Is this the primary issue that Blue Star owners find -- faulty ignition switches? I've read a ton of posts but not all. I need to make a decision between the Wolf 36" with grill and the Blue Star 36" with grill in the next week.

I want to know what I am in for.

Thanks,
Suzanne

Bluestar was in the midst of a rash of ignitor problems (seemingly according to activity on this forum) when we made our choice and it was one of the things that sealed the deal for Wolf-that and fit and finish. 9 months on and the ignitors have never skipped a beat. One interesting point is that the ignitors on the GE Profile range the Wolf replaced would never work in humid weather. We kept kitchen matches handy every summer. We just went through a real humid spell on the Cape, and now that I think of it, never had a single problem with our Wolf rangetop.

Have to say that the Bluestar customer service is responsive. They sent me a couple of replacement modules, now sitting pretty on my desk. I'm hesitant to put them in again and see them go bad in a couple of months. So I take my multimeter out to measure the voltage for the outlet the Bluestar is plugged into. 124V. The wiring for this outlet is somehow tied to my Windcrest hood and is on the same breaker. When I turn on the vent, the voltage drops to around 120V. Turning off the vent motor returns the voltage reading to 124V. Wondering if repetitive events like this is what causes the modules to fail and result in the clicking symptoms?

Just had my module replaced (continuous clicking only with summer burner). Works fine now. The module is an OEM part that Bluestar buys elsewhere, if that helps. I don't recall the name on it, but it wasn't BlueStar.

My brother's Viking did this a bunch, too.

Electrical noise from the fan could be an issue. I know they recommend a dedicated line. I'm sure the voltage level (120v v. 124v) is not the issue by itself.

Purchase my RNB 30" from Eurostoves on Nov 06 and the range was delivered and installed on Dec. Since day 1, I have had the simmer burner clicking after lit. Called distributor Signature Marketing for services on three occasions--Jan, March and June, each time a module was replaced. Now the darn thing is clicking again, this will be my 4th service call, same exact problem. Under instruction from the distributor, the serviceman checked the circuit, voltage, and polarity, everything on the line was fine and it should be because I had a DCS and GE range previously on the same circuit and had had no clicking problem of this sort. Now I wonder if I am the only one who got struck with such a bad string of lucks or others are having similar repeated problems as well. Also, do I have the right to ask for a new range replacement as I do not want to keep calling for service every two months. Please share your advice and input.

So I decided not to separate the vent hood and cooktop electrical after all. After asking a few electricians, they say it is not uncommon for the two to be tied together. The new modules shipped DIRECTLY from Bluestar was put in about a month ago. So far, working perfectly. We'll see six months from now. Hope it was just an old batch of bad modules after all.

I am experiencing the same problem with an American Range 6 burner stove. Suddenly started clicking...all six igniters firing continuously. It uses the same Tytronics "multi-point gas re-ignitor, made in Australia, Model RI306. Same as Wolf, and apparently Blue Star. Ordered a new one from Amazon; will post regarding repair when it arrives.