something is wrong - if there's no flame the ignitors are supposed to start clicking until the burner lights - this has been the case for at least 10 years and probably more.

They click when you are at the point on the dial where the igniter goes on but it younturn it halfway quickly you go right past the clicky section and just get the gas.

Also, on today's models, is the clicky sound the only safety feature? I dont think the dog or a small child would know how to interpret and deal with that. I cannot believe with all the safety concerns we have that we have gne backwards with gas ranges.

Not true - on my range, if the flame goes out at any position on the dial, the ignitors will start clicking to relight it - happens with boilovers and if I blow the flame out - may not be true on all ranges.

Ours doesnt do that. May i ask what brand and year yours is?

My grandmother has a Whirlpool gas range bought less than two months ago. It functions as per myrtle_59's reference ... the burner ignitors spark ONLY at the designated position on the dial. Turn past it too quick, the gas stays on, no sparking. Truthfully, I haven't tried lighting a burner then trying to blow the flame out to see if it re-ignites. I have turned the control too quickly past the spark point and there was a strong gas odor with no sparking, although I didn't leave it that way for more than a couple seconds so I also can't honestly say if it would have eventually started sparking.

I have a DCS range purchased in 2002.

A second, less common safety mechanism turns the gas off entirely if a thermocouple senses it's become too cool even though the controls are set for the gas flame to be on, and thus the flame must have gone out. This is safer since if the clicking spark plug fails to reignite the flame, it will still pour unburned gas into your home. But if you hear hissing but no flame, something is wrong.

Myrtle's stove is functioning as designed. I recently replaced a decade-old GE dual-fuel stove (J2B900 series). It operated exactly as Myrtle described.

Some gas ranges come with a re-ignitor but many do not.

Re-ignitors tend to be features of more expensive stoves like DCS (which Weissman has), NXR (which I have), Wolf, etc.

Thanks, everyone. We may go electric just for the safety issue. What a shame. I just don't get it. What about people with young children? How can they risk such a stove.

Generally on stoves such as yours (and mine as well) you can't just turn the knob, you have to first depress it in order to turn it. I think that's considered the safety mechanism with young children. Also, presumably you're somewhere nearby if a young child is near the stove - it's actually more dangerous to the child in the short term if the burner actually lights than if it just spews out gas.