How does the blue star iginite?

6 years ago

Hello All,

I have tried to reach Blue Star for over a week and no luck. I am wondering how the open burner ignite because I have kids.

Our Thermador would lite in any position and the ignitor would spark until it lit. The house we just moved into has a GE Cafe and it will only spark on "HIGH". If the knob is rotated past high before ignition, it will just dump gas into the home forever. More than once I have smelled gas and one of the knob was on without a flame.

Anyway, Trying to determine if you turn a blue star knob to any position, will it spark until a flame is present? Will it reignite if it goes out somehow?

Thank you,

Chris

Featured Answer

M

6 years ago

Bluestar open burners have spark igniters. There is one dedicated spark module per burner. So, only the burner that you try to turn on will spark, but not any of the other ones. There is no dedicated "spark" position for the knob. You turn the knob, gas starts flowing, and sparks happen until the gas is ignited. Then the sparks stop unless gas somehow went out.

It's pretty simple and straight-forward. Our six- and nine-year olds regularly use the range by themselves to cook a bowl of noodles or make themselves scrambled eggs.

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Comments (6)

Bruce in Northern Virginia
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Having a specific dial position to fire the ignitor on a gas burner is quite common. How did the Thermador determine when to have the ignitor stop sparking? If the Thermadot ignited in any position of the dial it would need a sensor to determine when flame was there and the spark mechanism could stop. Either that or it had a pilot light.

Bruce
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chris doe
Original Author
6 years ago
Bruce, I am not sure what sensors are used but if the gas was flowing, the spark would spark and after lighting it would stop. Must have something to detect the flame??? It always lit instantly. The Thermador simmer feature would cycle on and off lighting itself automatically.

I would buy another but they do not offer 8 burners.
John
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
chris doe:

Bluestar (as well as many other brands) use an electronic spark igniter module that senses the electrical resistance between the igniter electrode and the burner (electrically grounded). When there is just air (or non-burning gas) between them, the resistance is high and the module starts the sparks. When there is flame between them, the resistance is lower and the module stops the sparks.

Here is a link to the datasheet for the module that my Bluestar RCS range uses:

http://www.tytronics.com.au/__files/f/2792
M
6 years ago
@John, that's interesting. You linked to a module that senses on four sensors independently, but that always sparks on all four igniters at the same time. So, even burners that don't need to be ignited will produce sparks. I didn't know that Bluestar installed 0+4 spark modules. My range has a 4+0.

But searching online, I see that 0+X is much more common than X+0. I wonder if some regulations have changed since we bought our range about 10 years ago.
John
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
M:

The ignition module in the linked datasheet contains four separate spark outputs. It senses and sparks each burner independently of the others.

The description in the first paragraph "...using a common spark and sense electrode." is saying that the use of the spark electrode for each burner is also being used as the sense electrode for that burner.

Here is a link to the module on the Bluestar parts page:

http://bluestar-store.mwrc.net/en/product.php?product_id=40478

Edit:

I just re-read the datasheet which does say that all burners are sparked if only one has no flame. This is not the case with my Bluestar 30" RCS V2 (manufactured in 2016). On mine, all burners are ignited and reignited independently. Either Bluestar changed the ignition module to a different model or the datasheet is wrong.