Fisher & Paykel Gas Stove Burner Won't Ignite

Most Likely Cause#

When a Fisher & Paykel burner won't light, the fault is almost always one of three things — the igniter, the spark module, or the gas valve — and the fastest way to tell them apart is to listen. Turn the knob to light and listen for the click. If every burner clicks but none catch, look at the gas supply or wet burners; if nothing clicks on any burner, the shared spark module is the suspect; if only one burner is dead, that burner's own igniter or wiring is the place to start. The OR and OR90 Companion ranges use an enclosed-burner design, but the diagnosis order is the same across the line.

Safety First#

Know where your gas shutoff is — usually behind or below the range — before you touch anything. If you smell gas strongly and no burner is lit, stop: shut off the gas supply, ventilate the room, and call your gas utility. Never test for gas flow with a match or a lighter during diagnosis, and never bypass a safety valve.

Fault Map: Symptom to Cause#

The Cooktop: Spark Ignition#

Cooktop burners fire from a ceramic spark electrode. The single most common "clicks but won't light" cause is a wet or dirty burner — moisture from a boil-over or from cleaning shorts the spark to the burner cap instead of jumping to the gas. Pull the burner cap and head, dry everything thoroughly, and clear each gas port with a straight pin; never use a toothpick, which can snap off and block a port. While it's apart, check that the cap seats dead flat — a tilted cap scatters the gas away from the electrode — and inspect the electrode tip for cracks, carbon, or a gap that has opened too wide (it should sit roughly 1/8 inch from the burner). Fine sandpaper cleans a corroded tip.

If a single burner never clicks while the others do, the problem is that burner's electrode or its wire, not the module. If no burner clicks, the shared spark module behind the rear panel or under the cooktop has failed — it generates the high-voltage pulses for every burner, so one dead module silences them all.

The Oven: Hot-Surface Igniter#

The oven burner is different — it uses a hot-surface igniter that must both glow hot enough to light the gas and draw enough current (about 3.2-3.6 amps on most models) to open the safety valve it is wired in series with. A weak igniter glows a dim orange but never pulls the current the valve needs, so it glows on and on with no gas. A healthy oven igniter reaches bright orange within 30-60 seconds and reads roughly 40-400 ohms cold; anything over 400 ohms is a weak igniter due for replacement. The element is fragile silicon carbide, so handle a new one only by its bracket — skin oils create hot spots that shorten its life.

Step-by-Step#

1. Turn each cooktop burner to light: all silent points at the module, one silent points at that burner's electrode.
2. Pull the burner cap and head, clean the ports with a pin, and dry everything completely — moisture is the top "clicks but won't light" cause.
3. Inspect the electrode for cracks, carbon, or too wide a gap (about 1/8 inch), and clean a corroded tip with fine sandpaper.
4. For the oven, meter the igniter cold — 40-400 ohms is good, over 400 is weak — or clamp an ammeter and confirm it climbs past the valve threshold.
5. Confirm the gas is on: the shutoff handle parallel to the pipe means open, and check that other gas appliances still work.

Wiring and Rodent Damage#

One cause hides behind all the others: the wiring between the igniter, the spark module, and the control board. Loose spade connectors or corroded terminals throttle the spark, and rodents nesting behind the range chew through insulation — a surprisingly common find on stoves that back onto an exterior wall. Before you condemn a module or an igniter, inspect every visible wire for burn marks, green corrosion, chewed insulation, or a connector that has backed off its tab. A five-minute reconnection sometimes revives a burner that looked like a dead electrode. Keep the burner area dry as well, since most repeat "clicks but won't light" cases are simply moisture from boil-overs shorting the spark to the cap.

Cost and Repair-or-Replace#

Most of these fixes are cheap and DIY-friendly: drying and cleaning a burner costs nothing, and a cooktop spark electrode or an oven igniter is an inexpensive part. The spark module and the gas valve cost more and, for the valve especially, involve gas-line work best left to a technician. As a rule, on a range under about ten years old any of these repairs beats replacing the stove. If the fix involves the gas valve, or you smell gas you can't source, book an EasyBear technician and we'll bring Fisher & Paykel igniters, spark modules, and gas tooling.