Princess Stove/Oven Misbehaving

[bicyclewriter]

I have a Princess model 3174/3374. When I light the oven, set the temp, and close the door it takes 30-45 minutes for it to heat. The burner doesn't come on right away (pilot is lit) but will come on for a few seconds at a time after a few minutes, and will continue to do this until it finally heats up. Doesn't seem to be a thermocouple because the pilot lights right away and stays lit.


Is there some other sensing device that wants the oven to warm that slowly?


Thanks!

[sailormed]

Cold gas tank maybe? What is its the temperature?

[bicyclewriter]

Thanks for the idea sailormed. Seems to happen regardless of the temp of the gas tanks outside. I can easily run all three burners on the stove top, and the oven behavior doesn't depend at all on the flow to the stove top.

[wsmurdoch]

Depending on the age of your stove...
The little pilot light burns.
The thermostat when needed opens the gas to the bigger pilot light.
The bigger pilot light heats the mercury control valve.
The mercury control valve when hot opens sending gas to the oven burner.
Or something like that. At least that is my memory.
For the real story look at:
https://www.suremarineservice.com/si...ove-Repair.pdf
They rebuilt my mercury control valve. It fixed a similar problem with my stove.

Bill

[sailormed]

Well, then the only remaining is the gasline to the oven, un mount and blow (or suck) through to free debris. I have to clean my burners regularly, there is some dark sandlike stuff that accumulates in the space under the burner that hampers the flow of gas, resulting in yellow flames. When that happens I know I have to clean again.

[bicyclewriter]

Originally Posted by wsmurdoch

Depending on the age of your stove...
The little pilot light burns.
The thermostat when needed opens the gas to the bigger pilot light.
The bigger pilot light heats the mercury control valve.
The mercury control valve when hot opens sending gas to the oven burner.
Or something like that. At least that is my memory.
For the real story look at:
https://www.suremarineservice.com/si...ove-Repair.pdf
They rebuilt my mercury control valve. It fixed a similar problem with my stove.

Bill

Bill, this is exactly the problem, and thanks for that very complete answer! It is a unit from prior to 2007, and your description is exactly what is happening. I'll dig in to this and see about replacing the valve or having it rebuilt. Of course, once I spend much on it my wife will be pretty sure we should just replace the whole unit with a new Force 10...

[wsmurdoch]

Sure Marine also sold me new gaskets for the oven door, new little bent wires to hold the burner grates in place, and best of all stainless steel burner grates that do not rust (but are quite pricey).

My stove has two 7,000 BTU burners and a 10,000 BTU oven while the Force 10 has a 8,200 and a 3,400 BTU burner and a 5,000 BTU oven.

Bill

[boatpoker]

Couple inches of stiff wire (guitar string works for us) and poke out all the holes in the burner.

[bstreep]

If you need parts, we have our old Princess in the garage (replaced it with a Mediterranean, which Mama LOVES). It worked when we pulled it out.