stove top burners working loose

[CharlesPou]

I have the Dometic 3 burner stove top that comes with the optional oven. Works great except after approx 10 months one of the burners fell apart. There are 2 small screws with lock washers that hold the burner assembly together and both screws literally fell out. Lucky for me, the screws were still in the stove top area and were easy to retrieve.

Taking the top off to access the burners is easy after you know how to do it. 1st time was a bear, was lucky I didn't tear it up getting it off.

I took the top off, tightened the screws on all the burners, they were all loose, and went on my way. Soon the original problem burner was loose again. I'm afraid to over tighten, think would be easy to strip the threads.

What to do?, anyone else experience this issue?

[Iowa Dave]

Loc-tite Blue or Red on the screw threads, bigger self tapping screw, machine screw with nut and lock washer on the underside. Those come mind but I’m not familiar with the exact design.
Iowa Dave

[CharlesPou]

good ideas, thanks for reply :-)

[John in Santa Cruz]

I dunno how hot those get, but loctite blue is not very heat resistant and degrades significantly when heated. loctite red is for when you never ever want to take it apart again

(come to think of it, I've seen wrenching instructions that say to use a blowtorch on the fasteners that have red loctite before taking them off, so its probably not that heat proof either).

[John in Santa Cruz]

I've had my 3-burner stove-over-oven apart to clean, and to fix the sparker on one of the burners. no clue why it wasn't working, it looked perfect, but had no spark. new sparker wire, and now that burner works fine, spark! spark!

I didn't notice any loose screws. I probably should check again, we just got home after 3000 miles of often very rough roads.

[CharlesPou]

I agree loc-tite probably won't work because of the heat. Best idea is probably larger diameter screws.

It's pretty easy for me to disassemble now. So, will monitor and replace with larger screws/ lock washers if gets to be too much of PITA. Can also install helicoils, but probably overkill.

thanks for replies :-)

[Red Dog]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

I've had my 3-burner stove-over-oven apart to clean, and to fix the sparker on one of the burners. no clue why it wasn't working, it looked perfect, but had no spark. new sparker wire, and now that burner works fine, spark! spark.

John, where did you get the new sparkle wires?

Fred M.

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by CharlesPou

I agree loc-tite probably won't work because of the heat. Best idea is probably larger diameter screws.

It's pretty easy for me to disassemble now. So, will monitor and replace with larger screws/ lock washers if gets to be too much of PITA. Can also install helicoils, but probably overkill.

thanks for replies :-)

We used a lot of loctite when I worked for the city. I always trusted my mechanics to buy what they needed to do their job. Though retired, I’m still in contact with them. My west side guy informs me that he used loctite 266 on heat prone areas. it is permanent and good to 450 degrees F. It’s about $20 a bottle. I took a scope mount off of a .223 Contender handgun barrel once. It was held on with one of the loctite red compounds and was a struggle but I got it with the proper sized screwdriver and my gun vise. Best of luck with securing your burners. As I used to tell my friend Loren, all a steer can do is try.
Iowa Dave

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Red Dog

John, where did you get the new sparkle wires?

Fred M.

heh, Amazon, where else? :-p

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QTZZWTE/

these are for the 3-burner stove w/ the oven. they probably fit similar Atwood 3 burner stoves without the oven too.

[emers382]

I had the same thing happen and fixed it yesterday. Found three of those screws two off the one burner which had come loose and one other. Also fixed one sparker that was touching the metal base and creating spark there instead of at the burner. Gave it all a good cleaning too.

[Red Dog]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

heh, Amazon, where else? :-p



https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QTZZWTE/



these are for the 3-burner stove w/ the oven. they probably fit similar Atwood 3 burner stoves without the oven too.

Thanks John!

[Red Dog]

Originally Posted by emers382

I had the same thing happen and fixed it yesterday. Found three of those screws two off the one burner which had come loose and one other. Also fixed one sparker that was touching the metal base and creating spark there instead of at the burner. Gave it all a good cleaning too.

Adrian,
Did you use bigger screws or just put the original ones back?

Fred M.

[julieinwy]

Originally Posted by CharlesPou

I have the Dometic 3 burner stove top that comes with the optional oven. Works great except after approx 10 months one of the burners fell apart. There are 2 small screws with lock washers that hold the burner assembly together and both screws literally fell out. Lucky for me, the screws were still in the stove top area and were easy to retrieve.

Taking the top off to access the burners is easy after you know how to do it. 1st time was a bear, was lucky I didn't tear it up getting it off.

I took the top off, tightened the screws on all the burners, they were all loose, and went on my way. Soon the original problem burner was loose again. I'm afraid to over tighten, think would be easy to strip the threads.

What to do?, anyone else experience this issue?

I have the same problem. Did you remove the stove top by sliding it forward and up? Were the loose screws underneath? Did you try to get Dometic to help?

[Jake930]

My burners came apart twice. After the second time ,I just took a drill that fit the screw hole lined everything up and drilled It out and put a small bolt and nut with a loc washer to hold everything together. Haven’t had a problem since.

[julieinwy]

Sometime could you send me a couple of pictures of what you did? Thanks!

[Jake930]

Originally Posted by julieinwy

Sometime could you send me a couple of pictures of what you did? Thanks!

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Went right thru . It’s the hole that lines up with the metal tab that holds the burner in place. Put the screw in the other hole back with a little lock tight . Don’t expect it will come a part agin.
All my burners have been done like this. Has not come apart in 4 years. Don’t exspect it to agin.

[CharlesPou]

hello julieinwy, yes you remove the stove top by pushing the top back to release it. the manual has instructions, unfortunately I forced it off before I knew how to properly remove it, and damaged mine somewhat. no worries, still works, plus I attached it with a couple of screws. if you search, I think I posted a thread with maybe some pics on my fix to secured the top.

I think way jake930 attached burner top by drilling hole all the way through is excellent. I haven't done that yet, but may at some point. notice, if his comes loose, appears he can maybe tighten without removing the top? instead of a nut on the bottom, I might try to tap the metal support and use that to tighten the screw into, might work, I don't know? lockwasher between nut and support should hold the nut in place when you tighten the screw from the top?

I cook a lot and have had the burner tops come off repeatedly. doesn't bother me much anymore, I can take it apart and tighten it up without too much trouble since I've had so much practice. another issue is the burner top will distort from the heat after awhile. you can tell something is wrong when the flame is lopsided. I have replaced one burner top for this reason.

I suggest you buy some spare burners, there are 3 different ones on my 3 burner stove top. based upon my experience with Dometic with my furnace, I didn't bother contacting them or Escape about this issue. I think it's a design flaw, but I doubt anything will change, plus I can fix it on the fly, so doesn't cause me much grief anymore.

hope above helps, and you get yours fixed OK. cheers

[julieinwy]

Thanks! We got the top off and will try your method of securing the burners. Very helpful reply!

[julieinwy]

Good idea! Thanks!

[rmitch]

Check out this previous thread on the issue, https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f...ven-23064.html