Thor Cooktop Repair

A Thor cooktop is usually a gas rangetop dropped into a counter opening, which gives a kitchen the pro look without an oven underneath. Expect sealed burners beneath one-piece cast-iron grates, knobs on the front face, and spark ignition that automatically relights a burner whose flame blows out. Some models add a griddle with a separate burner and thermostat. Nearly every service call involves ignition.

Every knob operates a small switch that tells the spark module to fire. Let a boil-over soak one of those switches and the module may tick without stopping or fire off at odd moments. In humid summer weather, a pot simmering for an hour can add enough moisture to do the same thing. Electrodes also crack or wear a coat of grease, so the spark lands in the wrong place or not at all.

Shut off the breaker, or pull the plug, before cleaning around the electrodes. Take off the caps and heads, clear the ports with an unbent paper clip, and let everything dry completely before reassembling; each cap must sit flat. If clicking began after a spill, leaving the power off for a day often lets the switch dry out. If you smell gas, touch no switches and leave the house.

When a burner catches and then dies, the flame is usually not reaching the sensing point evenly, often from an off-center cap or blocked ports. Lazy, uneven flames have the same causes and the same fix. On griddle models, a cooking surface that runs hot or will not hold its setting points to the griddle thermostat rather than to the burner beneath it.

We check the module's output and each knob switch, look over the electrodes and the wiring beneath the top, and measure gas pressure and flame at every burner. Whether all burners started clicking after one spill or a single burner failed changes the diagnosis, so we ask. Switches, electrodes, modules, valves and griddle thermostats are all replaceable, and a rangetop is rarely beyond repair.