Reference · Burners
La Cornue Burner Not Lighting
La Cornue ranges are built to a different philosophy from most: heavy brass and steel burner hardware, generous castings, and components that are meant to be serviced rather than swapped as sealed assemblies. That makes a burner that will not light more often a cleaning-and-seating problem than a failed part.
Reference material about a cooking range. Sub-Zero Repair Winchester works on refrigeration only — refrigerators, freezers, ice makers and wine cabinets. A La Cornue burner is not work this shop takes on; this page exists because the question deserves a real answer.
Flat $95 service call — the trip and the diagnosis — credited against the repair if you approve one. 8:00 am – 8:00 pm, seven days.
Seating and cleanliness first
Heavy burner caps and rings need to sit exactly where they were machined to sit. Lifted a fraction by a crumb of carbon, or rotated after a clean, and the flame path no longer lines up with the electrode. The same applies to the ports: these burners hold their shape for decades and they still block, and a blocked port near the electrode means a spark arriving where there is no gas to meet it.
The gas-type question
These ranges are supplied for natural gas or for propane and are converted between the two with a change of injectors and, on some, an adjustment to the low-flame setting. A range that has moved house, or one installed where the supply was changed, can end up running on the wrong injectors. The signature is a burner that lights badly or not at all at low settings while behaving acceptably on full, or a flame that is yellow and lazy rather than crisp and blue. Conversion is licensed gas work, not a homeowner adjustment.
Ignition and flame supervision
On the electric-ignition models the chain is knob switch, spark module, electrode. One burner dead while the rest spark points at that burner's switch or lead; nothing sparking anywhere points at the module or its supply. Where a burner lights and goes out the moment the knob is released, the flame-proving device is not being satisfied — it is doing its job, and the sensing element is usually the thing needing attention.
And if there is any smell of gas
Stop. Leave the building, and call the gas utility or 911 from outside. That takes priority over every diagnostic step on this page.
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Book the visit
For anything on the cold side of the kitchen — refrigerator, freezer, ice maker, wine cabinet — the number above is the right one.
(781) 675-1098Flat $95 service call, credited against an approved repair.