---
title: "A Gas Smell at a Dacor Burner: What To Do in the First Minute"
description: "Dacor gas cooktop igniter problems: a gas smell at a Dacor burner while lighting is usually unburnt gas from a failed ignition."
url: "https://dacormiami.support/blog/gas-smell-at-a-dacor-burner/"
date_modified: "2026-09-12"
Category: "Safety & Risks"
---


# A Gas Smell at a Dacor Burner: What To Do in the First Minute

Most pages on this site are about saving somebody a call-out fee. This one is not.

## Dacor gas cooktop igniter problems: the two situations, and the line between them

A burner that takes three clicks to light releases a little unburnt gas each time it fails. You smell it, the flame catches, and thirty seconds later the kitchen is normal again. That is an ignition problem: the appliance is doing something it should not, and it can wait for an appointment.

A smell that is there with every knob off is a different thing entirely. It does not clear, it is not related to cooking, and it is not ours to diagnose over a telephone.

## Why the ignition version happens here

Salt air. The ceramic body of an igniter cracks, and a cracked body sparks to the nearest earth rather than across the gap where the gas is. It still clicks. It looks perfect. And the burner takes several attempts, releasing gas on each one.

The other reason is the week after a deep clean: a cap seated a fraction off its pins, a head not quite home, or a burner still damp. That version fixes itself overnight and comes back the next time the hob is scrubbed.

## The thing the pro burners hide

The sealed brass burners on the rangetops relight themselves after a draft or a boil-over. That is a good feature and it has a side effect: a burner that keeps failing and relighting is releasing gas each time, and the cook never sees the flame go out.

If a burner on a rangetop sounds like it is re-igniting during cooking, that is worth mentioning when you call.

## What we do about it

Reseat and inspect every cap and head, test the ignition path — igniter, lead, switch and earth — and set the flame at both ends of the burner's range. On a hob where several burners misbehave, the supply pressure is measured rather than each valve adjusted to compensate.

## The paragraph we would rather you read than the rest

If the smell is present with every knob off, stop. Do not look for a cause, do not run the extractor, do not switch anything on or off beyond the gas itself. Leave, and call the supplier. We would rather lose the job than have somebody investigate that in their own kitchen.

## What we check, and in what order

Every cap and head off and back on its locating pins first, because that resolves a real share of these before any part is named. Then the ignition path end to end — igniter, lead, switch and earth — with a meter rather than by eye, since a cracked ceramic body looks perfect and sparks to the wrong place.

Then the flame itself, set at both ends of the burner's range. And where several burners misbehave at once, the supply pressure is measured rather than six valves adjusted to compensate for it — that is the difference between fixing a hob and hiding a supply problem.

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