---
title: "Burner will not stay at a simmer"
description: "Dacor burner will not stay at a simmer — losing the bottom of a burner's range is a specific and satisfying problem, because the cause is usually visible and…"
url: "https://dacormiami.support/symptoms/rangetop-simmer-will-not-hold/"
date_modified: "2026-09-12"
Appliance type: "cooktop, range"
---


# Dacor burner will not stay at a simmer

### What to do in the next ten minutes

Lift the cap and the head and look at the ports, particularly the smaller inner ring that does the simmering. Check the cap is seated flat on its locating pins and the head is fully home. Compare the burner with its neighbors at the same low setting. Note whether the trouble started after a clean, which is the single most useful fact you can give us.

### Why the low end fails first

A hard sear pushes gas through large ports and will tolerate a great deal of obstruction. A simmer relies on a small, even flow through the smallest openings on the burner, and it stops working while everything else still looks perfect. A cook notices it immediately and a casual glance at the hob shows nothing at all.

### What a rangetop service actually restores

Stripping, cleaning and reseating every burner, then setting each one across its full range from sear to simmer. On a hard-used rangetop that restores more performance than any single part would, and it is the visit that makes an eight-year-old hob behave like a new one.

The simmer ports are partly blocked

Years of boil-over, or a recent clean that pushed debris into the small ports rather than out of them. The sear ports stay clear because they are larger, which is exactly why the low end goes first.

The cap or head is seated wrong

A fraction out of position changes the flame pattern at low settings long before it affects a hard sear. Free to correct and very common after cleaning.

The simmer valve has drifted

The valve's low-flame setting can be adjusted and does wander over years of use. It is a proper adjustment with an immediate and lasting result.

Look at the small ports

The inner ring does the simmering, and it blocks long before the outer one.

Reseat the cap on its pins

Flat and home. This alone resolves a fair share of these calls.

Say whether it followed a clean

The commonest trigger by a wide margin, and it changes what we check first.

It sears beautifully and cannot be turned down

What it usually means

Losing the low end is usually ports or a cap, not the burner

It very often dates from the week the hob was deep-cleaned

The pro brass burners are built to simmer — this is a problem, not a limitation

What to do in the next ten minutes

Lift the cap and the head and look at the ports, particularly the smaller inner ring that does the simmering. Check the cap is seated flat on its locating pins and the head is fully home. Compare the burner with its neighbors at the same low setting. Note whether the trouble started after a clean, which is the single most useful fact you can give us.

Why the low end fails first

A hard sear pushes gas through large ports and will tolerate a great deal of obstruction. A simmer relies on a small, even flow through the smallest openings on the burner, and it stops working while everything else still looks perfect. A cook notices it immediately and a casual glance at the hob shows nothing at all.

What a rangetop service actually restores

Stripping, cleaning and reseating every burner, then setting each one across its full range from sear to simmer. On a hard-used rangetop that restores more performance than any single part would, and it is the visit that makes an eight-year-old hob behave like a new one.

### Can I clear the ports myself?

Carefully, with a fine wire or a pin and never a drill bit — enlarging a port permanently changes the flame. If a gentle clean does not restore the simmer, leave it.

### Only one burner does it.

That is the usual pattern and it keeps the repair to that burner. All of them at once points at the gas supply pressure instead, which is a different conversation.

---

**[Read full article: Burner will not stay at a simmer](https://dacormiami.support/symptoms/rangetop-simmer-will-not-hold/)**