A kitchen with a gas cooktop switched off and every knob at off, the back door propped open to air the room.

When to stop using the cooktop

Gas, fire and burn safety
guides.

What to do about a gas smell, how to put out a pan fire on the cooktop, and how to shut down a burner or zone that will not turn off.

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Gas, fire and burn safety,
guide by guide.

Most cooktop trouble is a nuisance: a burner that clicks, a zone that ignores a pan. The three guides in this section cover the moments that are not a nuisance at all. Gas escaping from a burner valve or from a fitting inside the base cabinet, a glass top that has split over the wiring beneath it, and an induction zone switched on within reach of someone whose heartbeat depends on an implanted device each call for a clear first move before any thought of repair.

All 18 guides

A built-in gas cooktop in a kitchen island of an empty US home kitchen at dusk, every knob at off and the grates bare, the cabinet doors beneath it shut.

7-minute read

A Gas Smell Over the Cooktop: What to Do in the First Minutes

Why no knob, touch key or downdraft switch gets touched, where gas runs in the cabinet below, what to tell the utility and when a burner may be lit again.

A black glass radiant cooktop set into a white quartz counter in a US home kitchen, a thin crack running across one cold, dark zone, the pan moved aside onto a wooden trivet and a folded towel left untouched beside it.

6-minute read

Cracked Glass Cooktop: Power Off, Hands Off, Then Replace the Top

The breaker or the plug first, why cleaning a crack is a shock risk, telling a crack from a pan mark, how glass gets broken and what replacing it involves.

A black induction cooktop set flush into a pale stone kitchen island in a US home, a single stainless pan centered on a rear zone and a long-handled wooden spoon resting beside it, the front zones empty and dark.

5-minute read

Induction Cooktops, Pacemakers and Other Implants

What an induction zone gives off, the distance heart-device makers advise, habits that keep it at the counter, and questions for the device clinic.

When to stop using the cooktop.

The first move is different in each case, and that is the point of reading them separately. A gas odor means walking out and phoning from the street. A crack means the breaker, or the cord of a gas-on-glass model, and then leaving the glass dry. An implant means distance at the counter and a question for the cardiologist, with figures taken from the device makers rather than from rumor.

Read them on an ordinary afternoon, ideally the week you move into a house whose cooktop someone else picked. Nothing here asks you to open a junction box, loosen a gas fitting or lift the top out of the counter; each guide marks the line where your part stops and the gas utility, an electrician or a technician takes over.

Not sure where to start?

The short answerA Gas Smell Over the Cooktop: What to Do in the First Minutes

A cooktop gas smell, the rotten-egg or sulfur odor utilities add to natural gas, means leaving the house at once without touching a burner knob, a light switch, the downdraft control or a phone, then calling the gas utility or 911 from a safe distance outdoors.

The short answerCracked Glass Cooktop: Power Off, Hands Off, Then Replace the Top

A cracked glass cooktop should not be used or cleaned.

The short answerInduction Cooktops, Pacemakers and Other Implants

Cooking on an induction cooktop with a pacemaker or implanted defibrillator is generally a question of distance: Medtronic advises keeping at least 2 feet between an induction cooktop and the heart device.

When reading
is not enough.

If the checks in these guides did not settle it, the visit picks up from there, stop by stop.

What repairs cost

01Each burner and zone, tried in turn
02The price, before any part is fitted
03The usual parts in the van
04Repaired, then cooked on

The problems
these answer.

Each has a page of its own, with the causes in the order worth checking.

All 17 problems

A quiet US home kitchen with a stainless gas cooktop set into a stone countertop, every burner dark and the grates empty, the back door open to a sunny yard where the family stands together outside.

Gas, fire, broken glass or live current

Cooktop Gas Smell

5 causes, cheapest first

A close view of a gas burner on a black cooktop set into a white quartz countertop, a tiny blue spark jumping from the ceramic electrode beside an unlit burner, its grate lifted aside.

Problem

Cooktop Igniter Keeps Clicking

5 causes, cheapest first

A stainless gas cooktop set into a granite countertop in a US home kitchen, a hand lifting a burner cap to reseat it, the grate set aside on a folded towel and every knob off.

Problem

Cooktop Burner Won't Light

6 causes, cheapest first

A close view of a black induction cooktop set flush into a pale stone countertop, a single crack running across one cooking zone, every zone switched off and dark, nothing resting on the glass.

Gas, fire, broken glass or live current

Glass Cooktop Cracked

6 causes, cheapest first

A parent and a teenager stirring a pan together over a gas cooktop set into a kitchen island — For the heart of your home.

Questions about
gas, fire and burn safety.

The kitchen smells of gas and the cooktop is off. What is the very first thing to do?

Walk everyone out of the house, leaving every knob, touch key, downdraft switch and light switch exactly as it is, and phone the gas utility or 911 only once you are outdoors and well away from the building.

Does a cracked top need the same urgency as a gas smell?

It needs a quick response of a different kind. Nobody has to leave the house, but the zones stay off, the breaker or plug is switched off once the glass has cooled, and nothing is wiped until the glass is replaced.

How were the figures in this section chosen?

Only from official sources: state regulators and gas utilities on leaks, cooktop makers' manuals and installation instructions on glass and wiring, and implanted heart-device makers on induction distance. The source is printed below the part of each guide it supports.

The other
sections.

Split by what you are trying to find out rather than by which part of the appliance it concerns.

All guides

A gas cooktop burner clicking with a small spark and no flame, an empty pan above it.

Why the cooktop behaves that way

Back to your everyday

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