Customer Reviews

GE WB2X9998 Flat Oven Ignitor

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When my GE oven would not turn on this past Sunday night, I needed a quick replacement. I knew nothing about ovens, but I dreaded calling for a technician. A little internet research showed that my ignitor was likely the culprit. After identifying my original ignitor as a Norton 501A, I found this product on Amazon. As others have mentioned, this is an genuine Norton 501A GE replacement part. After replacing the ignitor, the oven worked perfectly and the flames came on within a minute. I had everything up and working by Tuesday. It was a very simple repair and only requires a screwdriver (to unmount/mount the ignitor) and a set of pliers (to cut, strip and splice the wires). Here's a few notes for others who may have never had experience with this type of repair.

- You may notice that no gas flows and believe it's an issue with gas and not an issue with the ignitor. But the gas valve is connected in series with the ignitor. If the current through the ignitor is not sufficient, the gas valve will not turn on. This is a safety feature that prevents gas build-up without an ignition source. This means that if your ignitor does not glow or only glows dimly, the current will not be sufficient to release gas.
- You can measure the current if you have a current clamp or if you can insert an ammeter in series with your circuit. But do this only if you absolutely know what you are doing, as it requires a live current and, remember, you are working in an oven! A working ignitor will draw around 3.2 amps. If you don't have one, don't worry. Just replace the ignitor anyway as it's the most likely point of failure in many cases and is cheap to replace.
- Flat/square ignitors (like this one, with the metal rectangular cage) are generally not compatible with the round ignitors. They draw different currents. Make sure to get the right type. Brands generally don't matter, as most square ignitors draw the same current, but my vary slightly in size. This happens to be the cheapest one I could find.
- Your old ignitor may have come with a plastic plug at the end. This model (GE WB2X9998) is a bare wire at the end and comes with 2 ceramic wire nuts. The easiest way to use this is to cut the plug off the old ignitor and splice it onto the new ignitor. Wire polarity is not an issue. If you are not comfortable with this, you may want to look into GE WB13K21, which has a plug.
- The current photo doesn't show it, but there are mounting tabs (for the two screws that will hold the ignitor in place) coming from both sides. Just bend down the side you don't need.
- When you remove your old ignitor, don't throw away the screws. This does not come with screws.

Our Maytag oven had been working erratically for a while. After you set the baking temperature it would take several minutes for the burner to light, then as long as 45 minutes to pre-heat. While the burner was on, you could hear it pulsing, (Hiss.. Hiss.. Hiss.. Hiss.. etc). After talking with a local appliance repair man, we determined the ignitor was the problem. He said the part would cost $75-80. I thought this seemed expensive. [...] wanted $45 for an OEM part. The GE ignitor seemed like it was worth a shot for $18 with shipping. All I needed was a screwdriver to remove the old ignitor and a panel, and a pair of wire strippers to cut the plug off the old ignitor and splice it to the new. Within 15 minutes I was finished and our oven works great. If you have some mechanical ability, this is a definite do-it-yourself job.

12/6/2011 Update.

Almost a year after installing this, our oven still works great!

The gas ignitor quit working on my Thermador cooktop grill which after doing a little research was easy to replace. When I found out the cost of the Thermador replacement ignitor I almost fell over which prompted me to search for a alternative. When I found this ignitor it looked like a match so I bought it. It's about a 1/4 inch shorter, but other than that it's the same. I popped it in and it works great! There isn't any noticeable difference in the way that it operates and the GE is a 10th the price! More money in my pocket to buy steaks for the grill! I've been using it for a couple months and it works great!

I purchased this item after looking at similar ones, i also found out how to install it all by my self. My boyfriend was like, you better let someone do it that knows how, but i said i've read up on it and i can do it and i did. I didn't even take 30 minutes to do. My oven works like new now, it gets hot faster, this is a great item, and if i need another, i'll be back, it beats buying a new stove in these hard times. Buy and enjoy...the heat.

We bought this oven ignitor when our oven failed to get hot. The gas company came over and tested it for very small fee and confirmed the problem, but they're not allowed to repair appliances so I did some looking online. This flat oven ignitor works in my Magic Chef range just fine. In fact, I think it'll work in almost any gas range that takes a flat ignitor. Installation was quite easy if you're not afraid of your range or minor electrical repairs. No soldering or cutting is required. All you need to do is remove the old one and install the new one and twist the wires on. It's a great deal compared with the cost of a repairman or a new range.

This ignitor is standard on many ovens and ranges, amperage is 3.2-3.6 amps. This ignitor is labeled "Norton 501A" A

This is an aftermarket copy of the original Norton 501A igniter. While it's marketed as the original GE part, it isn't. It does work and fit exactly as the original, and in one sense it is better than getting the replacement that includes the original plug. While the directions state to leave the original plug on, and to use the ceramic wire nuts to splice the wires together after the original connection; I chose to cut the somewhat deteriorated (appeared to be discolored, cracked, and burnt) original connection off. Since there is a ton of extra wire supplied with this aftermarket part, this is relatively easy, and eliminates the much weaker, original connection. By the way, the only tricky part of this is pulling the original plug out and carefully stripping a quarter inch of the four inches available. If you have a sharp wire stripper, and you work carefully (and slowly), the whole job might take 45 min. If, on your oven there isn't enough extra wire (unlikely), or you can't find the original plug, just splice the wire and don't worry about this. There are pretty much, only two igniters used in all ovens, this square Norton style, and a round Carborundum style. It seems that this is, by far, the most common problem, and just because an igniter glows, doesn't mean that the current it allows to pass to the gas valve, is addequate to open it. Don't be fooled if you see that the igniter is still glowing. Have fun--Let the force be with you.

Great replacement part for a great price - it works!!! This was the second one I ordered, mental note -"don't drop them, they are fragile!!!

The local appliance parts place wanted over 60 bucks for this oven ignitor. Only difference I can see is theirs had a plug on the wires and a bunch of bracket adapters I didn't need. I spliced the new wires onto the old plug with the included ceramic wire nuts and it worked like a charm. Took me about 15 minutes total. Would have been less time but one of the mounting screws was a little hard to remove. I guess from all the heat over the years. Now the burner comes on in less than 45 seconds. Don't pay the extra price for the 1240035 ignitor. This is the same thing, it works great and it's a heck of a lot less expensive. I definitely recommend this!

I wasn't sure if this would be an exact replacement for a Maytag 12400035, but we needed 3-4 of these and the price was right. When they came in they bore a tag saying they were Norton 501A, same as the Maytag, so it's hard to go wrong with these.

The one difference is that these don't have a plug connector, just stripped wire leads. I clipped off our old unit below the plug and used the wirenuts supplied to connect the replacement to the clipped leads, keeping the plug there just in case.

Both the bake and broil ignitor that I replaced today worked perfectly the first time and started gas flow in under a minute. The only hitch I had was stripping the threads on one of the two screws holding the ignitor on the bracket. I found out it's easier to take the whole L-shaped broiler burner tube (it's held by one screw at the front), clip the old ignitor leads, then pull it all out and work on it outside the oven. The mounting screw is a 10-24, and I had to go get my own replacement (stainless for high heat, although I don't know if that's necessary).

At this price it was worth it just to replace all the ignitors at once, and the oven seems much better.