- 1 week ago
🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach: https://eliasyoder.com
📖 Get the full collection of these old methods in my book: eliasyoder.com
That weak, yellow, sputtering back burner is almost never a dying stove — it is a clogged one, and you can fix it yourself in a few minutes with a toothbrush and a little vinegar. In this one I show you the way my mother showed me at my own kitchen table: shut the gas off and let the burner cool, lift it on a damp cloth, clear the little flame holes, clean gently around the gas opening, and watch the flame come back full and round and blue. I walk you carefully through the safe way to do it — why you never ream the brass gas jet with a needle, why you dry everything before you relight it, and the one honest sign that means it is time to stop and call someone who knows gas instead of fiddling on your own.
You were never short of a repairman. You were only never shown where to look.
📖 The whole of it — this method and many more like it — is in my book at eliasyoder.com
Try it on your own weak burner tonight while it is cold, then tell me in the comments whether the flame came back blue — and your county and the age
📖 Get the full collection of these old methods in my book: eliasyoder.com
That weak, yellow, sputtering back burner is almost never a dying stove — it is a clogged one, and you can fix it yourself in a few minutes with a toothbrush and a little vinegar. In this one I show you the way my mother showed me at my own kitchen table: shut the gas off and let the burner cool, lift it on a damp cloth, clear the little flame holes, clean gently around the gas opening, and watch the flame come back full and round and blue. I walk you carefully through the safe way to do it — why you never ream the brass gas jet with a needle, why you dry everything before you relight it, and the one honest sign that means it is time to stop and call someone who knows gas instead of fiddling on your own.
You were never short of a repairman. You were only never shown where to look.
📖 The whole of it — this method and many more like it — is in my book at eliasyoder.com
Try it on your own weak burner tonight while it is cold, then tell me in the comments whether the flame came back blue — and your county and the age
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00You turn the knob on the back burner and you hear the click, click, click of the lighter.
00:04And then a thin, ragged, sputtering little flame straggles up around one side and not the other,
00:10low and yellow and uneven, while the front burner you lit a moment ago burns full and round and blue.
00:17You have lived with that weak back burner for months.
00:20You have learned to cook everything on the good ones and leave that one for when you have no choice.
00:25You think the stove is wearing out, you think you will have to call a man, or worse, buy a
00:30new range.
00:31You will not.
00:33That weak flame is almost never a broken stove.
00:36It is a clogged one and you can clear it yourself in a few minutes with a toothbrush and a
00:41little vinegar.
00:42And I am going to show you exactly how and exactly why it works so you understand your own stove
00:49instead of fearing it.
00:51So here is what is really happening under that weak flame, because once you see it, you cannot unsee it.
00:58The thing you fear is a broken stove.
01:01The truth is a stove that is simply dirty in a place you never knew to clean.
01:06Every day you cook, tiny bits of food boil over, grease spatters, a pot runs over,
01:12and the fine stuff settles down into the burner and into the little holes the flame comes out of.
01:17You wipe the top of the stove, you feel you have cleaned it, but you never lifted the burner and
01:23cleaned underneath and inside.
01:25And so down in those little openings, the grime builds and bakes and hardens, year over year,
01:31until it turns to a crust and even to rust.
01:34And it chokes the flame the way a pinched hose chokes the water.
01:39The flame is not weak because the stove is dying.
01:42It is weak because it is being strangled, and all you have to do is loosen the grip.
01:48Quick word before we go further.
01:50My name is Esther Yoder, and the old methods my husband and I use,
01:55the kind I am sharing today, and many more like it, too much of it for any single video.
02:00I put the whole of it together in a book at EliasYoda.com.
02:04The book is the long version.
02:06Now, I will be straight with you before we touch a thing,
02:09because this is a gas flame we are working with,
02:12and I would not be doing right by you if I were not plain about it from the start.
02:17A weak, ragged, yellow flame is not only a nuisance,
02:20it is a thing worth taking seriously.
02:23And the old women understood respect for a cook fire better than anyone,
02:27because they cooked over real fire, and they did not take it lightly.
02:31A flame that burns yellow and lazy instead of blue and sharp is not burning clean,
02:38and a flame that sputters is wasting gas and can let gas slip by unburned.
02:43So we fix it, but we fix it carefully, and I will walk you through the care as we go,
02:48not as a lecture tacked on the end that nobody reads,
02:51but woven right into each step where it belongs.
02:55I want to tell you how I came to know this,
02:57because the knowing of it is the whole point,
03:00and it came to me the way all the best knowing does.
03:03When I was a young wife, newly keeping my own kitchen,
03:07one of my back burners went weak and yellow, just like the one I showed you,
03:11and I did exactly what you have probably done.
03:14I fretted over it.
03:15I thought I had ruined the stove somehow, or that it was old and failing,
03:20and I was ashamed to have a stove going bad under my care so soon.
03:24And my mother came to visit, and she watched me cook around that weak burner,
03:29nudging every pot to the good ones, and she did not say a word at first.
03:33Then she asked me, plain,
03:35when did I last lift that burner and clean underneath it?
03:39And I had no answer, because it had never once occurred to me that you could.
03:43I had wiped the top of that stove faithfully, every single day,
03:48and I had never known there was an underneath to clean at all.
03:51She did not scold me.
03:53She just took a damp cloth and lifted the burner off, the way I have shown you,
03:57and she held it up to the window light and had me look.
04:01And there were the little holes, half of them dark and plugged solid,
04:05and there was the grime baked down in the well underneath.
04:08And she said, there is your weak flame, right there.
04:13It was never the stove.
04:14And she cleaned it at my own table while I watched,
04:17with nothing but a rag and an old brush and a little vinegar.
04:21And she set it back and lit it, and it came up blue and full.
04:25And I felt about two inches tall,
04:28and also like she had handed me something worth more than gold.
04:31Because she had.
04:33She had handed me the difference between a woman
04:35who is at the mercy of her appliances, and a woman who keeps them.
04:40Her own mother had shown her the very same thing at the very same age, she told me.
04:45And now I am showing you.
04:48Because the chain very nearly broke, and I do not want it to break at you.
04:52The first rule, before anything else, is this.
04:56Turn the gas fully off at the knob,
04:58and let that burner be stone cold before you lay a hand on it.
05:03Do not work on a warm burner.
05:05Do not work on a lit stove.
05:08Off and cold.
05:09And only then do you begin.
05:11If you have a shut-off valve behind the stove,
05:14and you want to be doubly sure,
05:16you may close that too.
05:17Though for a simple burner,
05:19cleaning the knob fully off is what most folks use.
05:23The point is the same one the old women lived by.
05:26You give fire its due respect.
05:28You do not rush it.
05:29And you keep your hands and your house safe by being unhurried.
05:33There is no job so small on a gas stove that it is worth being careless over.
05:39Now, with the gas off and the burner cold,
05:42let me tell you the few plain things you will want,
05:45none of them costing more than a dollar or two,
05:48and most of them already in your house.
05:50A damp cloth.
05:52An old toothbrush, one you mean to throw away.
05:56A little white vinegar in a cap or a small dish.
05:59A toothpick or a thin bit of wire,
06:02like a twist tie with the paper stripped off,
06:05or an unbent paper clip.
06:07And if you have one,
06:08a small syringe without much of a needle,
06:11the kind for measuring out medicine,
06:13which is handy for squirting vinegar down into a tight spot,
06:16though it is not strictly needed,
06:18and I will show you how to manage without it.
06:21That is the whole of your kit.
06:23A toothbrush and some vinegar against a problem you thought meant a new stove.
06:28Take your damp cloth and lift the weak burner up and off.
06:32I say damp on purpose for two reasons.
06:35The first is that a damp cloth gives you a sure grip
06:38and a little protection in case the burner holds any warmth you did not expect,
06:43though it should be cold if you waited as I told you.
06:46The second is that the damp helps catch and hold the loose crumbs and grease
06:51instead of scattering them.
06:53Lift it gently.
06:54On most stoves, the burner,
06:56that round metal piece with all the little holes around its rim,
07:00simply sits in place and lifts straight up and off once it is cool.
07:05Set it on your damp cloth on the counter where you can see it well in good light.
07:10Now look at what you have lifted off,
07:12and look at where it sat,
07:13because there are two places the trouble hides,
07:16and we will clean both.
07:18The first is the burner itself,
07:20that ring of metal with the row of little slots or holes all around the edge.
07:25Those holes are where each tongue of flame comes out,
07:28and there should be a clean, even row of them,
07:31every one open.
07:32Hold it up to the light and look close,
07:35and I will wager you find that some of those little holes are dark,
07:39plugged solid with baked-on grime,
07:41crusted shut.
07:42Every plugged hole is one flame that cannot come out,
07:46and that is exactly why your fire was scattered and patchy,
07:49strong where the holes were open and weak or missing where they were choked.
07:53The second place is down where the burner sat,
07:57where there is a small hole or a little raised piece near the sparker,
08:01and that is where the gas itself comes up from inside the stove to feed the burner.
08:06That little gas opening gets filled the same way,
08:08with fine food particles and grease that harden over time,
08:13and when it clogs, the hole burner starves.
08:16Let us clean the burner ring first,
08:19because it is the easiest and you will see the most reward.
08:22Take your old toothbrush and scrub all around that ring of holes,
08:26top and sides and the underneath,
08:29working the bristles into the row of slots to break the crust loose.
08:34Scrub it dry first to knock off the loose stuff.
08:37Then dip the toothbrush in your white vinegar and scrub again,
08:41wet this time, and let the vinegar do its quiet work,
08:45because vinegar is a mild acid,
08:47and it loosens the baked grease and the light rust,
08:50and softens the hard crust so it lets go.
08:54Vinegar is the honest hero of this whole job.
08:57It is a few cents, it is in everyone's pantry,
09:01it is the same thing you put on a salad,
09:03and it cuts kitchen grime and light rust,
09:06as well as anything sold in a bright bottle for ten times the price.
09:11Scrub the ring well, all the way around,
09:14and let it sit wet with vinegar a minute or two,
09:17while you turn to the plugged holes.
09:19For the holes that are plugged solid,
09:22the toothbrush alone will not reach inside them,
09:25so you take your toothpick or your thin wire,
09:28and you gently work it into each clogged hole to push the crust out.
09:33Go gently, the metal of those little slots is soft,
09:37and you do not want to gouge or widen them,
09:40only to clear what is stuck.
09:42In and out, a gentle wiggle,
09:45and you will feel and see the dark plug break free.
09:49Work your way around every hole
09:52until the whole ring is open and even,
09:55every little opening clear,
09:57and then rinse the burner ring under the tap,
10:00and look again in the light.
10:01You want to see a clean, continuous row of open holes
10:05all the way around,
10:07because that is a clean, continuous ring of blue flame waiting to happen.
10:13If any are still dark,
10:15work them again with the wire and the vinegar.
10:18Take your time.
10:19This is the part that brings the flame back even,
10:22and it is worth doing right.
10:25Now, to that little gas opening down where the burner sat,
10:29the one near the sparker,
10:31and here I want you to listen close,
10:34because this is the one place people go wrong
10:36and make things worse instead of better.
10:40That opening feeds the gas,
10:42and somewhere in there, on most stoves,
10:45is a tiny brass piece with a very small, precise hole in it,
10:49the jet that meters the gas.
10:52That little hole is made to be exactly the size it is,
10:56and it matters that it stays exactly that size.
11:00So you clean around it and you clear it,
11:03but you do not ream it out with a needle or a pin
11:06or anything hard and metal,
11:08because if you scratch it or widen it even a little,
11:12you change how much gas comes through,
11:14and that you cannot easily undo.
11:17And that is how a small cleaning job
11:20turns into a real problem.
11:22We clean it the gentle way.
11:24Here is the gentle way.
11:26First, with the gas off,
11:29take your toothbrush, dry,
11:31and brush away all the loose crumbs and grease
11:34from around that opening and the well it sits in,
11:37sweeping the dirt up and out,
11:39not down into the hole.
11:41Then dampen the toothbrush with a little vinegar
11:44and brush around the opening to soften the grime that clings there.
11:49But go easy on how much vinegar you put right at the gas hole itself,
11:53because you do not want to flood liquid down into the gas line.
11:57A little on the brush to clean the rim and the area around it is right.
12:03If you have that small syringe,
12:05you can use it to put just a drop or two of vinegar right at the mouth of the opening
12:10to soften a crust,
12:12and that is the careful use of it.
12:15What clears the hole itself is not a needle, but air and a soft touch.
12:20Brush the loosened grime away,
12:23and if the opening is still shy, blow it clear,
12:26or use a can of compressed air if you have one,
12:30to push the last of the dust out of the way.
12:33Soft brush, a touch of vinegar around the edges,
12:37and air to clear it.
12:39Never a needle reaming the brass jet.
12:42That is the whole rule, and it keeps you out of trouble.
12:46When you have brushed and cleared all around that gas opening,
12:50and it looks clean and free,
12:52take a dry cloth and wipe the whole area down well.
12:56The burner ring and the well it sits in both,
12:59and get it dry.
13:00This drying matters more than you would think,
13:03and I will tell you why in a moment.
13:05Now set the clean, dry burner ring back exactly where it belongs,
13:10seated down flat and square in its place.
13:14Take a moment to make sure it is sitting right,
13:16properly down in its seat,
13:18and not tipped or cocked to one side,
13:21because a burner that does not sit square will burn uneven,
13:25no matter how clean it is.
13:27Line up any notch or slot the way it came off.
13:31It should rest flat and snug.
13:33And now, before you light it,
13:36here is the part the source taught me,
13:38and it is true and worth knowing,
13:40so you are not alarmed.
13:42When you first turn that burner back on,
13:45the flame may sputter for a few seconds,
13:48or hiss,
13:49or burn a little uneven,
13:51or make a small strange sound,
13:53and you may think you have done something wrong.
13:56You have not.
13:57That is simply the last bit of vinegar dampness
14:00in and around the holes burning off,
14:03and it takes only a few seconds to dry out and settle.
14:07This is exactly why I had you dry everything well first,
14:11to keep that to a minimum,
14:13but a little is normal.
14:15So turn the knob,
14:16let it click and catch,
14:18and give it those few seconds.
14:20You will watch that ragged little flame steady itself and grow,
14:24and the holes that were dark will light up one by one
14:28as they clear and dry,
14:30and the whole ring will come up round and full and burning blue,
14:35the way the good burner does.
14:37That blue, even ring is your reward,
14:40and it means the gas is burning clean and complete the way it should.
14:45Now I am going to give you one more honest word,
14:48the most important one,
14:50and then we move on.
14:51If you clean that burner properly,
14:54ring and gas opening both,
14:57dry it,
14:58seat it square,
14:59and the flame still comes up weak,
15:02still burns yellow and lazy,
15:04still sputters,
15:05and will not hold a clean blue,
15:07then you stop.
15:09You have done your part,
15:11and done it right,
15:12and a flame that will not run blue and steady
15:15after a good cleaning
15:16is telling you something a toothbrush cannot fix,
15:20and at that point,
15:22the right and the wise thing,
15:24the thing the old woman would tell you,
15:26is to have someone who knows gas come and look at it.
15:30There is no shame and no failure in that.
15:33A persistent yellow or weak flame on gas
15:37after cleaning
15:38is not a thing to keep fiddling with on your own,
15:41because gas asks for that respect.
15:44Most of the time,
15:46the cleaning is the whole cure,
15:47and you will be glad you did it yourself.
15:50But know where your part ends,
15:52and do not let stubbornness carry you past it.
15:55There are a couple of other small things worth knowing
15:59while we have the stover part,
16:01because once you understand the burner,
16:03you can keep it well for good.
16:05The first is that everything I just walked you through
16:09is also the cure for the burner that clicks and clicks,
16:12but will not light at all,
16:14or lights slow.
16:16A burner that will not catch
16:18is most often a wet or dirty sparker,
16:21that little ceramic-tipped piece that makes the spark,
16:25or a burner cap sitting crooked,
16:27or the same clogged holes choking the gas
16:31before it can catch.
16:32So if you have a burner that fights you
16:35every time you light it,
16:37give it the same cleaning.
16:39Dry the sparker well,
16:41seat the cap square,
16:42and most times it will catch on the first click again,
16:46like new.
16:47The second is prevention,
16:48which is the cheapest cure of all,
16:51the way it always is.
16:52The whole reason that burner clogged
16:55is that the top of the stove got wiped,
16:57but the burner never got lifted.
17:00So now and again,
17:01once a month is plenty in a busy kitchen,
17:05lift your burners while they are cold
17:07and give them this quick brush,
17:09and wipe the wells underneath
17:11where the spatter collects,
17:13and you will never let it build
17:14to the hard crust
17:16that strangles the flame in the first place.
17:18When a pot boils over,
17:20once the stove is cold,
17:22lift the burner and wipe under it,
17:25rather than just wiping around it.
17:27A burner kept clear,
17:28stays clear,
17:29with almost no work.
17:30It is the years of wiping only the top,
17:34never the under,
17:35that bakes the trouble in.
17:37Tend it a little,
17:38and it will never come to this.
17:40And let me say plainly
17:42what this small repair is really worth,
17:45beyond the one burner.
17:47You were ready to believe your stove was failing.
17:50You were maybe ready to spend real money,
17:53to call someone,
17:54even to think about replacing a range
17:56that had years of good cooking left in it.
17:59All because of a thing,
18:01a toothbrush and a few cents of vinegar,
18:03set right in a few minutes.
18:05That is the lesson under the lesson.
18:09So much of what we are told is broken and beyond us,
18:13is only dirty,
18:14only clogged,
18:16only neglected in some small place,
18:18we were never taught to look.
18:20The knowing of where to look is the whole of it.
18:24And that knowing used to pass
18:26from a mother to a daughter,
18:28standing right at the stove together.
18:30And now it does not.
18:32And so a dirty burner looks like a dying stove
18:36to a whole generation
18:37that was never shown the difference.
18:40Now think for a quiet moment
18:43about who gains from your not knowing this.
18:46There is no money in telling you
18:48that your weak burner
18:49is a five-minute cleaning with a toothbrush.
18:52There is a great deal of money in a service call
18:55and more still in selling you
18:57a whole new range you did not need.
19:00The man who comes to look at it,
19:02if he is honest,
19:04will do very nearly what I just showed you
19:06and charge you for the trip.
19:08And if he is not honest,
19:10he may tell you it is time for a new stove.
19:13And the store, of course,
19:14is always glad to sell you one.
19:17None of them are wicked, mind.
19:19It is not a plot.
19:20It is only that nobody in that whole chain
19:23makes a dime
19:24by teaching you to lift your own burner
19:27and brush it clean.
19:28And so nobody teaches you.
19:31And a thing nobody profits from teaching
19:33slowly stops being taught.
19:35And within a generation,
19:37the simplest care of your own stove
19:39becomes a mystery
19:41you must pay a stranger to perform.
19:44The knowledge was not taken from you.
19:46It just stopped being worth anyone's while
19:49to hand it down.
19:50And so it went quiet,
19:52like a back burner nobody lights anymore.
19:55The mending of it is small,
19:57and it is in your own two hands,
19:59tonight,
19:59with a toothbrush you were going to throw away.
20:02You lift the burner,
20:04you brush the ring,
20:05you clear the holes,
20:07you wipe it dry,
20:08you set it back square,
20:09and you light it
20:11and watch it come up blue.
20:12And in doing that one small thing,
20:15you take back a little piece
20:16of what it means
20:17to keep your own house,
20:18to know your own tools,
20:20to fix the thing yourself
20:22instead of fearing it
20:23and paying for it.
20:25That is worth far more
20:26than the price of a service call.
20:28That is the difference
20:30between living in your house
20:31and only living at the mercy
20:33of everyone you must call
20:35to come fix it.
20:36So here is what I would ask of you.
20:38Go and look at your own stove tonight
20:40while it is cold,
20:41and lift the burner
20:43that has been giving you trouble,
20:45the weak one,
20:46the one that will not catch,
20:48and look down into those little holes
20:50in good light,
20:50and I think you will be amazed
20:52at what you find baked in there.
20:55Then clean it the way I showed you,
20:57gentle and dry and square,
20:59and come back and tell me in the comments
21:01whether the flame came back blue.
21:04I dearly want to hear that it did,
21:06that you fixed it yourself
21:07and saved the call.
21:09And while you are there,
21:11tell me your county
21:12and the age of your house,
21:13because the older houses
21:15have the older stoves,
21:16and the old gas ranges
21:18are built to be cleaned and tended
21:20and kept running for 50 years
21:22by the hand of the one
21:24who cooks on them.
21:25And I learn from every one of you
21:27how those old workhorses
21:29are holding up out there.
21:31I read them all.
21:33I learn from you
21:34the way the old women learned
21:35from one another
21:36across the fence line,
21:38one kitchen
21:39and one season at a time.
21:41Next time,
21:42I will take you to the oven itself
21:44and show you how to clean
21:46the baked-on years
21:47off the racks
21:48and the door glass
21:49and the bottom
21:50with the same few plain things,
21:52no harsh fumes,
21:53no self-cleaning cycle
21:55that smokes up the whole house,
21:57just vinegar and soda
21:59and patience
22:00and a little knowing.
22:01There is a right
22:03and an old way
22:04to keep a stove
22:04from top to bottom
22:06with what is already
22:07in your pantry,
22:08and most of it
22:09is simpler
22:10than you would ever guess.
22:11But tonight,
22:12you start with
22:13the one-week burner.
22:15You shut the gas off
22:16and let it cool.
22:17You lift it
22:18on a damp cloth.
22:20You brush the ring
22:21and clear the little holes
22:22and clean gently
22:24around the gas opening.
22:25You wipe it dry
22:27and set it back square
22:28and you light it
22:29and give it
22:30those few seconds
22:31to settle
22:32and you watch
22:33that ragged little flame
22:34come up round
22:35and full and blue
22:37and you understand at last
22:39that your stove
22:39was never broken,
22:41only choked
22:42and that you were
22:43never helpless,
22:44only never shown.
22:46The people who built
22:47this country
22:47with their hands
22:48knew their own tools
22:50and kept them
22:51with their own care
22:52and that is a thing
22:53we are only just
22:54starting to remember.
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