--- title: "Burner will not hold a simmer" description: "Bertazzoni burner will not hold a simmer: a burner that is perfect on high and will not stay lit on low, or that goes out when the pan goes on." url: "https://bertazzonimiami.support/symptoms/burner-will-not-simmer/" date_modified: "2026-08-27" Appliance type: "Cooktops and rangetops, Ranges" --- # Bertazzoni burner will not hold a simmer ### The fastest diagnosis is what you can see Light the burner, take it down to its lowest setting, and look at the ring from the side with the kitchen light off. A healthy simmer is a continuous, even, small blue flame all the way round. Gaps in the ring are blocked ports and they are the answer most of the time — clearable with a paper clip and patience. ### Why the simmer fails first At full flame there is enough gas to carry across a partly blocked port; at minimum there is not. So a burner closing up gradually behaves perfectly for months at the settings people use most, and gives itself away only at the bottom of its range. That makes a lost simmer the earliest reliable warning a gas burner gives, and the cheapest moment to act on it. ### The paper clip rule Clear a port with something that fits through it and does not cut: a straightened paper clip. Never a drill bit, a needle file or a piece of wire pushed hard. A port that has been widened does not meter correctly and no amount of subsequent cleaning restores it — that is one of the few genuinely irreversible things an owner can do to a good burner. Ports partly blocked The flame is still fine on high because there is enough gas to bridge the gaps. On low there is not, and the ring breaks up and dies. This is the usual answer. Ports that have been over-cleaned A wire or a drill widens a port unevenly and it never meters correctly again. It is one of the few ways an owner can make this worse, which is why we mention the paper clip so insistently. A cap that is not seated Free to fix, and it produces exactly this: a flame that lifts and cannot hold at low. Flame sensing that has become marginal The appliance is deciding it can no longer see a flame at the smallest setting and shutting the gas off. That is the safety system working on poor information. The valve no longer metering at the bottom of its range Less common and a real repair. A valve that is fine at half and unreliable at minimum has worn where it works hardest. Look at the ring on low Lights off, from the side. Gaps are ports. Does it happen with a pan on A flame that survives empty and dies under a pan is a different clue — usually a cap or an airflow problem. Try another burner at the same setting One burner affected is local. All of them is the supply or a regulator. How long does it take to go out Immediately, or after twenty seconds. The second is flame sensing rather than gas flow. The low flame goes first What it usually means Fine on high, drops out on low Goes out when a pan is set on it A low flame that is uneven round the ring The fastest diagnosis is what you can see Light the burner, take it down to its lowest setting, and look at the ring from the side with the kitchen light off. A healthy simmer is a continuous, even, small blue flame all the way round. Gaps in the ring are blocked ports and they are the answer most of the time — clearable with a paper clip and patience. Why the simmer fails first At full flame there is enough gas to carry across a partly blocked port; at minimum there is not. So a burner closing up gradually behaves perfectly for months at the settings people use most, and gives itself away only at the bottom of its range. That makes a lost simmer the earliest reliable warning a gas burner gives, and the cheapest moment to act on it. The paper clip rule Clear a port with something that fits through it and does not cut: a straightened paper clip. Never a drill bit, a needle file or a piece of wire pushed hard. A port that has been widened does not meter correctly and no amount of subsequent cleaning restores it — that is one of the few genuinely irreversible things an owner can do to a good burner. ### Is this worth fixing, or should I just cook on medium? Worth fixing, and usually cheaply. A simmer that has gone is the first stage of a burner that is closing up, and dealing with it as a cleaning job now is a great deal less than dealing with it as a valve job later. It is also, on a make built around cooking, most of what you paid for. ### All my burners have got worse together. Then it is more likely the supply than the burners. A regulator problem or a pressure change lowers every burner at once, and burners themselves almost never age in step. Worth telling us, because it moves the diagnosis outside the appliance. ### Can I widen the ports to get more flame? Please do not. A port drilled or widened does not meter gas correctly at any setting after that, and it cannot be undone — the burner becomes a replacement. Clearing with a straightened paper clip removes the blockage without changing the hole, which is the whole point. --- **[Read full article: Burner will not hold a simmer](https://bertazzonimiami.support/symptoms/burner-will-not-simmer/)**