--- title: "Gas cooktop flame is uneven" description: "DCS gas cooktop flame is uneven: dCS gas cooktop uneven flame. A ring that burns hard on one side and feebly on the other is nearly always the cap or" url: "https://dcsmiami.support/symptoms/gas-cooktop-uneven-flame/" date_modified: "2026-09-14" Appliance type: "cooktop, range" --- # DCS gas cooktop flame is uneven ### What to do in the next ten minutes With everything off and cold, lift the cap and look underneath for debris, then look at the ports around the ring — blocked ones are darker and often visibly crusted. Set the cap back flat and square rather than dropping it on. Light it and watch a full ring of flame before deciding anything, then turn it down to minimum and see whether it holds. ### The pattern tells you where to look An uneven flame is not random. Strong on one side with a dead arc opposite is a cap sitting proud on that side; a few individually dark ports scattered round the ring is blockage; a whole ring that is uniformly small and lazy is gas arriving short. Standing and looking at the shape of the flame for thirty seconds before touching anything is genuinely diagnostic, and it is something anybody can do. ### Why we ask about the dishwasher Burner caps look like exactly the sort of thing that should go in a dishwasher, and they are not. Detergent strips the finish that keeps them behaving consistently, and once that has happened cleaning them further changes nothing. It is not a disaster — they are a modest part — but it explains a burner that has never been right since somebody did a thorough clean. The cap is seated wrong or fouled Rotated, tilted, or resting on a crumb. It produces a fixed pattern of strong and weak that looks alarming and takes ten seconds to correct. Ports are blocked by a boil-over Sugar and starch bake hard into the ports and stay there. Clearing them properly is the repair; poking them with wire enlarges them and is not. The supply or regulator is short Where every burner is lazy together, the machine is being starved rather than blocked, and that is measured rather than cleaned. How many burners are affected? The first question on any gas complaint. One is local, all of them is upstream, and the two lead to completely different visits. Does it hold a low flame? Turn it to minimum and leave it a minute. A burner that dies at the bottom of its range has a separate problem that is easy to miss. Have the caps been through the dishwasher? It is common and it strips the coating. The burner never behaves quite the same afterwards, and recognizing it saves cleaning something that will not improve. Strong on one side of the ring, weak on the other What it usually means One ring uneven is the cap or the ports; every ring is the supply Burner caps through a dishwasher come back permanently changed A burner that will not simmer has a problem that only appears at minimum What to do in the next ten minutes With everything off and cold, lift the cap and look underneath for debris, then look at the ports around the ring — blocked ones are darker and often visibly crusted. Set the cap back flat and square rather than dropping it on. Light it and watch a full ring of flame before deciding anything, then turn it down to minimum and see whether it holds. The pattern tells you where to look An uneven flame is not random. Strong on one side with a dead arc opposite is a cap sitting proud on that side; a few individually dark ports scattered round the ring is blockage; a whole ring that is uniformly small and lazy is gas arriving short. Standing and looking at the shape of the flame for thirty seconds before touching anything is genuinely diagnostic, and it is something anybody can do. Why we ask about the dishwasher Burner caps look like exactly the sort of thing that should go in a dishwasher, and they are not. Detergent strips the finish that keeps them behaving consistently, and once that has happened cleaning them further changes nothing. It is not a disaster — they are a modest part — but it explains a burner that has never been right since somebody did a thorough clean. ### Can I clear the ports with a pin? Something soft and non-metallic, yes. A pin or a wire enlarges the port permanently, and an oversized port changes that part of the flame forever. A soft brush and patience does the job on all but the worst. ### One burner has always been weaker than the rest. Then it is worth looking at rather than accepting. Burners on a range are not all the same size by design, but two burners of the same size should behave the same way, and one that never has may have been assembled or set up wrong from the start. --- **[Read full article: Gas cooktop flame is uneven](https://dcsmiami.support/symptoms/gas-cooktop-uneven-flame/)**