Gas Grill Won't Light: Knob On, Clicking, No Flame

What it
usually means.

Lighting needs three things at once: gas at the burner ports, air mixed into it, and a spark or glowing tip in the right spot. Miss one and the grill stays dark. On propane the most common reason involves no broken part at all: the tank is empty, its valve is shut, or the regulator's safety device has cut the flow to a trickle because the tank was opened while a knob was already on. That device, often called bypass or excess-flow mode, lets through only enough gas for a faint flame or none, and it resets when everything is closed and reopened in the right order. On natural gas, a shutoff closed during patio work does the same thing. After the gas come the burners: spiders in the venturi, ports sealed with grease and rust, a burner sitting off its orifice, or a crossover channel clogged so flame cannot jump from one burner to the next. Then comes ignition itself, which has its own page. Every failed attempt leaves gas under the lid, so the rule is simple: if a burner has not lit within a few seconds, knob off, lid up, and wait five minutes, or as long as the manual asks, before trying again.