Kitchen Gas Appliances - white deposits from natural gas ???

First off, thanks for helping me fix my oven without having to call in a pro. The oven wouldn't light and I found the answer here. The trouble turned out to be the pilot light flame was not touching the sensor (?) that turns the main gas valve on. White soot-like deposits had built up around the pilot light assembly and were misdirecting the flame around the sensor. A little light scrubbing with a toothbrush restored the flame to it's normal position and the oven works again.

OK, so here's the question. What are these white deposits? Underneath the range top. there seems to be a rather large amount of soft, fluffy white deposits directly over the pilot lights. It cleans off easily enough but what causes it in the first place? I don't recall ever seeing anything like this before. Gas always seemed to burn very clean. Please tell me I have another reason to be mad at my gas company!

Hello awizardalso. Welcome to my Gas Appliances topic and the Do-It-Yourself Web Site.

White powery substance is nothing uncommon when the sulfur content in the natural gas is slightly higher than usual. No harm is done except for the deposits left behind.

Some natural gases contain a slightly higher amount of sulfur and other trace chemicals is perfectly normal. Much depends on the source of the raw natural gas and some which is stored in underground dry oil wells.

Most of the trace chemicals are removed during the cleaning and scrubbing processes. Some remains only when the amounts are slightly higher and the cleaning process allows some to pass through the cleaners. All very normal and no cause for concerns.

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Thanks for the quick reply and the answer. I figured it was something in the gas. I appreciate the time and effort you've put into this and the few dollars you've saved me. I checked the oven out sometime back and discovered that the pilot light expanded when the knob was turned and just assumed that the capillary tube needed replaced. While trying to find out what this involved, I ran across this DIY site. I learned that bulb needed to be directly in the flame, and a quick test with a lighter verified that the bulb actually worked. The rest was just finding out why the flame was disturbed, hence, the "what heck is this stuff?" question. Thanks again.