Jotul sparks, doesn't light pilot

[cold guy]

Like my thread says, my free standing GF370DV igniter will spark and not light. Yesterday I turned it on and off 6 times and the pilot never lit. I took the glass off, put a wire in the pilot 'gas ports' , put the glass back and it lit.
When running it always lights and runs fine.
Today, same problem..but this time I went to get my allen wrenches, came back and decided to try one more time and it lit! It's a 6 year old propane model.
Does anyone have an idea why it's not lighting the pilot? It's cold here.

 

[wooduser]

Pilot burner orifices need maintenance. They get plugged up with grit and corrosion after several years.

You need to remove the screws that hold the pilot burner to the stove and gently bend the pilot tubing so you can work on the pilot burner. Use a wrench to loosen the brass fitting where the pilot tubing enters the pilot burner. Once that fitting is loose, you can usually shake the pilot orifice out into your hand, and clean it with a wire from a wire brush of compressed air.

That's the first thing to try, and will usually solve the problem. However, could be other things, especially failing gas pressure during very cold weather. with propane.

Carefully observe the pilot burner flame when you have it lit. It should look like a sharp blue flame like a small blowtorch that engulfs the flame sensor, and doesn't have yellow tips. That usually indicates that the pilot orifice is dirty, but a small pilot flame with propane could be a gas pressure problem caused by very cold weather.

A six year old stove that has never had the pilot orifice cleaned is past due for that maintenance work in any case ----I'd start there.