An oven element's silent protest...?

May 31, 2009 8:23 AM

My electric oven's bottom element looks fine, but...

...it won't heat up. The broiler works just fine. My first job was in the hardware section of a store we lovingly refer to up here as Crappy Tire, so I've seen a few fried elements, and they tend to fail pretty catastrophically. But this is weird: not only is the oven's element immaculate, the backing plate it is still shiny and clean.

Note:

1. I've tried switching the 30amp fuses for the elements, and it made no difference


2. There's no evidence under the wiring plate on the back of anything smoking, shorting, etc.

Has anyone ever had an element fail without any sign like this?

posted by Decimask to home & garden (12 comments total)

Firstly.. Crappy Tire is a temple of awesomness.

Secondly.. an element could easily fail without any outward signs. As far as I am aware it is effectively a tube with a filament running through packed in a powder. If that filament breaks that's it, it's over. You wouldn;t necessarily see any sign of the failure on the outside.
posted by Frasermoo at 8:37 AM on May 31

Yes, of course they fail, that's why they're so easy to remove.

You can test it with a multimeter, it should be about 100 ohm's.

Buy a new one, it will probably be about $30.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 8:38 AM on May 31

BTW, the powder is titanium dioxide.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 8:41 AM on May 31

I mean, magnesium dioxide...duh!
posted by Confess, Fletch at 10:25 AM on May 31

New, related question: is there a lubricant that's safe to use on the screws attaching the wiring to the element? Because they ain't coming out.
posted by Decimask at 10:51 AM on May 31

It could be the electrical contacts, rather than the element itself. If you don't have a continuity meter, check to see if the broiler element is identical. If so, you could put that one on the bottom and see if it works. If it doesn't work, then the contacts are the problem, and your element is probably fine. You may want to replace the old contacts with heavier duty ones. If the broiler element does work on the bottom, then you can use the oven until you replace the bad element with a new one. Put the new element on the bottom, since it gets more use than the top one. WD-40 should be fine for the screws.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:58 AM on May 31

Make sure the breaker is off when you do this, right?
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:59 AM on May 31

It's unplugged. I've survived electrocution once already in my life, TYVM.
posted by Decimask at 11:00 AM on May 31

Alright! After:

1. Managing to break one of the terminals off the old element (lovely);
2. Very, very carefully using a series of titanium drill bits to drill through the head of the remaining screw; and...
3. Installing the new (smaller) element EXACTLY the same way as the old one...

It didn't work.

There was much cursing, cussing and fiddling.

Then, finally, I thought to reverse the wires. And then there was heat, and decimask said it was nifty.

So either the person who put in the old one did it wrong and it's hasn't worked since, or I initially had the wires reversed.

In any case, I can bake again. Thanks, all. Question resolved.
posted by Decimask at 2:01 PM on May 31

There are only two wires, right? Reversed wires should make no difference to an element. It's 220V AC.
It must have been a loose connection that you fixed when you reversed the wires.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 3:21 PM on May 31

Yeah, 2 wires. I thought it was weird too. That or I managed to fiddle with something on dials that changed something else, and spent the last couple hours and $35 on a wild goose chase. Who knows.
posted by Decimask at 6:48 PM on May 31

That's a possibility. If you had the oven dial set on broil rather than bake, it would create those symptoms. You'll know if you do a continuity check on your old element. If it's good, you might want to save it for a spare rather than throw it out. Moral: always check the simple things first.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:16 PM on May 31