what just went ka-bing on my stove?

December 6, 2010 4:51 PM

What just went ka-bing on my stove? I was just cooking pancakes on the stove. The oven was also on at 300 degrees, to keep the pancakes warm as they came off the griddle. The overhead bonnet light was on as well. Suddenly there was a strange flash. It happened in such a fraction of a second that I cannot tell you where it was from. It was like a tiny red sparking mini-explosion -- somewhere! I turned off the stove -- and could NOT turn off the light on the bonnet!

We just turned off the breaker to cut power to the stove/oven, but the fan on the bonnet still works (though not the light. Both fan and light are little toggle button switches on the bonnet.) How is this possible? How is the same bonnet getting and not getting power? A moment before this happened, I mistakenly put a plastic spatula down on the glasstop stove surface and it began to smoke and melt. I doubt this is related, but there you go. Also, there is a teeny knick in the glass stovetop that has been there for years. Another possibly relevant detail: our power was out recently. The electric company told us to turn off all the breakers so when the power came back on nothing would surge. After the power was restored, I turned on the breakers -- but (unlike the rest of the house) the stove/oven would not come on. We had to flick the breaker several times before it came back. Is there a short somewhere here? What is going on? We are very good at speculating; my husband has lots of smart theories; so we are especially appreciate answers from people who really know about electriciany things. Thank you so much.

posted by keener_sounds to home & garden (8 answers total)

My husband says that flash is characteristic for a bulb burning out.
posted by bearwife at 5:02 PM on December 6, 2010

yeah, have you tried replacing the bulb?
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 5:02 PM on December 6, 2010

Terminology clarification first: I assume what you mean by overhead bonnet is the range hood (combined light and exhaust fan that sits above the stovetop aka range aka cooktop).

It sounds like your light switch short-circuited open (so that current went across a different path than it was intended to) but the draw didn't change so the fuse didn't melt and so the light stayed on. You couldn't get the light to turn off because the switch no longer opened and shut the circuit, and now that you've cut power and turned it back on, the switch no longer draws at all. (Which is good because if the current is going across somewhere unexpected it's pretty dangerous for the operator.)

(This is also speculation, I grant. But I remember my high-school physics, so I give myself credit for knowing about electriciany things.)
posted by gingerest at 5:11 PM on December 6, 2010

Considering the dirth of electrical trouble/weirdness surrounding this appliance I suggest you unplug it and get it professionally serviced. ESPECIALLY if it is an electric stove and not gas. Getting electrocuted doesn't sound like holiday season fun.

(I'm remembering an incident years ago with an electrical short in some sort of kitchen equipment (deep fryer? griddle top??) in a friend's restaurant that could have killed someone on the staff if it hadn't been accidentally discovered in time. Seriously, don't let metafilter diagnose this for you because live exposed wires or circuits + metal = danger!)
posted by jbenben at 5:17 PM on December 6, 2010

When you turned the stove back on at the breaker most recently, did it do the same thing as when you're power was temporarily cut? That bit about having to flick the breaker several times suggests to me that something was on the edge of failing then.

If you had a cheap multi-tester (like this) and had a good idea of what you were looking for, you could turn off the power to that circuit and kind of poke around in resistance mode (most household circuits, barring the actual load, have a resistance of about zero with things that shouldn't be part of the circuit having a resistance of about infinity. I suspect that isn't the case with yours right now and I kind of wonder if your switch wasn't interrupting the cold leg of your circuit.

If any of that isn't 100% crystal clear to you, go with jbenben's advice. The grand prize for screwing this sort of job up is death by electrocution.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 6:00 PM on December 6, 2010

Most likely the bulb just burned out. The breaker for the stove/oven is separate from the breaker for the bonnet. They are two different voltages. So although you turned off the breaker for the stove, the breaker for the bonnet was still on. Therefore the fan works but the light does not because it is burned out. Replace the bulb and you should be good to go. It is possible that when the bulb burned out, it also burned the light switch, so if the light still does not work after replacing the bulb, you may have to replace the light switch as well. Make sure you identify the bonnet breaker by making sure the fan goes off.
posted by JackFlash at 6:02 PM on December 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Something similar happened to me a while back - it ended up being an electrical issue and we had to replace the stove (well my landlord had to the replace the stove). You should get it looked at by an electrician before trying to use again.
posted by echo0720 at 8:03 PM on December 6, 2010

Sounds like something is wrong with the switch for the bonnet light (as gingerest suggests). If it were me, I would turn off the power to the bonnet (this will be separate from the stove power) and open it up to inspect the switch. It will probably look burnt if it has been damaged, but you can also use a multimeter to test it. You can replace it with an equivalent switch. Of course, don't do this if you aren't comfortable working on electrical devices.

I don't think this has anything to do with the stove itself - the bonnet and the stove are on different circuits, so if you noticed a flash and then noticed the bonnet not working correctly, it is very likely that the two are related and have nothing to do with the stove.
posted by ssg at 9:43 PM on December 6, 2010