Tips to Repairing that Electric Oven Range

Most of us have had this happen in our home. We go to preheat the oven so as to bake a pizza or to bake bread and when we return to put the food item into the oven we find it has not preheated. Looks like a heating element has gone bad.

This can be a costly repair. Depending on the make and model of your electric range, you could be asked to pay anywhere from 30 to 60 dollars just for that heating element alone. The repair technician that shows up to fix your oven is going to charge you a service call and a mark up fee on that part. If we split the difference on the cost of the heating element and call it forty five dollars and then add a ten percent mark up fee ( and that is conservative ) plus add in the service call of perhaps another 45 dollars, we can see the cost of this repair is heading strongly towards the one hundred dollar mark. Not a happy scenario.

There is a better way. And less expensive. Just do it yourself. I assure you, it is quite easy. Here is what you should do. First, it would be nice to be certain the element is indeed dead. After all, it could be the knob control that has given up the ghost. If the control is bad, the element will not get power and we may be buying the wrong thing.

Grab up your voltage meter and pull the stove away from the wall. Find where the element exits the oven chamber and turn the oven control to the relevant setting, either bake, or broil. Use the meter probes to see simply if voltage is reaching the element connection leads. If voltage is present, the control is doing it's job and the element is bad. If no voltage, go probe the control. If you find voltage going in and none coming out the problem is in the control.

Next, write down the manufacturer and model and serial number of the oven. Get online and search for a parts provider. Try Sears for example or Appliance Samurai to get a quote on the part. Once the part arrives compare it to the old one to see if it correct.

Pull the range away from the wall and make certain you disconnect the pigtail from the wall socket. With the oven de-powered look around on the back of the oven for where the element is connected. It should project from the back of the oven compartment and each side of the element will have one wire attached to it. Remove those wires. They will either have a small screws attaching the wire or it will be a slide on connection. Once the wires are removed go around to the front of the oven and jockey the element out of the oven. It usually rests on little stand offs mounted in the walls of the oven. Looking at the element you may see where the surface has bubbled up or even chunks missing from where the burn through within the element occurred

Once it is out, immediately install the new one. Make sure it is again resting on the stand offs. Go around back and re-connect the leads. You are done. No oven dis-assembly required. And this procedure works easily for both the bake or broil elements.

Another ailment of the electric oven is the thermostatic control. This is a tubular rod resting on stand offs within the oven itself. Looks a bit like a long skinny cigar. If this goes bad the result is usually a barely warm oven. If we have heat then the control knob and the element must be working. The bad thermostat is simply preventing normal operation. This thermostat is also easily installed. Imagine a long skinny cigar with tiny tube running from it's end and through the back wall of the oven. On the other side of that wall the tube climbs up the back of the oven and is connected to the control knob. It's that easy. Get the part, de-power the oven, disconnect the thermostat and install the new part.

About the only things left to go bad are the surface elements and the controls for those elements on the stove itself. Using a voltage meter it is possible to determine if voltage is going into the control and then out again as it is directed to the element in question or to the oven. Once you have determined the control to be bad order up a new one and install it. You will want to de-power the range while doing this repair. Just disconnect one wire at a time on your old control and attach to the same point on the new control. Once all wires have been replaced onto the new control you can remove the old control and fasten the new one in place.

The surface elements are also very easy to replace. You can purchase these at department stores. They come in standard sizes and often just unplug from the connection. Look at your element before going shopping. See how it is connected and measure the diameter of the element to be sure you get a correct fit on the new one.