Yesterday while baking Christmas cookies, the bake element in my oven burned out. I quickly went to the store and bought the replacement part and installed it. I plugged the oven back in, set it for 350 and pushed the bake button. There was a loud pop and the control panel went blank. All of the burners continue to work, and the oven continued to heat up. I had to unplug the oven again to stop it from heating. Do I need to replace the control board and did replacing the bake element cause the other problem? Am I wasting money on an oven that’s close to 20 years old? Thans for your input!
Cannot find any info on this unit, tried a couple sites.
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Do I need to replace the control board and did replacing the bake element cause the other problem?[/COLOR]
Sounds more like something in the back of the unit shorted out.
Replacing the element in and of itself should not have caused the problem.
Unplug the unit, take the back off and see if you can locate what shorted.
It does sound like the bake relay contacts on the control board have welded together.
This is hard to troubleshoot without a wiring diagram.
If the bake element is heating but not getting red hot it could be that it is shorted to the frame and getting 120 volts not the full 240 it normally receives.
Here is a good link with basic stove repair info
http://www.applianceaid.com/erange.html
Am I wasting money on an oven that’s close to 20 years old?
I would unplug it, open it up and see if you can find any obvious faults.
If you can not find any then I would consider replacing the unit.
Cannot say what a new control board will cost you and there is a good possibility it may not even be available.
Oops…I forgot a 3 in that model number…it’s FCE30600W. Sorry 'bout that.
Took the back off. Someone spliced the wire that goes to one of the bake element terminals. It looks like maybe that shorted out–the inside of the oven back is black in that spot. I couldn’t really figure out how to completely get to the electronics, but from what I can see, they all look fine–nothing looks black or burned. The insulation around the light bulb socket is also all black, but I think that happened a long time ago–haven’t had light in there for years. What I don’t understand is, if the wire to the bake element shorted, why is it still heating up when the oven is plugged in?
Diagrams and parts info: http://www.appliancepartspros.com/partsearch/model.aspx?model_id=43026
See Denman’s post above: [QUOTE]If the bake element is heating but not getting red hot it could be that it is shorted to the frame and getting 120 volts not the full 240 it normally receives.[/QUOTE]
Ok…I just discovered that one of the terminals of the bake element is actually now fused to the edge of the hole in the back of the stove.
Would there be some sort of circuit breaker or hi-limit switch that would protect the electronics from frying?
Could you give me a guess as to what happened to my stove?
Without being there it would just be a shot in the dark.
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How did the bake element get fused to the body of the oven?[/COLOR]
Again I cannot say.
The bare wire section of the element cannot touch any part of the stove case/frame. But the insulated/calrod part of the element can, as you can see this is where it has the mounts to attach it to the rear oven wall.
As a way of explanation:
The unit gets power from two 120 volt supplies with a common Neutral which is connected to the frame of the oven…
One of these powers your light and control board as well as half the voltage for the element.
These supplies are 180 degrees out of phase. In other words when one is at positive 120 volts the other is at negative 120 volts. This gives you the 240 volts required by the heating element. Your current flows through the element from the -120 to the +120.
So if either end of the bare element touches the frame you have a dead short for one side of the electricity and it will arc/spark and normally trip the breaker.
I hope the above helps.
Where is the breaker? Is that different than the high limit switch?
I was referring to the house breaker
Ok…one last question. Apparently when I installed the new bake element, it was touching the body of the oven where it shouldn’t be. This created a short (which did not trip the breaker in the house). This in turn affected the clock assembly/control panel (possibly ruining it). So, here’s my question: I have taken out the bake element therefore eliminating the short circuit. How do I restore power to the clock assembly/control panel? Or does the fact that there is no display mean that it is ruined? I am not going to purchase a new one because it is a $150 part and I would rather buy a new oven. Thanks for your patience and info!
How do I restore power to the clock assembly/control panel?
I would check the power first make sure you have 120 volts from L1 (Black) to Neutral (White) and from L2 (Red) to Neutral
Looks like if the hi-limit opens on this unit it will also kill power to the board so check that first. It uses the L1 side, it also runs the oven light.
Or does the fact that there is no display mean that it is ruined?
If you can confirm that it is getting power and still does not light up then it is toast.
[COLOR=Blue]Thanks for your patience and info!
You are welcome. Definitely a bad time of the year for oven problems.
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