Whirlpool Gold Microwave/Oven Saga

Would appreciate some expert help with our electric oven.

We have had four different repairmen come out to fix this oven over the past four years for various reasons.  Our most current issue is that it does not heat up at all.  About a year ago the repairman said that it needed a new control panel, and he put one in.  Currently the repairman is saying, "Control panel is bad, and you need a new panel".  I'm thinking that something else is occurring since the control panel works in all other aspects (microwave is fine, timer works, clock works, etc.)  What can we do for ourselves to see if we can solve this problem?

Hi Joe,

Thanks for your feedback.  To answer your question he replaced the control board behind the keypad.  If the keypad were faulty wouldn't everything stop working (i.e. the timer, the microwave controls and the oven)?  Right now when I turn on the oven, by pressing "Bake" and then "Start", the oven makes all the noises it used to make while warming up (the clicking and popping sounds) and the pre-heat timer comes on as well.  These noises tell me that the oven is at least trying to heat up.  

  What are the odds that the control board has gone bad after just a year and only a couple of uses?  Would you still recommend replacing the keypad?

Thanks so much for any assistance!

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Would appreciate some expert help with our electric oven.

We have had four different repairmen come out to fix this oven over the past four years for various reasons. Our most current issue is that it does not heat up at all. About a year ago the repairman said that it needed a new control panel, and he put one in. Currently the repairman is saying, "Control panel is bad, and you need a new panel". I’m thinking that something else is occurring since the control panel works in all other aspects (microwave is fine, timer works, clock works, etc.) What can we do for ourselves to see if we can solve this problem?

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TOC,

You’re going to need to get access to a multimeter,

[part]AP3873826[/part]

we’ll need to turn the power off and remove the elemnt so we can test for voltage at the element in a bake and broil mode, determine the voltage loss on L1 or L2 and trace the problem back to the source.

Sorry, I misunderstood the original issue, I would not expect a problem with a relatively new control board(but it is possible) I would also expect other issues (with the power supply) as well.

Once we have the elements out, and access to the wire terminals, we’ll check across both wires for 240 VAC, Then each wire to chassis ground for 120 VAC so we can determine whick power leg has lost the 120 VAC.

Let us know when you’re ready to test and we’ll get a step by step test procedure posted to you.

:slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

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Okay, as requested, we checked the leads with a multimeter and found no current at all…but we are not experts, so if you wouldn’t mind giving us the step-by-step procedures I would really appreciate it.

Thanks so much!

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Toc,

These are live voltage tests, so be careful, don’t hurt yourself,

Turn power off to the oven, at the breaker box.

Remove the oven door, and racks.(it’s easier to work in the oven).

Remove the two(2) phillips head screws holding the element mounting bracket to the rear oven wall, and carefully slide the element out a couple of inches.
Disconnect the two(2) Red wires from the element terminals behind the mounting plate.
(make sure you don’t allow the wires to fall back inside the cabinet wall).
you should have the element removed, racks out the oven and the door removed, and two(2) red wires and terminals poking out the back wall of the oven.

You’re going to program a bake cycle and temperature just like you were going to bake something.

Now you’re going to take the meter probes and place the metal tips on each of the metal terminals attached to the end of the wires, You should read 220 to 240 VAC. If all is OK.

You will then need to check for 120 VAC from each wire terminal to chassis ground ( the element mounting screw holes make a good ground connection). so the wire on the right to chassis ground should read 110 to 120 VAC. and the same on the left wire to chassis ground. Once we know which power leg is missing we can remove the control panel and check for power out to the element fom the control, or remove the oven from the wall and check for an open thermal fuse or loss of power to wall oven.

Good Luck
:slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

This is not American made washer (probably South Africa?) and unfortunately we do not have any access to their technical documentation.

Gene.