Electric kitchen range repair

[hydro]

I thought I would share this with you all as some might be interested.

A couple of weeks ago I was baking a pizza for movie night when I heard a loud BRRAZZP from the electric range. I checked things out and there was no ongoing fire, smoke, or other obvious problem, so I finished the pizza and we watched the movie. After that the oven was slow to heat up so I tore things down and found that the hidden oven element had shorted and zippered.

I ordered a new element for about $50 online, installed it, and did an operational check on the circuit. There should have been 240VAC across the element with the oven on, but the meter showed zero. The next place to look was the control relay on the power board. I did a visual check of the power board and saw nothing obvious, so I pulled the board from its mounting and found that the trace that provided power to the control relay had blown when the heater element went, and the heat had damaged an adjacent trace.

I checked the online parts site and the new power board is a $200 part, so I decided to repair what I had. I did an operational check on the relay contacts and they seemed to be working fine, so I rebuilt the blown and damaged traces using sheet copper.

After the repair I did another operational test and it showed power to and through the relay and the correct 240VAC drop across the heater. The tests showed things were working normally so I did a cycle test on the oven and it preheated in the normal amount of time. For about an hour’s time and some thinking, I saved over $200 on parts and likely twice that if I had called the repair tech.

[delcecchi]

You can also use discrete insulated hookup wire to bypass a bad trace. "yellow wire" was the salvation of many boards when I used to work for a large computer company.

[bgmny]

Hydro, what brand oven did this happen to?

[hydro]

Kitchenaid. Had it for 6 years and also had to replace a top element. Would not buy this brand again.

[pikechaser]

LOL.. With the current going thru that relay when the element grounded out the contacts in the relay are most certianly damaged and under normal operation, that bandaid fix is going to be short lived. There is a heck of a lot more current flow in that relay than any board on a PC. Any of us over priced repairmen would have told you that. Your not doing anyone a favor showing them how to jerry rig their electric stove. Good way for someone with limited electrical expierence to get hurt. Not really a public service, more of a toot your horn session???

[hydro]

Don't get so excited. The relay contacts were closed during the high current so if there were to be severe damage they would likely have welded. In the worst case I could replace the $13.00 Omron relay instead of a $200.00 control board like the repair tech would do.

[delcecchi]

LOL.. With the current going thru that relay when the element grounded out the contacts in the relay are most certianly damaged and under normal operation, that bandaid fix is going to be short lived. There is a heck of a lot more current flow in that relay than any board on a PC. Any of us over priced repairmen would have told you that. Your not doing anyone a favor showing them how to jerry rig their electric stove. Good way for someone with limited electrical expierence to get hurt. Not really a public service, more of a toot your horn session???

I don't think those traces were carrying the current to the heating element. It appears to be normal FR4 circuit board material with normal copper.

Sure, if you don't know what you are doing you shouldn't be messing with electricity, or chain saws, or outboard motors either. Or table saws or knives either. A guy could hurt themselves.

[pikechaser]

LMAO Most repairmen don't stay in business for too long doing things half a*s. Its a little easier to jerry rig your own stuff, no angry customer to call you back & want it fixed for free cause you didnt do it right the first time, or sue you for damaging/destroying their house...just some things to take into account. Imagine trying the explain that "repair" you did in court to a judge and a bunch of lawyers in a courtroom....Good luck with that. nuf said

[delcecchi]

LMAO Most repairmen don't stay in business for too long doing things half a*s. Its a little easier to jerry rig your own stuff, no angry customer to call you back & want it fixed for free cause you didnt do it right the first time, or sue you for damaging/destroying their house...just some things to take into account. Imagine trying the explain that "repair" you did in court to a judge and a bunch of lawyers in a courtroom....Good luck with that. nuf said

And spending your time to rebuild something that can be bought is a bad tradeoff for you and the customer. Fixing that board could take an hour or two. That would account for most of the savings over wholesale price of replacement. So it would be foolish of you to do it.

On the other hand my time is "free" in that it doesn't cost me dollars out of pocket to use it. On the other hand there might be something I would rather be doing. The way you do it makes perfect sense for you. The way he did it worked for him due to a different set of constraints. You don't need to pull out the scare tactics.