Ceramic stove top element out...

[Swimmer]

I noticed another thread where an oven was successfully fixed. This is Whirlpool Gold about 7 years old. The front right stove top element does not function at all...happened suddenly a couple months ago. The wife is on me about fixing it. I ordered a replacement element that mounts under the glass and replacement went smoothly. Still does not work at all. What could the culprit be? The switch? The little red indicator light next to the switch goes on when you turn the knob. Any ideas?

[pureinsanity]

have you checked all the wire connections?

[Swimmer]

have you checked all the wire connections?

Yes, the connection under the ceramic top. I haven't pulled the stove out to take apart the control panel area. Not sure how to do that, but maybe that's the next logical step. Kind of wondering if the control knob switch would be a common fail component.

[TooTallTom]

Have you checked out Whirlpool's HSOforum? They might have a troubleshooting guide for your model, or a list of parts that fail pretty frequently.

[Swimmer]

Yup, I checked out the Whirlpool site and it was very generic. Probably afraid of liability I guess. A bad element was such a no-brainer (but proved not to be the problem) that I was hoping there was another "no-brainer" component to check.?

[TooTallTom]

Bummer about the Whirlpool HSOforum, I'm really not going to be much more help.

Is it the same physical wiring to the burner and the indicator light? (If not, the indicator light being on doesn't really indicate anything.) Do you have a way to check the wiring at the burner connection to make sure that electricity is getting that far? If it's not getting that far, obviously check the wiring itself, as well as the connections on the end away from the burner. If it is, then you'll have to move up to the next section of the circuit (which might be the control panel) and test that.

The stove doesn't have some kind of individual circuit breakers, does it?

[Swimmer]

Thanks for the input tootall. I'm a little paranoid of using the multimeter around 240 volts under the stove top. But, are there circuit breakers for each burner? Definitely worth looking into.

[bearslayer]

You have a bad burner switch. Can check continuity with meter between H1 and H2 contacts on switch when in on position. Unhook wires and see if it is closing with the meter. Obviously, have the power off when doing this.

[Swimmer]

Thanks bearslayer. I'll dig out the multimeter and try and remember how to do continuity checks...should be easy to figure out.

[Pat K]

Our Whirlpool is about 11 years old. When I tried to replace one of the burners a couple years ago I couldn't get it to work. Finally called out an appliance repair guy and found out that one wire for the new burner had to be connected to a different post on the new burner than on the original one. Unfortunately I don't remember what changed.

[Swimmer]

Ok...I just tried to replicate the original wiring on the original element. Even though the new element wasn't exactly like the old element. Maybe I'll try switching some wires around?

[bearslayer]

Hopefully you have the old burner and can look at the wire positions. They are usually numbered or lettered so the wires can be put on the correct spots if needs to be switched. It would be so much easier if they could just make the new burner the same as the old.

[Swimmer]

I did replace the wires to the same recepticals. It sound like the tech told him to move the wires to different positions.?

[Pat K]

The repairman changed the wire positions, not me. That's why I don't remember what changed. You could try calling Dey Appliance Parts. They are usually pretty helpful.

[Swimmer]

Thanks for the advice guys. I will dig out the old element to see if there are any markings on the connectors. I never thought about testing the old element to see if it was bad. That would lead me to believe it was the switch if I could confirm a bad element. Is there a way to do this? Continuity?