Is my oven faulty?

londonpilot

My oven is tripping my fuse box. Curious to know if anyone has had the same problem and how you resolved it. I don't want to pay an electrician extra money to come out if all I need to do is replace the oven. Thanks

nofoollikeold

Likely to be the element gone in the oven. They are not that expensive to buy, and generally easy to replace. However, remember you are dealing with mains voltage electricity, so unless you are competent to change it, best left to a professional.

If you do it yourself, turn the mains off at the consumer unit, not just the circuit for the cooker, as that is unlikely to isolate the neutral. Turn all the power off.

londonpilot

Thanks Nofool, is an electrcian the best person to contact to replace the element? Or do I need to find someone who fixes ovens?

FreeBear

nofoollikeold wrote: »

If you do it yourself, turn the mains off at the consumer unit, not just the circuit for the cooker, as that is unlikely to isolate the neutral. Turn all the power off.

The cooker switch should be a double pole switch that isolates both live and neutral.
The breaker in the consumer unit on the cooker circuit will only isolate live side.
Killing the power completely by flipping the main contactor (the big red switch) will isolate both live and neutral, but is a bit excessive.
Some ovens are wired in on a standard 13A plug, in which case, pull the plug, complete electrical isolation.


It sounds like the insulation inside the heating element is breaking down - Not too difficult to replace, but if you have any doubts, then get an expert in to fix it. I doubt an electritian will want to fix a faulty cooker, and if you find one, he'd probably charge over the odds for it. Look for an appliance repair shop locally, and they may be able to come out and fix it for a reasonable price.

kimplus8

It might not be the element, I had a problem with my elec oven and it was the fan at the back- it overheated ironically and was cutting out the elec. You need to weight up if the cost of someone to take a look at it and repair it will be better than getting a new oven. In my case the cost of labour and parts etc was only £50 less than replacement so I replaced it.

TELLIT01

All any body here can do is guess as to why it keeps tripping the breaker. It might be the element and it might not. If you replace the element and that wasn't the cause you will be out of pocket anyway. My advice is not to mess with electricity when you don't know what you are doing (I take that advice myself).

neilmcl

londonpilot wrote: »

Thanks Nofool, is an electrcian the best person to contact to replace the element? Or do I need to find someone who fixes ovens?

You could probably fix it yourself if the element is accessible from within the oven. Pretty easy fix, I've done one myself.

neilmcl

TELLIT01 wrote: »

All any body here can do is guess as to why it keeps tripping the breaker. It might be the element and it might not. If you replace the element and that wasn't the cause you will be out of pocket anyway. My advice is not to mess with electricity when you don't know what you are doing (I take that advice myself).

It should be pretty easy to tell if it's the element. You should be able to tell if the insulation surrounding it has cracked or broken down.