Oven elements dies for the fourth time

roadweary

Hi,

I bought an oven from John Lewis July 2019 and took out the Added Care giving me a total of 5 years of warranty.  I recently got a call from the letting agent to say that the oven had failed, suspected element and that they had an engineer coming out 10th Jan to repair.

I was sure the oven element had failed in the past so I asked the letting agent for the details and the same element was replaced:

July 2020
Nov 2021
Dec 2022 
and now Jan 2024.

The warranty expires July this year.  I called Added Care and requested that they check if anything else about the oven was causing these failures.  They said they could see no reason why this kept happening.

John Lewis say after 2 years they can't contact the manufacturer so I have to speak with the Added Care provider (Whirlpool according to the latest report, thewarrantygroup.com according to the original contract which now diverts to assurant.com).

Whirlpool say there is nothing they can do but when the warranty expires D&G will contact me for further warranty options, but no doubt these will be very expensive.

I appreciate the oven is nearly 5 years old, and I can see the perspective of John Lewis and Whirpool, but the point is that clearly the element in an oven shouldn't die every year or so.  The element 'only' died once in the original 2 year period that John Lewis could have done something about it, do I had no view of the pattern of failures.

Is there anything I can do here?

Thanks,
R

user1977

Doubt you can do much without evidence of what the problem is. Are you sure it isn't user error of some sort? e.g. fat splashing on the element?

born_again

Given nearly 5 years old time to buy a new one. Especially as this is in a rental property & not really a consumer purchase.

In reality while I agree element should last longer than a year, you have no idea what the people using it are doing. Could be leaving oven door open & heating room.

DullGreyGuy

Given it's a tenanted property the problem is you have no idea how the tenant is treating/ looking after the oven. They presumably aren't taking a sledgehammer to it else the warranty claims would have been declined but they could be contributing to its failure. Has been the same tenant the whole time?

Most oven elements are under £10 so it may be better to find a cheap way of getting one fitted than paying for a warranty 

roadweary

Yeah, I did consider whether the element was being abused......although this element seems to be behind a fan as opposed to a grill element.

The element itself is under £20 but by the time you pay someone to fit it (needs to be a qualified person for a rented property) it does get expensive......

But I'll just wait and see what the D&G warranty offer is.

sammyjammy

I don't see why the fitting of an element needs to be an expert even in a rental property, I have fitted them many times myself.  Could it be the electrical connection itself that is causing the element to
 fail?

roadweary

sammyjammy said:

I don't see why the fitting of an element needs to be an expert even in a rental property, I have fitted them many times myself.  Could it be the electrical connection itself that is causing the element to
 fail?

you could be right.  The oven itself was inspected by the engineer, and the electrics in the house were all test recentl so I really don't know.

I've googled around but I can't see if the element for the fan assisted oven can be replaced from the inside (easiest) or if the oven has to be removed from the kitchen unit....

user1977

roadweary said:

sammyjammy said:

I don't see why the fitting of an element needs to be an expert even in a rental property, I have fitted them many times myself.  Could it be the electrical connection itself that is causing the element to
 fail?

you could be right.  The oven itself was inspected by the engineer, and the electrics in the house were all test recentl so I really don't know.

I've googled around but I can't see if the element for the fan assisted oven can be replaced from the inside (easiest) or if the oven has to be removed from the kitchen unit....

Mine needs access to the back to attach the electrics, but it's an easy enough job to pull out the oven.

njkmr

I replaced the oven element twice in 6 months for a tenant. Some are easy to replace from inside the cooker and some need to be accessed from the back.
I believe leaving the door open after finishing cooking protects the element a bit and aids cooling and longevity of the element. Some tenants will taken on this advice others wont.
I have never replaced the element in my own oven more than once.
In the end I replaced the tenant and all has been well since then...!

roadweary

I've actually had the same tenant for many years and they've been great, so I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.

So, it's actually good for the element to open the door after you've turned the oven off?  Funnily enough I do that at home, in the winter at least, as it seems a waste not to have the hot air in the room

njkmr

Yeh it aids cooling is what I was told by the  guy who replaced it for me. He did tell me more but I forgot the full details.
Yes I leave mine open at home as well to help warm the kitchen once cooking is finished. 😁