Grill element

[JK]

Just moved into a new house, and the swine failed to inform me of the brokeness of the grill. Now, the element is a bit bent so I suspect it will be the culprit. It looks like it will just unscrew, but there are only two tests I can think of doing with my multimeter:

1) is the element open circuit? - if so, it's broke. If not, what should its resistance be?

2) do the teminals supply volts? - if not, further investigation required (aka a trip to Comet I suspect).

Any other suggestions, or am I on the right lines?

And... best place to get a new element? I found one for £20 delivered from

but I can't find a model number on the rather old oven. The one they supply *looks* right, and is for a single oven AEG, but I don't have anything to go on. Do they tend to be standard in terms of their power rating / output?

Many thanks,

john

[Christian McArdle]

That's all you need to test the element. Heating elements of this type don't change resistance much when hot like light bulbs. Expect to see around the mid to late twenties in ohms. Possibly a bit more for a top oven. Generally they are either spot on, open circuit, or (very, very rarely) a dead short. It isn't normal to have an intermediate, but wrong, resistance.

Probably, unless there is some clever control electronics. No need to check, though. The element test above will be enough to determine if the cooker or the element is broken. If the element is blown but doesn't start working after replacement, it may have taken a fuse or something (like a switch/thermostat) with it.

Christian.

[JK]

Thanks Christian,

The element is hanging from a kind of white ceramic teminal block which has a screw on each side. It looks as if when I unscrew it, those screws are going to fall into the back! Do I have to unscrew, or do they usually just pull out?

John

[Mungo Henning]

Hi John,

Our oven or grill (or is it "grille" - dunno) is on at least once every day, hence they seem to blow every 2 years or so.

I have replaced the oven element about 3 times now, and the grille once before - all easy enough to do if you have some time and don't mind making sure that the power is definitely off before you start dismantling.

Once you get the old element out (presuming it is the element that has failed) the place where it has shorted to the outer sheath is quite spectacular.

In my experience, more or less identical. Shop around (I guess you may have done so already) - the price difference is quite remarkable from some retailers.

Mungo

[JK]

Yes, you're right it was a right mess!

I found the price ranged from 17 to 70 quid, there's some tricky people out there. ezee-fix have been really helpful and were the cheapest, I would recommend them.

John