Old Frigidaire Range/Oven

[uncle K]

My dad has a Frigidaire Compact 30 range/oven. The range top works fine. The oven elements only get slightly warm, regardless of the setting. We've checked the fuse box (yes, fuses, not breakers) and they are OK. The connections look OK too. I did shine up and tighten any questionable looking contact points.

This may or may not be related, but the light on the switch panel, which should come on when the oven is powered up, does not light on bake, but does light on broil. I suspect the oven control switch itself, but I'm an AC dummy, so.......

Any thoughts?

Unc

[DD_BobK]

Yes...post unit age & model number, number and arrangement of elements. This will help with the formulation of possible solutions.

My guess at this point would be temp control switch since neither bake nor broil elements seem to respond.

cheers Bob

[uncle K]

Yes...post unit age & model number, number and arrangement of elements. This will help with the formulation of possible solutions.

My guess at this point would be temp control switch since neither bake nor broil elements seem to respond.

cheers Bob

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I don't know the age of the unit, but it's old. However, it has been lightly and carefully used, kept clean (spotless), etc. It is a stainless steel Compact 30, drop in unit. 4 staggered range top burners.

Both the upper and lower elements in the oven get slightly warm, but that's all.

[WW]

Can you check the voltage at the element terminals when turned on? Should show 230 volts or near that. WW

[Stormin Mormon]

Slightly warm suggests it is getting some power. Maybe it's getting 110 VAC to the oven instead of 220 VAC?

[uncle K]

That's exactly what I was thinking, even as I cleaned up the one visible connection which looked a little suspicious. I wanted to tear into the switch panel a little further last night, but my dad (who is 84, a little slow and a little stubborn, but a far better electrician than I) wanted to wait until today. If the connections are all OK, I suppose something could cause a break inside the oven switch. We'll try again, shortly.

Thanks,

Unc

[uncle K]

Update: OK, I verified that we're getting two 110 feeds from the fuse box, to the oven switch. I also verified that only 110 is showing up at the lower element. I haven't verified it, but it is logical that the same thing is happening to the broiler element. Short of pulling the entire drop-in out of its nest to look for a phantom disconnected wire, this seems to be pointing to a faulty oven switch.

[Lp1331 1p1331]

Before you get carried away and pull the unit out, open up the control compartment and check things out there. From the symptoms you describe, it sounds to me like a wire has burned off a terminal and is touching ground, giving you 110 volts. Since both elements are not working, I would suspect the problem to be in the thermostat area. The elements should each have two wires coming from the control area, and it would be less likely that one going to each element would be bad, but then again, anything can happen-- and of course old Murphy's law applies. Larry