Power Rating of Bake Element

Apr 12, 2005 3 Replies

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Paul Way 21 years ago

Hello. I have Googled for some time but can not find the answer to the following question:

I have an oven which needs the bake element replaced (which is simple enough), however, the rating on the element is 2600 W. The oven never did heat quickly and seemed to do a lot of switching on and off. Can I replace the 2600 W ewlement with a 3 kW one? I am assuming that the higher power rating would simply mean that the oven would heat up faster, but I am not sure what other (side)effects this might have. The specifications do not say anything regarding this.

Can anyone help? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Paul Way

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Paul Way 21 years ago

Thanks for the help Edwin. The oven is on a 40 A breaker (with a cooktop) so even at max power, I have current to spare.

Appreciate the advice.

Cheers,

Paul

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TURTLE 21 years ago

This is Turtle.

1] You say the oven heats up very slowly but does heat up to right temp and holds it. the bigger element would bring the heat of the oven up faster and in a shorter time.

2] You say the element thermostat cuts on and off too often and seem to turn on and off too much. Well a bigger element will even make this shorter cycles even shorter and it will get worst and morte cycles per hour with a larger element.

I would leave it alone and just wait for it to heat up for about 5 minutes longer time.

TURTLE

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Edwin Pawlowski 21 years ago

It would heat faster, but since it is limited by a thermostat, it would not get any hotter than the setting.

It would pull a couple of amps more in power, but if the existing line is correctly sized, it should not be a big deal. 400 watts at 240V = 1.6A

Assuming this is a direct fitting replacement, I'd go for it.

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