Replacing Electric Oven Heating Element

Replacing an electric oven heating element and stove top burner elements requires minimal experience. This guide will provide all of the information you will need with step by step instruction.

Why oven heating and stove burner elements fail

Oven heating and burner elements consist of alloys a core wire, and an insulator encased in metal. These elements expand and contract at very high heat. This process over years will cause the metal to weaken and eventually break.

When it does you can replace these elements yourself without paying an appliance repair person to do it for you.

Inspecting your oven heating element and stove burner coils

Before inspecting any oven or stove turn the breaker off at the panel and if possible unplug the appliance power cord. The oven heating element is the metal tube closest to the bottom of the oven. The broil element tube is located on the top of the inside of your oven.

A normal heat element is smooth with a dark gray color. A damaged element may be pitted, have a hole in it or be snapped in half while obviously not working.
The same goes for stove coil elements. Both may look normal but have frayed wiring or a bad thermostat switch too.

Test the elements with an electrical milti-meter

To confirm the element is damaged you want to check continuity of the core wire that runs through the element. If the wire is broken this test will confirm it. Remove the element part from the oven or stove.

Using a digital multi-meter set the meter to the lowest ohms setting. Touch the meter probes to the terminals on the end of the element.

If the element is good your reading will be from 15 to 30 ohms. A bad element will show a reading of 0 or it will show an infinite reading. In this case you would replace the element. Testing stove burner elements is the same process.

Replacing stove burner elements

As mentioned earlier it isn’t always the element that is the cause when it is not working. Stoves have temperature switches too and wires running to a socket that the element is connected to. Test the element continuity the same way an oven element is tested first. If continuity is good the the problem can be the socket, wiring or the temperature switch.

Disconnect the breaker before starting. With both hands pull the burner element out of the socket at a slight angle. Your can attempt to clean the element connectors using an emery board, sand paper or a wire brush to see if it was a connection issue. You can also try bending the element connectors slightly to get a snugger fit in the socket.

If this fix doesn’t work replace the burner element. The next steps if this doesn’t work is to check the wiring to the socket, repace the socket or the temperature switch. If you feel this is beyond your experience and don’t feel comfortable doing the testing or replacement hire a professional appliance repair person to complete the fix.

Ordering a replacement element for your oven or stove.

Before you can order the correct part you will need the model number and serial number of the appliance. This can be found either inside the drawer under the oven or inside the oven door printed on a metal plate.

Parts can be ordered directly through the manufacturer or a 3rd party source online. Original parts will cost more then aftermarket parts but make sure you read the reviews before ordering aftermarket parts.

Double check the wattage of your appliance and the replacement part also check the size and shape of the element before ordering. It helps to take pictures of the old elements for reference.

By Peter Carr