I have an electric oven - now many years old.
I have replaced the main circular 2.5kW oven element (ELEHY6708) several times over the years.
Another failure happened just a couple of days ago.
Soon after switching on, I noticed an unusual crackling noise from the oven.
When I opened the oven door I was alarmed to see a bright orange glow and smoke coming from the rear of the oven.
Previous failures were never that spectacular - the element usually just fails open circuit at power on.
The photo below shows the state of the element after I removed it.
Part of the element appears covered in molten metal.
I suspect the insulation broke down in such a way that the internal heater wire made contact with the earthed outer sheath.
If this happened part way round the coil, then the current to ground may have been insufficient to blow the cooker fuse in the main fuse box.
Hence the element continued to pass excessive current for some time, becoming so hot that it glowed orange.
This is worrying - potentially it could have resulted in a fire.
The house was built in 1985 and still has old fashioned wire fuses and no RCB.
If it was a partial short to ground then an RCB would have cut the power.
I think it may be time to get an RCB fitted and maybe replace the original fuse box with something more up to date.
There is a hot air circulating fan in the centre of the element. That is has an over temperature limit switch bolted on to the body.
I believe these are intended to protect against thermostat failures.
The limit switch did not operate in this case - probably because I cut the power before it reached its over-temperature threshold.
Has anyone else experienced a similar element failure?
I have replaced the main circular 2.5kW oven element (ELEHY6708) several times over the years.
Another failure happened just a couple of days ago.
Soon after switching on, I noticed an unusual crackling noise from the oven.
When I opened the oven door I was alarmed to see a bright orange glow and smoke coming from the rear of the oven.
Previous failures were never that spectacular - the element usually just fails open circuit at power on.
The photo below shows the state of the element after I removed it.
Part of the element appears covered in molten metal.
I suspect the insulation broke down in such a way that the internal heater wire made contact with the earthed outer sheath.
If this happened part way round the coil, then the current to ground may have been insufficient to blow the cooker fuse in the main fuse box.
Hence the element continued to pass excessive current for some time, becoming so hot that it glowed orange.
This is worrying - potentially it could have resulted in a fire.
The house was built in 1985 and still has old fashioned wire fuses and no RCB.
If it was a partial short to ground then an RCB would have cut the power.
I think it may be time to get an RCB fitted and maybe replace the original fuse box with something more up to date.
There is a hot air circulating fan in the centre of the element. That is has an over temperature limit switch bolted on to the body.
I believe these are intended to protect against thermostat failures.
The limit switch did not operate in this case - probably because I cut the power before it reached its over-temperature threshold.
Has anyone else experienced a similar element failure?
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