Electric Oven very slow to heat up (furnace, pool, heating)
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Hi all, we have a seven-year-old electric oven. About two or three years ago we replaced the main heating element. my wife used the oven several times today to bake various things, and it worked, but tonight the oven seem to not want to heat up at all, so I turned the breaker off for about a minute, hopefully to reset the electronics, and then at least the electronics seem to work OK now, but it took like 40 minutes for the oven to heat up to 400°. Normally the oven would get to the correct temperature within about 10 or 15 minutes. Later we tried to see if it was working better, and it had cooled to 235 degrees. We turned the oven on to try to heat it up to 400°, and after 40 minutes it was only up to about 350.
My wife suggested we replace the heating element again, but I am worried that there’s something wrong with the oven that it’s making the heating elements crap out too early. I suggested we get a New oven. What do you all think?
Of course, if we get a New oven, my wife wants to convert to natural gas! We already have natural gas for the furnace, but if it’s not one thing, it’s another!
When that happened to me one of the wires coming out of the breaker was loose so it was trying to run on 110 volts. I'd start there because it's just a matter of tightening the screw.
Well, I wouldn't just randomly start twisting screws on live power; but I WOULD put a voltmeter on the 230V circuit. I have a suspicion something's wrong with the power to the unit.
Your wife needs to know two things about gas ovens: 1) They don't work any better than electric (in distinction to stove-top burners); 2) You'll need to consult with a gas-certified plumber before making any commitments because even if there's a gas line nearby, it's likely to be insufficient in size. Burners and ovens take a LOT of gas and need BIG gas lines. I ended up replacing an electric stovetop with another electric stovetop, in a house equipped with gas, just because of the cost of replacing/upsizing the gas line that would have had to run from the meter in the front of the house, to the kitchen at the back.
I think it was the same issue I faced a few days ago. It is due to its part called Megatron. I have changed the part from a local mechanic and its working fine now.
I think it was the same issue I faced a few days ago. It is due to its part called Megatron. I have changed the part from a local mechanic and its working fine now.
“Megatron”???
I thought that was a Transformer character!
A “magnetron” is a device that’s part of a MICROWAVE OVEN- the OP is talking about a conventional electric oven that uses two heating “elements” to produce heat!
OP here, I just turned on the broiler in the oven, which is the heating element at the top/ceiling of the oven. And that became completely orange within about a minute and a half, so that is working correctly.
We replaced the oven heating element in November 2020. And it was a Maytag brand heating element.
Yeah, Whirlpool, Maytag, Hoover, and some others are all part of the same company.
That said, I think you've got a problem with your electric supply to the oven and I'd suggest contacting an electrician. There's pretty much nothing to an electric oven: you've got a lower element for baking, an upper element for broiling, a thermostat for the baking part, and some rather basic controls. It's very likely, in my opinion, related to what duster1979 was describing.
To be detailed, the heating bit will run off 230V and the controls off 115V. The way this works is that you've got three wires, and from either hot wire to neutral is 115V and from hot to hot is 230V because they're 180 degrees out of phase. Now if you lose the 230V leg that's NOT the one used for the low voltage controls, the controls will act normally, and the elements will try to heat up, but they'll only have 115V across the same resistance when they should have 230V; and you'll have very poor heating performance even though everything else appears normal. Unless you have a bunch of circuits dead through the house, that missing leg is probably only on the oven circuit. In other words, from the breaker box to the oven, somewhere. Could be a loose connection, could possibly be something else. Weird stuff sometimes happens.
How about the burners? Are they electric too? Are they working normally? Are they on the same circuit? Is this an oven that's separate from the cooktop, or a unified range?
OP here, I just turned on the broiler in the oven, which is the heating element at the top/ceiling of the oven. And that became completely orange within about a minute and a half, so that is working correctly.
We replaced the oven heating element in November 2020. And it was a Maytag brand heating element.
OK, if the broiler element's working properly and the baking element's not, then you've probably only got 230V to part of the circuits in the machine. There are several ways this could happen. Maybe the first thing to do would be to pull the baking element, make sure the connections are good and clean and tight (depending on how the connections are made), and reinstall. But I still suspect you've lost one leg of the 230V in there. Could be a problem in the contacts of the thermostat (I guess there's a relay? Or is full current passed through the tstat? I don't know the details of the baking controls on a new oven.) Belay the electrician suggestion, you just showed at least that the problem's in the appliance.
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