How You Can Diagnose The Burner Of Your Electric Stove

Nothing can be quite as annoying than a stove that is not working. If your electric stove isn't heating, it may be due to a number of reasons including a faulty burner. The burner or the heating element is the metal surface that converts electrical energy to heat energy so that it can heat your food or water. Diagnosing and repairing a burner is not that hard, and you can actually do it yourself. Here are a few tips on how you can go about it. 

Try Another Burner First

At times, all that your problem needs is to test another burner on the spot of the faulty burner. If you try another burner and see that it is working just fine, you know that the problem is the burner itself and not other areas like the burner socket. But if your replacement burner isn't working either, move on to the socket.  

Test The Socket

The burner socket, or what is sometimes known as burner block or receptacle, is an electrical tool used to connect the internal wiring of the stove to the heating element. You can easily locate the receptacle under the cooktop; it is attached to the cooktop with two screws. So to gain access to the receptacle, it means that you will have to remove the element first followed by the stove lid. 

Once you have located the receptacle, check if it looks burned or charred. If so, it means that connections in the receptacle have burnt out and can no longer provide power. So you should unscrew the receptacle and replace it with a new one. You can also know that the receptacle is burnt by looking at the burner prongs; if the receptacle is burnt, the prongs will also appear burnt or charred.

Test The Power

If the burner is not receiving enough electrical power, then it will fail to convert the available power to heat energy. For a burner to work efficiently, it must be supplied with 220 volts of alternating current. Hence you must determine if the power coming from the electrical outlet is sufficient enough for heating. A digital multimeter (a device that measures current and voltage) can help you with that.

A multimeter has two leads for testing voltage: the red and the black lead. To test for voltage, insert the red lead into the right vertical slot of the outlet and the black into the left slot. Then check your readings on the multimeter screen; the required reading is 220 volts. If it is reading less, then your burner is not heating because there is a problem with the outlet. You should contact an electrician for repair or adjustments.

Corrosion and arcing are other issue that may prevent the burner from heating. If your element is showing such symptoms, the best remedy is to replace the entire element.