My electric oven was working fine all the while from purchased 2 years ago. I have been using it weekly for about a year, but stopped using for a year now since then.
When I turn it on again yesterday, the tripped the circuit breaker and whole house no power supply. I reset the circuit breaker, and retried. Same thing happened.
This is what happened:
- Turned on the oven power supply, set temperature to 200c, everything worked for a few minutes, then the power tripped. Oven was warmed/hot.
- Reset circuit breaker, retried, same thing happened.
I googled and found out that this is very common for electric oven - when left with not using for a long time, moisture sipped into the heating element. And when power on, it caused earth leakage and tripped the circuit breaker. This is especially common in humid tropical countries.
Among the recommended fixes - set the temperature to min. and let it run for few minutes, then up the temperature and repeat the process till to reaches max temperature without tripping. I tried this but it tripped at min temperature within minutes.
Another one is the disconnect the earth wire from the wall plug. Run it for an hour or so to dry out the elements. I fell this is too dangerous so did not try this.
Last recommendation is to remove the elements. Put it into another heated oven/stove, or use hair drier to heat it up to dry out the moisture.
I have now taken out the elements preparing to do this.
My questions:
1) Using DMM in continuity mode - the terminals measure around 48-52 Ohms. Terminal to metal loop measured 0L. But in resistance mode, it measure ~3M Ohms.
Is this normal ?
2) How to check to confirm the element is causing the power trip?
3) To simulate the heated element leakage, can I use a laptop adapter as power source and wire a light bulb to see if it lights up?
Thank you.
When I turn it on again yesterday, the tripped the circuit breaker and whole house no power supply. I reset the circuit breaker, and retried. Same thing happened.
This is what happened:
- Turned on the oven power supply, set temperature to 200c, everything worked for a few minutes, then the power tripped. Oven was warmed/hot.
- Reset circuit breaker, retried, same thing happened.
I googled and found out that this is very common for electric oven - when left with not using for a long time, moisture sipped into the heating element. And when power on, it caused earth leakage and tripped the circuit breaker. This is especially common in humid tropical countries.
Among the recommended fixes - set the temperature to min. and let it run for few minutes, then up the temperature and repeat the process till to reaches max temperature without tripping. I tried this but it tripped at min temperature within minutes.
Another one is the disconnect the earth wire from the wall plug. Run it for an hour or so to dry out the elements. I fell this is too dangerous so did not try this.
Last recommendation is to remove the elements. Put it into another heated oven/stove, or use hair drier to heat it up to dry out the moisture.
I have now taken out the elements preparing to do this.
My questions:
1) Using DMM in continuity mode - the terminals measure around 48-52 Ohms. Terminal to metal loop measured 0L. But in resistance mode, it measure ~3M Ohms.
Is this normal ?
2) How to check to confirm the element is causing the power trip?
3) To simulate the heated element leakage, can I use a laptop adapter as power source and wire a light bulb to see if it lights up?
Thank you.
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