Our electric cooktop suddenly started tripping the circuit breaker. Both the cooktop and the wall oven under it were affected, but when I disconnected the cooktop, the oven worked fine.
The only internet advice I could find was to look for burnt damaged wires inside the cooktop, or areas discolored by arcing. I couldn’t see anything like that. Any ideas on the next step.
Money is tight right now, so I’m reluctant to pay a professional to diagnose things if there’s another way. (Fortunately I’ve got a new steady client lined up starting in a week or two…)
My wife has always wanted a gas cooktop, and if we end up replacing the present one, is there anything bad about gas I should know? Is venting always required? Is it a good idea? Does venting add to heating and cooling bills? Do deposits gradually build up on the walls? Does gas discolor cookware?
Gas does lend to minimal discoloring, but if you use electric long enough, your pots will end up discolored anyway.
Gas heats more evenly, more precisely and you have more precision control of the temperature. Also, it doesn’t take nearly as long to heat up. You don’t have to wait for the resistance to build and the heat to generate.
I’m not sure about the venting questions; I’ve always used it in commercial kitchens where there’s mandatory venting. I’ve never been lucky enough to have it in any apartment I’ve lived in and replacing the range in the house we’re buying isn’t a top priority (maybe when we get the tax credit next year).
If it’s a standard electrical top then pull all the heating units and try them one by one or measure the resistance to see if one of them is different than the rest. When you pull them look at the plug connectors to make sure a piece of carbon (burnt food) hasn’t dropped down and shorted out one of the elements.
No special venting is needed other than the exhaust fan you probably already have.
If you have a gas line ready and waiting behind the existing cooktop, you’re golden. If not, running a gas line can be startlingly expensive. Two months ago, we were quoted about $575 to run a line for a gas dryer, and that was going to be nothing more than a tee fitting, about 12 feet of pipe and an elbow or two. It was cheaper to buy a new electric dryer.
If you’ve got the old-style coil elements, they do have a way of shorting out internally now and then, but usually, they get lumpy and burnt at the location of the short.
TDisconnect and test your heating elements with a continuity tester. One is probably burned out. It may have also have taken the temp control unit attached to it with it.
I love my induction cooktop. It has the temperature control capabilities of gas without the expense of a gas hook-up, the smell, and the reality of open flames in the kitchen :eek: It’s more expensive to buy than either gas or traditional electric, but cheaper than having the gas line installed into the kitchen.
Only real drawback is that you can’t use every sort of pots and pans on an induction cooktop. You need to have ones with bases that a magnet will stick to. However, that doesn’t have to mean expensive. Any cast-iron pan will do nicely, and Ikea’s 365+ pans work great too.
Magiver & astro: I’ll check the heating elements per your suggestion. I’m not very electrically savvy: I’ll install wiring, outlets, and circuits but my multimeter died 15 years ago and I never really understood it. Still, I should be able use one to see if one thing is not like the other.
gotpasswords: Right now the only working vent is the “non-vented” carbon filter on the microwave above the cooktop. There is a covered-up hole in the wall a foot above the cooktop, that presumably held an exhaust fan 20 years ago.
If we go gas, I’d probably try installing all the pipe and connectors from the kitchen to within 3’ of the basement gas line, and get someone competent to do the final hook-up and inspection.
But yeah, it will involve spending money.
flodnak: Induction seems like the wave of the future, but right now the prices start around $1800. A $450 gas cooktop with installation might be half that. And if the cooktop comes from Craigslist then it’s several hundred less. (There are essentially no induction cooktops on Craigslist.)
And finally, I wanted to mention that the cooktop doesn’t have to be turned on to throw the breaker. If it’s connected the breaker trips.