Our 2 yr old over, with all-electronic controls, just got fried from a pair of twin power outages in one night. First, is it possible for only the oven to be affected? And, is it possible for an electrician to wire the oven’s circuit through some kind of surge protector to prevent this from happening again? An almost brand new oven (and stove) is shot to hell! It’ll cost just as much to fix as to replace! :eek:
There are different types of ovens. It may seem a bit backwards, but the simpler and cheaper they are the more likely they are to survive a power surge. Fancy shmancy microprocessor controls are much more delicate than simple knob style controls.
Heating elements are pretty rugged. Chances are there was a surge or a spike when the power went out and this caused the oven’s controls to be damaged. Often the controls are all on a single circuit board that has to be replaced as a unit, which is pretty much in the “bend over and squeal like a piggy” price range (especially when you factor in the repairman’s time, which ain’t cheap).
You can get whole house surge protectors, but they aren’t cheap. They will help to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future, but remember, all protective circuits do have their limits. They don’t make anything that can withstand a very close lightning strike.
You should be able to get a whole-house surge suppressor installed (on your main circuit breaker box) for no more than $300. (You can buy one yourself for less, but I’d recommend you have an electrician install.)
The next big surge may burn it out (that’s right, depending on what exactly happens, it may offer only one time protection; there should be an indicator light to tell you if this has happened) but it may save not only your plugged-in appliances but components of the house wiring as well.
From my point of view it’s a no-brainer. Any surge big enough to burn out the suppressor is almost guaranteed to do more than $300 damage to stuff in your house.
The odd thing is that other small appliances (all lacking surge protection) were unaffected, like the microwave.
Mike Holmes says they run about $500 in Canadian dollars.
Several years ago a lightning strike on a power pole at the far end of the street found ground through a couple of homes down the line in a basically random fashion. One was my parents home. When it entered the home the randomness continued, blowing out (literally) a few light bulbs and a TV. The frig, stove, other TVs, radios, stereos and everything plugged in were unaffected.
A home surge protector at the main panel is the way to go.
I haven’t priced them lately, but that’s about the price range I was expecting.
It may be a surge. Or it may be a manufacturing defect. Nobody can say if an autopsy is not done.
Meanwhile, appreciate how surges work. Nothing stops a surge. Either a ‘whole house’ protector earths that energy. Or that energy is inside the building hunting for earth destructively via appliances. Which appliance(s) most likely suffers damage? Which appliance makes the better connection to earth.
For example, your stove acted as a defective surge protector to protect the microwave.
Install one ‘whole house’ protector so that even direct lightning strikes to AC electric wires cause no damage. Lightning strikes are typically 20,000 amps. So a minimal ‘whole house’ protector (costing about $1 per protected appliance) is sized for at least 50,000 amps. Numerous manufacturers including General Electric, Siemens, Intermatic, and Leviton provide them. A Cutler-Hammer version has been seen in both Lowes and Home Depot for less than $60.
But this is most important. No protector - not even a ‘whole house’ type - does protection. The ‘whole house’ protector is effective because it makes a less than 3 meter connection to single point earth ground. If you want protection, the ‘whole house’ protector is only as effective as its earth ground. Upgrade earthing so that it is also connected as short as possible to the ‘whole house’ protector.