# Why do electric stove coils stop working? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 8, 2003, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-electric-stove-coils-stop-working/200404 "2003-09-08T23:03:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Emilio\_Lizardo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Emilio\_Lizardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emilio_Lizardo)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-electric-stove-coils-stop-working/200404/1 "2003-09-08T23:03:54Z")
Yesterday one of the “burners” on my electric stove stopped working. My meter shows that there is current flowing to the receptacle, and a different coil plugged into that location works. The coil reads about 35 ohms resistance, the same as a working one. What the hell is going on? I sandpapered the contacts, and it’s a pretty simple mechanism; I can’t figure out what _could_ go wrong. Any ideas, or do I need to break out my trusty Sawzall? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-electric-stove-coils-stop-working/200404/2 "2003-09-08T23:18:52Z")
You probably need a new coil. The burn out from time to time. ---
**Author:** ![Emilio\_Lizardo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Emilio\_Lizardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emilio_Lizardo)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-electric-stove-coils-stop-working/200404/3 "2003-09-08T23:47:58Z")
That’s good to know. I guess what I’m trying to understand on a more fundamental level is what it means for the coil to be “burnt out.” It still conducts electricity; why does it not get hot when current is applied to it? ---
**Author:** ![buckgully](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb9ed0/32.png) [@buckgully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buckgully)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-electric-stove-coils-stop-working/200404/4 "2003-09-09T00:22:58Z")
That’s kind of odd - I just checked the element on my trusty ol’ college hotplate with a 4 wire HP multimeter, and got a hair under 38 ohms. The coil is pretty simple - if I remember correctly, it’s basically just a wire coated with a ceramic insulator. The wire gets hot under load, and the ceramic insulator conducts the heat but not the electricity. If it’s not heating up, then there shouldn’t be any sort of connection through there, and there should not have been a useful ohms reading. I wonder if the internal wire has a hairline break in it somewhere so that when cold there’s enough contact to make it look OK, but then as it heats up a few degrees it disconnects. Does it get any warmer at all? That’s all I’ve got.