Frigidaire RM45 burners offline -- no good deed goes unpunished.

[w_higgins]

Hello everyone,

The burners on my RM45 worked about 50/50 between functions. Enough to get by, but a hassle when bigger meals were being prepped. The most troublesome burner I had diagnosed as a bad switch and awhile back I obtained a NOS switch and installed it today. When I finished, now none of my burners are working. The oven still works, but not the cooktop. I'm thinking I have knocked something loose when I unbolted the top but I cannot figure out what it is. When I cycle the burners through their functions, the indicator light comes on for some but not for others, and not the same for each burner, but none of them warm up.

Is there something obvious I should check before I go digging back into it again? Right now I'm really wishing I had not worked on the thing today!

Also, I would be interested in knowing if there is a competent repairman for these for hire in the Harrisburg, PA / Baltimore, MD area (I'm in Gettysburg, PA).

-Walter

 

[combo52]

Hi Walter, something got knocked loose or you lost one side of the line which is why the indicator lights still work.

Hopefully it’s not that hard to find I could work on the stove but you would have to bring it to Beltsville Maryland to our shop.

John.

 

[w_higgins]

Hi John,

Thanks for the quick follow-up. I'll get my meter out and start working my way back from the plug.

You're only 1-1/2 hours away. I would not object to bringing it to your shop (I'll need to source a substitute unit while it's out) in the future to get some other nuisance issues addressed. I'd like to get it fully functional again.

Is the email address in your profile good for contacting you direct?

 

[w_higgins]

John, you were exactly right. I lost one side of line. This time I got things more apart for access and fed the stiff wires from the back of the unit into the area above the oven so I could fish the switch panel around better (the switch I replaced yesterday was on the far left, so I didn't have to have the panel entirely out and turned).

The incoming line voltage that goes to the center screw on the back of the switch on the far right, and then feeds all the other switches with a jumper, had popped off. The jumper was also too short to get a good bite when reconnecting, so I neatened everything up and made a new solid wire jumper of the same diameter and everything is back to working as it was.

Unfortunately, I guess my diagnosis of the switch on the far left needing replacement was incorrect because that element is back to only working on the same functions.

It looks like you're ALCO Appliance? When I can get the logistics sorted out on this end, I'll be in touch about bringing the whole stove down to you.

 

[combo52]

Glad you found the problem,

In most cases, when you lose some heat settings on these older non-infinite control, heating elements, you’ve lost one of the two heating elements inside the radiant tube element.

The other very common thing is a broken wire near the element, where it flexes when you clean the stove,

John

 

[w_higgins]

Thanks for the tips. I'll check the element connections more carefully. I've had to fix some in the past. I have a spare 6" element to switch out with the least functional one and am curious to see if that changes things.