GE electric burner blues

[moderncleveland]

Hey guys,

We've been having a little issue with our 50s GE electric range. It seems pretty minor, but it's driving me batty!

A few years ago we were advised to change all our burners. We still had the original burners, one of them had gone out but the others were still in decent shape. But we had these brand new replacements put in.

They've been working fine, until recently ... one of the small ones has gotten a mind of its own! The burner part dislodged from the frame, and it pops up all the time. No matter how we try to put it down, it just flops back up. It's driving us mad! It's at the point now where I'm even afraid to clean the rim, as you can see, because I don't want to make it pop up! We can kind of coax it back into place, and of course when we use the range we wear kid gloves and are very careful, but sometimes even the heat is enough to make it pop up. We don't want to be rough on it and we don't want to do anything that's going to hurt it or shorten its life. So, is this anything to worry about? Can anything be done?

 

[rp2813]

Is there any sort of retainer component that's missing from the burner assembly or the trim ring when compared to the three others?  Could you try one of the old burners that you removed (assuming it matches) to see if it behaves better?

 

[moderncleveland]

No, there's no retainer component. It's just a metal frame, and the burner rests inside it. It really looks like the old ones.

I did save the old burners, so if it comes to it I could have someone put one of the old ones back. I like having a complete matching set. Aside from having to clean and polish the silver edge of this one, and the burner bounce problem, this new set is working very well.

 

[ea56]

Try adjusting the receptacle that the burner plugs into by gently pushing it down. Sometimes when people lift the elements to clean the drip pans they lift them too high and it makes the receptacle move up too, then when the element is lowered back into place the higher receptacle keeps the element from lying flat in the drip pan frame.

To prevent this in the future only lift the elements no higher than 1” and pull the element out, complete the cleaning and then plug the element back in at the same 1” or lower height from the drip pan. Also, if there is a little indentation in the drip pan ring make sure that the element kind of snugs up to that indentation by gently pulling it a fraction of an inch into place so the element snaps into the indentation.

HTH,
Eddie

 

[rp2813]

Good advice Eddie.  I wasn't sure if it would apply to vintage GE stoves. 

 

This is exactly the problem I found with a couple of burners on my friend's ~20 year old Frigidaire cook top.  Between trading burner elements (I can only speculate on why that helped) and nudging the receptacles, I got all but one of them to fit properly and not rattle so much.  The one outlier is hopeless.  It refuses to rest in the ring groove at the opposite end from the receptacle no matter what I try, but with the weight of a pot of something on it, will level out.

 

Also, I don't know why it would require a professional to R&R burners on the GE.  Even on my mom's '49 Westinghouse all it required was a screwdriver.  It became even easier in the years after that stove rolled off the line.

 

[moderncleveland]

Thanks for the tips, Eddie! These had screws to keep them in place, and when they were installed the screws were removed so that we could lift the burners all the way out when cleaning. It seems like that might not be the ideal way to do it, after all, and it might be better to keep the receptacle adjusted and pushed down. I'm going to check on this and will report back!

 

[ea56]

Also when the element is in the down position in the drip pan if front of the burner is rising up try pressing the front of the element down while at the same time grabbing onto the back end of the element and pulling up gently. This will sometimes be effective in getting the element to sit level and flat.

The main cause of electric stove elements getting out of whack like yours are is lifting the element beyond 1” from the surface of the drip pan when removing them. This will cause the plug in receptacle to also rise and then when you plug the element back in it will rise up at the front and not sit flat. When I had my last coil top electric stove this always worked for me. In fact, since I was always careful to never lift the elements higher than 1” when removing or replacing them my burners were always level and flat in the drip pans.

Your old burners didn’t do this because the receptacle set up was different, when your elements were switched out to the newer style the plug in receptacles must have also been switched the newer style too.

Marie, you said that the screws were removed when installing the new receptacle plugs. If you still have the screws try reinstalling them so the plug in receptacles are held in place more firmly. And you are most welcome! I’m always happy when I can share what my experiences have taught me.

Eddie

 

[combo52]

Vintage GE electric calrod elements

Hi Marie,

The element in your picture is badly warped and needs to be replaced. It’s very important for surface elements. Like this to be never run red hot it ruins, the elements they’re not designed to run red hot for more than a few moments if ever.

It’s very important that this type of element be screwed to the cooktop or have a separate ground wire. They’re not safe to use if they’re not grounded.

These are not plug-in elements, they need to be screwed to the cooktop and there’s a little hinge that’s part of them if you use the correct elements if you don’t have the correct elements that actually screw to the cooktop, you should put the originals back in.

Contact Bob if you need help with this, he would be able to fix it easily ,

John

 

[moderncleveland]

Concerned about running Red Hot

John,

Thanks so much for the additional info. This is new to us about the running red hot. Does that mean you should never turn them on High? If so, this is going to be a major, major change for us. Our cooking style is to usually put a burner on High for a minute or two to let it get hot, and then turn it down to the desired temp. And for things like boiling water for pasta, making tea water, or sauteeing, we keep it on High for most of the duration. Are you saying that that's a no-no? If so, wow, we've not only been doing it wrong but we've got learn a whole new style of cooking!

When these were installed, the screws were omitted to give us more flexibility in lifting the elements for cleaning. But from what you and Eddie say, it sounds like this is in fact wrong. Bob installed these and I think we have to talk to him about what we need to do (and replacing this warped burner). It's funny because the two small burners behave differently, and we think it's because how they're wired. The front small one never gets red hot, and it's better for steaming and very light warming up. This back burner got red hot immediately, and it was the one we used when we had small pots that needed high heat.

Here's a photo of one of the burners being lifted out because they're not screwed in. And also a pic of our new setup with the "new" matching GE turquoise fridge!

Btw, Bob mentions your visits from time to time. Next time you're out, if you want to come over and see all our vintage stuff, let Bob know!

 

[rp2813]

Marie, I never knew this either until John mentioned it. 

 

I think John will agree with me that it's fine to use the HIGH setting, as long as you have a pot or pan with contents in it on the burner.  Turning a burner to HIGH with nothing on it will allow the coil to light up solid red, but with a pot or pan on it, the heat transfer action keeps the element from glowing a bright red.  You'll notice this while cooking or boiling if you have a pot or pan on a burner set to high and lift it off of it.  Usually the element will only be a more faint red on certain coils while others are dark, or some variation of that. 

 

My mom's '49 Westinghouse served her for 60 years before she went into skilled nursing.  The stove's only 8" burner at left front saw a lot of use, and over those decades literally thousands of pots of water for pasta were boiled with that burner cranked up to HIGH, and it never failed.  Only one of the 6" elements ever needed to be replaced due to the outer coil failing, and I replaced it with one of three that I had snagged off of an old Westinghouse stove that was going to be scrapped.

 

If you're testing an element for proper function, then it's OK to let it light up red, but only long enough to confirm all coils are working.

 

[ea56]

Marie,
From the looks of photo number 2 it appears that your burners were replaced with new “original style” elements like what would have come with your stove top when it was first sold. The info that I gave you was based upon my understanding that the burners had been replaced with the newer style GE elements that have been installed in GE electric stoves for well over 25 years now. Your large burner appears to be attached to the trim ring. In the newer style GE electric stoves there is an actual plug in receptacle allows the user to unplug the element from the stove to facilitate cleaning, and the trim ring is part of the drip pan, which the element snaps into. As I said in my first post when people lift the elements over 1” when removing the elements they can cause the plug in receptacle to move out of place and then the burner doesn’t sit flat in the drip pan like it should.

Without actually seeing your stove top up close I can’t say for certain why your elements aren’t sitting flat in the trim ring.

As far as using high heat on an electric stove I’ve been cooking on electric stoves since I was 11 years old and I’m 72 now and I’ve never had a warped element yet. BUT I only use high to boil water or to bring other liquids like soup, spaghetti sauce and the like to a boil, then I reduce the heat if the food being cooked needs further cooking. For instance if I’m boiling water in the tea kettle once it boils I turn the heat off. But if I’m boiling water for say pasta, once it comes to a boil I reduce the heat to med hi or med, or 6-7 on my GE electric stove to maintain the boil without boiling over.

When cooking meat for instance I know I’m going to cook it on med-hi to med, so I set the control to the setting I plan to cook the meat at (5-6 on my stove), place the pan in the burner and let the pan heat for approx. 4-5 mins. I hold the palm of my hand about 3-4” above the pan and when I can feel the heat really radiating from the pan I put the meat into the pan and proceed with the cooking process.

I hope that Bob, the guy that replaced your burners can take a look at your stove top for you. I imagine that he will be able to rectify the problem of your elements not sitting flat in the trim rings.

BTW , your GE stovetop and wall oven look like the same ones that my maternal grandma had in her kitchen when I was a little boy. Their home was built in 1955 and had an all GE electric kitchen in turquoise. They even had a washer/dryer combo right next to the slide in DW. The washer/dryer combo was fraught with problems and the builder replaced these in all the homes built in the track development with new GE Filter Flow washers and matching dryers. GE came and took the “guts” out of these combos and left the doors in place. This used to fascinate me whenever I visited their home.

Eddie

 

[moderncleveland]

Ralph, that's fascinating about the High setting...and it explains why sometimes we put it on High and then lift the pot or pan to see how it's working, and are dismayed to see that the coils aren't all bright red! So that means the heat transfer is doing good ... wow, this is all so new to me. We never put it on High (or any other setting for that matter) without some kind of pot or pan on it.

Eddie, these are indeed new elements. They're made in China, and are different from the old GE originals that we used to have. That said, these have worked very well for us in the years that we've had them in. It's just that this back one has gotten warped.

We do the same thing when boilding stuff ... as soon as it starts to boil, we bring it down from High to the next lower level. Interesting how we have certain habits for our appliances. Like for years when we had our old 50s GE Combination fridge in the kitchen, our habit was to stop and think about exactly what we needed to pull from it before we opened it ... and then as soon as we opened the door, we whipped everything out like some kind of Navy SEAL rescue mission ... it was our habit to make sure we didn't have the door held open very long. Now with our newer GE fridge in the kitchen, it's frost free so we technically can keep the door open longer without worry, but old habits die hard!

We just put in a call to Bob and hope he can work his magic soon. He's a veritable encylcopedia of appliance info and has helped us over the years with many of our special pieces.

Nice story about your grandma's house. Do you have any photos? This neighborhood was built in '57 and was also outfitted completely with GE stuff. The kitchen options were turquoise, yellow, or pink. Some of them had dishwashers. They also had Nutone clocks and Edison Electric fans. I don't think they came with washers or dryers but I haven't been able to verify, and we've reached the point now where almost all of the original owners have passed away. I'm going to do some research on this and see if I can find out. We had 60's Maytags here for years, and upgraded to 70s Lady Kenmores, which is my husband's dream system.

 

[ea56]

Hi Marie,
Yes, I knew your elements were new, but I thought that they are the “new style” just used to replace the original “old style” elements. I originally thought that Bob had retrofitted your GE stove top to accept the newer style plugin elements. Sorry for the confusion.

To answer your question, no unfortunately I don’t have any photos of Grandma’s all electric GE kitchen. However, I do remember when the home was being built going into the model homes for the development. They also offered the built in cabinet GE refrigerators and freezers too. My grandparents didn’t choose that option, much to my chagrin.

I think some of the problem with the washer/dryer combos was that most of these new homeowners had probably never even had an automatic washer before, let alone a combo and the cycle times probably seemed endlessly long to those women that were used to Monday as wash day and slamming out a weeks worth of laundry in 60 to 90 mins, then line drying it. The capacity of those early combos was fairly small so what used to take 1.5 hrs of concentrated effort now spread washday into a whole day affair. I know my Grandma had a wringer washer before moving to this Jetson’s like new fangled home.

Eddie[this post was last edited: 3/6/2023-18:41]