Oven Heating Element Failure

Sometime during the life of a range or wall oven a failure of the oven Bake or Broil elements could occur.  When an element fails it will usually "open" the electrical circuit and no further heating will take place. When this happens, the element simply appears to have stopped working.In some rare instances the element will "short-out" against the sheath which is the outer visible part of the surface unit. This will cause the sheath to rupture and sparks may occur for a few seconds. At this point, one of two situations may result:

• The household fuses or circuit breakers may "blow" or trip.
• The surface unit will stop working. The sparking ceases after a few seconds. There may also be a "burning plastic" odor at this time.
• We recommend that you not use the oven if the bake or broil element fails. Failure of one or both oven elements will not affect the surface burners. You may continue using these burners as needed.

No danger exists, even though service may now be required. For service, please schedule an appointment with GE Appliances Factory Service.