Steve Walker wrote:
On 26/01/2021 05:12, Paul wrote:

On a stove, the stove-top elements run from 115V, the oven
element (bottom) or broiler element (top) run from 230V.
The four pin 30A connector gives access to all three wires
above, plus I presume the fourth pin is green safety ground.

What power rating are these? Is that the right way around? the stove-top
elements are usually higher powered than the ovens, so I'd have expected
them to be on 230V.

Our stove-top (actually a separate induction hob) elements (4 elements)
total a maximum of 9.7kW, so can pull 40A at 240V. Okay there is
diversity, but not immediately if on the odd occasion that you power up
all four at once and all are heating up.

Even using just the two largest elements (3.7kw and 2.8kw on boost -
common when starting with two cold pans) can take 27A. And it would not
be unusual to be boiling a pan of water on a third (2.8kw - unboosted)
element.

On the North American 230/115V system, stove-top elements
run at power levels of 750W or 1500W. The stove might have two
large diameter Calrod elements as the 1500W ones, and
two smaller Calrod elements as 750W. You can boil eggs
in the morning on the small ones, and operate a pressure
cooker on the 1500W ones.

I don't know off hand, what power the oven elements run at.

If everything is switched on, on the stove, including the
drawer heater, it might have totaled around 11kW (I think
there was a "name plate rating" in the fuse panel in the back).
I'd had to work on that stove quite a few times, repairing wires to
stove-top elements, until it got to the point the wire
had run out of slack. I only took enough wire off each time
to make the repair, and didn't waste the stuff, because I
knew some day, I'd run out of wire. When the operator cleans
under the element by flipping it up, that puts bending
stress on the wire.

The oven elements were an ambitious design. The body of the
connectors in the oven, was ceramic, and there were some
generous contacts for the matching "fingers" on the stove
elements. But eventually, something had had enough in there,
and kinda burned up, and the electrician, rather than
fitting new connectors, just found a way of wiring the
element permanently. Since the element doesn't move, and
you can sort of clean around it (when it cools off), the
idea of removing the connector from the picture wasn't
so bad.

A lot of people would replace old kit like that, at the
drop of a hat, but when you're used to all the quirks,
you stick with what you're familiar with. Just as you
have recipes marked "30 minutes at gas mark 4",
that stove is also calibrated and the settings recorded
in the big recipe book. If you took out the hardware,
all that calibration would be lost :-/

Paul