DIYbanter - Help needed with kitchen electrical issue

Triaxis wrote:
Howdy,

A couple of weeks ago I put a steak in the oven to broil,
everything was going along great until I put a pot on to boil some
water and the coil started arcing like an arc welder on auto-pilot.

I got a nice fireworks display for about 10 seconds before it stopped
on it's own, At that point, none of the other oven functions would
work yet the 50amp breaker in the cellar wasn't off, Thinking that
the old thing was just hosed beyond repair, I got myself a nifty new
oven with the radiant glass top. Very nice. However, I'm still
seeing the same issues. I can get an LED if I turn on a burner but
otherwise, nothing. I did replace the power chord (pigtail) so that's
not the issue. You can't tell by looking at the circuit breaker that
it's bad, but again, it was never thrown off. Tripping it a couple
of times gains nothing. I don't mind that the old unit is gone and
that I spent all this money on a new oven, that just one less thing
I'll have to buy when I remodel but I need to get this one working.

I;'ve also replaced the 50amp breaker..

Anyone have any ideas what could be wrong?

Thanks,

T-
Have you checked the stove outlet with a solenoid voltage tester
(Wigginton type)? The terminal in the outlet may have failed open do to
the high current of the arcing situation causing heating. The stove
circuit is one of the few branch circuits in your home that may be
aluminum wire. If one side of the 230 - 208 branch circuit is open then
the oven will not work and the burners will not operate on high even
though some of the controls may appear to work. How many blades on the
pigtail's plug? Is it three or four? If you are comfortable working in
the panel then check the breakers terminal connections and the
connection of the white and/or bare wire to the neutral buss bar. With
the breaker off you could open the receptacle cover and check to see
that all of it's terminations are also tight.
--
Tom H