Broiler trips circuit?

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ritelec

ritelec

Senior Member
Location
Jersey
Hello.
I have a thought but but would like to ask.

Home owner called.

Stove (gas) is on with kitchen lighting, dw, and tv.........

(dw not on... lights and tv on) the breaker trips when using the broiler in the stove, after about 3 minutes. happened about 3 times..

thoughts?


Thanks
 
hbiss said:
Did you measure the current on that circuit at the breaker? Just saying that the breaker trips leaves out a lot of information.

-Hal
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lol.ok sorry ... thats all the info I got over the phone...

Everything on the circuit works, even the stove top.

Everything works and theres no problems in the circuit until she uses the broiler...

I'm guessing it's in the stove..3 or 5 minutes of broiler on. heats up... shorts...... just a guess..

???
 
Gas appliances long ago did away with "pilot lights" in favor of on-demand igniters. They generally have a "hot surface" plate that glows red hot, or it has a little capacitive circuit that builds up a charge and jumps a spark gap. The igniter on their broiler is likely bad and needs to be replaced.

Here's a video about replacing one that is NOT working correctly. Your problem is more likely that it has a short in it and is not turning OFF when it should. But the video give you an idea of how the hot surface version works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpyliqjjX0M
 
Jraef said:
Gas appliances long ago did away with "pilot lights" in favor of on-demand igniters. They generally have a "hot surface" plate that glows red hot, or it has a little capacitive circuit that builds up a charge and jumps a spark gap. The igniter on their broiler is likely bad and needs to be replaced.

Here's a video about replacing one that is NOT working correctly. Your problem is more likely that it has a short in it and is not turning OFF when it should. But the video give you an idea of how the hot surface version works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpyliqjjX0M
Click to expand...



Thank you
 
See the big black words, do that.
Service call day before Thanksgiving on a warranty gfci not working, drive 40 minutes one way; here's grandma and the guys wife making dressing. I unplug the mixer manufactured in 1892 that draws? and the new mixer. They had been resetting the gfi recept. for two days and now it wouldn't reset. The plug was melted.

Without going there you haven no idea what is on that circuit and might be removed from it by he time you get there. Like the time a kid pluged a radio in he found in the trash, I found it by the black burn marks on the wall in his room covered with a pile of dirty clothes. His mother "oh that, but that's in a different room" !
 
Yes you're right................ it maybe something else. I called her back to confirm and she says everything is good, even the stove top burners and oven..... broiler goes on....5 minutes later breaker trips..
I agreet, could be something else.

Thank you
 
ritelec said:
Yes you're right................ it maybe something else. I called her back to confirm and she says everything is good, even the stove top burners and oven..... broiler goes on....5 minutes later breaker trips..
I agreet, could be something else.

Thank you
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If her description is accurate, see post #6.
 
retirede said:
If her description is accurate, see post #6.
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:thumbsup:
The glo-bar igniters that I have seen are all line voltage AC powered, and have a "Calrod (TM)" type heating element with a powder-insulated resistance wire inside a grounded metal casing. Likely when the customer's unit gets hot the internal element shorts to the case, causing a high enough fault current to trip a conventional breaker.

FWIW, in most applications that I have seen the igniter physically heats a sensing element that opens the gas valve and the thermostat (if any) interrupts power to the igniter which then allows the heat sensor to turn off the gas valve. (The igniter is located where the heat from the gas flame will NOT by itself keep the valve open.)
 
Glowing type igniter shouldn't need to run for five minutes...so question may be does the broiler actually operate or is it still attempting to start when the breaker trips?
 
kwired said:
Glowing type igniter shouldn't need to run for five minutes...so question may be does the broiler actually operate or is it still attempting to start when the breaker trips?
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As I noted in my earlier post, in some ovens and broilers the glow igniter must remain on in order to keep the gas valve open. It is an annoying inefficiency, since the heaters are often 15 watts or more. My old Viking range used two glow bars for the oven, and they cycled on and off to control the gas valves. The broiler only used one glow bar (not interchangeable!)
 
GoldDigger said:
As I noted in my earlier post, in some ovens and broilers the glow igniter must remain on in order to keep the gas valve open. It is an annoying inefficiency, since the heaters are often 15 watts or more.
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But the glow igniter helps heat the oven, so the 15 watts is put to good use. It just means the oven heat source is 99% gas, 1% electric. :)

Cheers, Wayne
 
wwhitney said:
But the glow igniter helps heat the oven, so the 15 watts is put to good use. It just means the oven heat source is 99% gas, 1% electric. :)

Cheers, Wayne
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It is put to good use, yes, but the energy cost of that 15 watts is far higher than the cost of the same energy from piped natural gas.
 
GoldDigger said:
It is put to good use, yes, but the energy cost of that 15 watts is far higher than the cost of the same energy from piped natural gas.
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Well there are a few places where it might be closer to price of gas. Here it may be reasonably competitive with gas during winter months, probably still higher right now though. About 10 years ago gas was high enough that electric heating was lower cost, or near same anyway.
 
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