QUESTION FROM Janet

What would cause a heating element of an oven to catch on fire? We had just baked a pie at 350 degrees, took it out of the oven and turned the temperature up to 425. We waited about 10 minutes. I was in the other room and heard some pounding and thought someone was banging on something in the kitchen. When I came back in the kitchen and opened the oven there was a small flame in the back of the oven so I turned the oven off. The flame went out and I saw the heating element had burned in two.

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD

Dear Janet:

It sounds like the heating element in your oven developed a short circuit, which could cause it to over-heat and catch fire. Unfortunately, this is something that can happen sometime with ovens, and another reason why everyone should keep a fire extinguisher in their kitchen.

At this point you will need to replace your heating element, of course, and you will want to inspect the terminals where the new element will plug into, to be sure there is no damage to the connectors.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com