Our oven took the new year off!
Yup the oven stopped working. We have a GE XL44 model # blah blah (its upstairs and I am too lazy to go look). So thats the bad news. Good news is I can save myself the repair bill/service call and avoid buying a new one by fixing it myself. Especially after my sticker shock when I priced new ovens! Wow! I didn’t realize middle of the road stoves were $2,000 and up! OUCH! I’ve never bought a stove as this one came with the house so I figured they were about $800 or $900. Suddenly taking the stove apart didn’t seem like such a daunting undertaking.
I found this great site full of information about how pilot lights work and basic trouble shooting Q&A. http://www.appliance411.com/ There was information on there from where to find your model number to how different types of ignitors work http://www.appliance411.com/links/jump.cgi?ID=823. Its a well put together site and for a do-it-yourselfer its a great bookmark to add. They even have part diagrams!
I figured out my ingitor went bad by testing continuity with my voltmeter, turns out its shot (there is no continuity at all). I verified that this was an incorrect indication by testing the good ignitor in the top of the over (yes they are the same) which indicated 70 ohms of resistance. So I’m off to our local parts store tomorrow to get a new one. I always try to deal with local guys instead of mail order, especially when you are only talking a couple bucks difference in price and there is no shipping.
I’ll post an update on the repair when its complete.
