can someone help with an electrical problem?

[Syrinx]

My electric range stopped working the other day. Well, the 110 stuff (lights, clock, etc.) still works, but the oven nor the stove-top burners will get hot.

Today I found time to do a little investigating. There's a problem with the 3-wire, 240 receptacle, or maybe somewhere up-line from there.

If I measure voltage by sticking one multimeter lead in either of the "hot" slots, and the other lead in the "neutral" slot, I get 125 volts, a little high, but okay.

But if I measure across both the hot slots, I get nothing. I would expect to get somewhere in the 240-250 volt range.

It just doesn't seem to make any sense at all, but I'm far from an expert on this stuff.

Anyone got a clue?

Thanks!

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

1. Have you checked out your circuit panel or fuse box?

by your description you may have one side of the circuit breaker partially thrown . Go to your panel box and cycle your breaker. If you have the old fuse box, look at the fuses.Have you had any wind storms lately? Does your house power lines ,the lines that come into the house from the city pole pass threw a tree? And are there any other places in the house where power is not coming threw as it should?

Do you know how to do a test at the circuit panel box? First test the lines at the breaker, one at a time with one side of your tester connected to the ground or natural bar. See what kind of reading you get there.of course if the reading there is scant ,it's most likely a bad breaker.If not ,it's most likely in the line. In that case you may have to restring it. /replace the power feed to the plug inlet.

You might try shutting off the breaker to the stove ,than unplugging it,than remove the cover from the female inlet and see what it looks like there. You may than do a test, of course you must turn the power back on to do that. Bad connection or bad plug.now you have probable symptoms to consider.1. bad breaker,2, bad receptacle, 3, bad wiring connection to the receptacle or breaker,4, bad wiring in the power feed.

I would check the breaker first by what you have described. But bad connection at the plug is also a symptom. So if power checks out at the breaker ,that would than lead to a bad connection at the plug . How old is the wiring?

I,am into variables ,do the testing step by step.

[Kolesar]

2. All good advice!

I am hesitant to open the cover on the fuse/circuit-breaker box and start poking around in there. I am qualified to do that kind of work, but if there are any "workmanship" or damage problems to any wiring in there, it could be deadly.

[Syrinx]

3. at this point I think it must be a bad circuit breaker

There are two other double-pole breakers in the box, for the heater and the water heater, and both of those are putting out 247 volts. I'm going to see if I can find a new breaker tomorrow. This is a pretty old box, and breakers are hard to find for it.

Thanks for the help!

[Syrinx]

4. D'oh! I feel like an idiot!

I just realized that I had the breaker in wrong. I had both poles on the same phase. I moved it up a half slot, and now I'm getting 247 volts!

I can be so dumb sometimes.

Thanks for the help!

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

5. Nobodys perfect

And things like that happen. Just curious, how did the breaker get in there that way? What I mean is ,were you working at the panal box recently for some reason?

[Syrinx]

6. yeah

I had another, unrelated issue a while back, and I took a couple of the breakers out temporarily. I thought I had put them back just as they were, but apparently not. And I don't use the stove very much when it's so hot, so there you go.

I've fretted over this, and it turns out to be just about the simplest thing in the world. I hate it when that happens. :)

Thanks again for lending a hand!

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

7. Indeed,'you are very welcome

I pay a helper to keep a eye on things when I am multi tasking! Trust me when I tell you that happens sometimes!

What you did in locating the fix is what I must do before I finish a job, and that is go back and re look at everything before I call the day.The helpers job is to catch those errors before it happens! The two man rule.
(we're going over to the box, And let's see what we find).

Glad to be able to assist.