Your Electric Hob Is Not Working Properly

Because you need it for cooking your meals each day, your electric hob is one appliance you simply cannot do without. Having issues with yours not working however? Discover the various factors that can cause this type of problem.

THE POSSIBLE CAUSES FOR THIS FAULT:

• There is a fault with the power supply

• One of the heating elements is defective

• The energy regulator is not working

• A switch is defective

• There is a fault with the wiring on a plate/ring element

WARNING
Before you do anything to your appliance, make sure you disconnect it from the power supply.
There is a risk of electric shock.
Wear suitable protective gloves if you need to dismantle anything.
There is a risk of getting cut or injured

There is a fault with the power supply

This might seem like a silly thing to have to check, but people can sometimes overlook it. Before doing any work on your appliance or calling in an engineer, always first check that there's power to your hob and you've properly turned it on at the switch.

One of the heating elements is defective

This kind of fault mainly occurs with solid-plate hobs.
The first thing to do is establish which plate isn't working. Then you need to check all its resistances. To do this, use a multimeter in ohmmeter mode (or megaohm, to be more exact). At the back of the plate you'll see various electrical connections. This is where you test the internal resistances of your plate. Place one of the meter's probes on one of the terminals or screws, and the other on either the metal body of the hob or the earth wire (the green and yellow one). You should get no reading. Test each of the resistances and plates in the same way.
If you get a value anywhere, this means the heating element has an electric leak. You will therefore need to replace the plate.

The energy regulator is not working

When a plate/ring will no longer heat up, the issue may be coming from the plate/ring power control knob mechanism, i.e. the energy regulator (also referred to as a power regulator). This can get burned, cracked or broken, thus preventing the temperature control or on/off functions from working. If this is the case, the energy regulator will need to be replaced.

A switch is defective (or one of the multi-position power selectors, depending on the make and model of the hob)

If your hob is not equipped with an energy regulator, it will definitely have a simple switch, or even a multi-position selector that controls the power via a series of electrical contacts. Check the condition of these contacts. If they are burnt out, you'll need to replace the part.

There is a fault with the wiring on a plate/ring element

The wiring connecting the hob plates to their control systems can be affected by faults: the terminals and other connected components can melt or burn out, which can in turn damage your hob's internal parts. This type of problem can be caused by a worn component or by liquid getting inside the hob and coming into contact with a plate/ring element, leading to a short-circuit. When wire connectors burn out, they need to be replaced with heat-resistant terminals. However, if the wiring has its own specific terminals, you will have to replace the whole set of wires and connectors on the plate/ring in question.