I have a 13 year old Frigidaire single electric wall oven (PLEB30S9DCA). While baking something at 425 degrees I suddenly heard 2 short beeps. The display panel went completely completely dark and the heat stopped. I had an appliance repair person come to diagnose for $99. He said there was nothing wrong with the oven, the problem was electrical - that I had lost the neutral lead to the oven. I had an electrician come (the original electrician from 13 years ago) and he tested and said the electrical was all just fine. What now??? Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

Welcome to the forums!

Does the oven work now? Sometimes a poor electrical connection can be intermittent which is hard to diagnose.

 

Isn't that a 220 circuit? Plus there should be a transformer to drop the voltage to 110 for the display.

 

Actually it would be a 120/240 volt circuit. There is no transformer needed in that oven.

 

I was trying to determine what could be inside the oven to cause the problem. If the display isn't working, I'd say that the problem is electrical.

 

You had two pros to check the oven. That's pretty sad it's not working.

A wall oven can be a little tricky to work on as it usually needs to be removed to check the wiring connections and no one wants to do that.

Has it been pulled out of the wall and it's main connections/splice checked ?
That's a constant source of problems.

There is no transformer in the oven. All internal devices except for the elements are powered from L1 and neutral.

 

No, it has not worked at all since this happened.

 

The appliance repair person removed the face of the control panel to check. The electrician checked the current at the electrical box below the oven. Neither pulled the entire unit out to check the connections... Which of these two would be the right one to pull out the unit and check the connections/splice?

 

If the electrician checked the power at the oven junction box and it was 100% correct.... that there was 240vac and neutral then it is the appliance techs fault.

The appliance tech is also responsible for checking for power at that junction box. From that box to the oven is all wiring provided by the oven manufacturer.

 

Thanks to all of you for your input and advice.

 

You're welcome. Please let us know the outcome.

 

Here's the latest. Both the electrician and the appliance tech remove the cover at the junction box and tested the power. The electrician said he "tested all three wires and found 120V from neutral to hot on each phase as well as 240V between phases." The charge for the electrician's visit was $185. The appliance tech insists that the neutral lead to the oven was lost, and he checked it multiple times. His charge was $99.

The appliance tech said I had 2 options. 1) Have him return and recheck, and if he was wrong he would refund the fee for the first visit and continue diagnosing. 2) Have another appliance tech come, and if the original tech is proven wrong he would refund my charge after I provide proof and an invoice from the 2nd tech.

I started exploring option 2. The tech I spoke to on the phone says a 13-year-old Frigidaire is probably not worth fixing. It would cost $125 for him to diagnose, and if the issue is the control that part would cost $260 plus tax and shipping, plus $175 to install. He recommended replacing the oven with a Bosch or GE. However, I really don't use the oven that much and Bosch and GE are really expensive, with a $275 installation charge.

Any advice?

 

Electrician sounds right voltages are good. Go out and look for ranges and see what is out there GE and Bosch are the last one's I would but in my house but just my opinion. Why the high charge to install?

 

Everything seems to be pricey in the San Francisco Bay Area.

What brand electric oven do you recommend? I think I will go ahead and go that route rather than more expensive diagnoses.

Thanks

 

I'm generally shocked at the price of wall ovens. It's like buying a small car.

GE has the market cornered in wall ovens. There are a few from Bosch, LG and Kitchenaid but are considerably more expensive.

Although I'm not overly thrilled with GE.... this model gets high reviews and is not over the top in price. GE JT3000SFSS

Most appliance retailers offer free installation. So look around.