Model #FED355EBB, this drop in range began having some troubles in the past when one of the surface burners stopped working. Not the end of the world and with the other three working fine the customer figured they would wait for service. Then within weeks, one of the other burners would not always turn off, and the final straw was when the right front burner would only turn to high. Down to one functioning burner, it was time to call for service.

Electric surface burners use whats commonly called an infinite switch to control the flow of current to the element itself. These switches are called infinite because they can be turned on, off, or anywhere in between providing for an infinite number of temperature settings. Most are mechanical in nature and contain a set of switch contacts along with a bi-metal thermostat that cycles the element on and off to maintain a selected temperature. There are no serviceable parts in most of these switches and when one fail, the only correct way to resolve the problem is the replace the switch.

Looking at the three switches in this range, the problems were easy to confirm and all pointed to the switch as the problem. But just to be accurate, I checked the voltage output from each of the element terminal connectors to verify the switch operation. Sure enough, there was no voltage from the switch that wasn't working. Constant voltage from the one that only worked on high, and the final switch was working fine, except it would only turn off if turned counter clockwise.

So to fix the range up for the customer, I needed three new infinite switches. Because there are two different sized elements on the cook top, there are two different types of infinite switches. Always use the correct part for the job as many of the switches look alike. I replaced both infinite switches for the large elements, and one infinite switch for the small element in the left front. These switches were not direct replacements so they looked a bit different than the originals, so paying attention to the wire connections is important.

Once it was all back together we turned the breaker back on and took the new switches for a test. Each worked as expected and now the customer has the use of their entire range again.



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