HELP! - got electrical shock touching stove chassis when off

13 years ago

Hey all-

I've got an older (1980s perhaps) Whirlpool electric stove. I just got shocked by it, touching the chassis. It was not on at the time.

I was standing over the stove, cracking open a pistachio nut, and dropped part of the shell on one of the burner coils. When I reached down to pick it up, I got a shock (the kind that feels like your arm is jiggling really fast, like when you're wiring a light switch and accidentally touch something you shouldn't).

So I grabbed my non-contact voltage sensor (one of those green-and-yellow ones that looks like a pen, which beeps and flashes a red light when brought near a live current), and sure enough it goes off anywhere within about 10 inches of the stove.

It's nothing obvious to me, like a frayed cord from a nearby appliance brushing against the stove.

What caused this, and how do I fix it? I don't have the money for even a used stove off of Craigslist, so I've got to be able to fix this thing.

Thanks!

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Comments (5)

spencer_electrician
13 years ago
Your stove is probably connected with a 3 prong/ 3 wire cord which is grandfathered in from older days. A neutral connection may of came lose in the stove, wall receptacle, service panel, or any junction boxes (if any) on the way to the service panel. A lose neutral would put part of the current carrying components (clock, light, etc) in path with the chassis and create a shock hazard. It could also be that the grounding strap to the neutral from the appliance cord never was connected (leaving the appliance ungrounded) Have to open the cover where the cord comes in and check for tight connections and that a strap or jumper from the chassis to the neutral terminal is intact.
fasola-shapenote
Original Author
13 years ago
Yes, it is a 3-wire plug (all the 240v in this house - stove, hot water heater, clothes dryer, and wall A/C unit - is 3-wire).

So you're telling me that in order to create a 120v circuit for the oven light, clock, etc., it uses one of the two 120v legs, plus the ground as its neutral?

And that there is a break in that circuit along the ground/neutral line, so it's using the metal chassis of the stove as its ground/neutral in order to complete the circuit?

The internal wiring of the stove with regard to the clock and oven light and what-not is way too involved for me. I'd rather just disable all those 120v features and do without them; I don't ever use them anyhow. How do I go about doing that? I just want the simplest, fastest, easiest way to get my stove to quit shocking me.

Thanks.
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and I wasn't cooking anything in water. Alright, now you're picking nits. It doesn't matter what you were cooking or what you were cooking it in. You established an electrically-conductive through the contents of that pan. Wait a minute. You were boiling corn. What do you boil corn in, if not water? Transmission fluid? Remind me not to ever eat at your house. I think it's highly unlikely that the frame/chassis of the stove became live, since it is tied to ground/neutral. Even if it did become live, where did the OP get grounded? Do any of you seriously believe the case became hot while the food was grounded? Again, the OP got shocked only upon contact with both the stove and the tongs. I see no realistic way for the corn, after harvesting, to be grounded, so I'm going to very firmly assert that the vegetables were HOT, in more ways than one. I see NO WAY for this to occur OTHER than a failure in the element itself. The OP needs to replace her burner. That's it. She does not need a new stove. Shocking the user proves that it is grounded, so poo-poo on the "it's old so it's not safe" concept. gmom74, call an appliance repair place and order a burner. You'll probably need the stove's model number.
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pharkus
13 years ago
You understand the suggested diagnosis correctly.

You can't easily just "disable all those 120v features and do without them". It can be done, sometimes, but why? The real problem here isn't "the oven has extra features". The problem is "the house wiring is screwed up, there's no neutral to this outlet". The latter is what you should be fixing, not just juryrigging the stove to compensate.
kudzu9
13 years ago
You want to have a qualified repairmen take a look at this and get it repaired. Even if you could "disable" the 120V features, it wouldn't mean that there wasn't a shock hazard remaining. And until you can get this fixed, it remains very dangerous (i.e., it can kill you), so turn off the breaker for the stove until it's repaired properly.
weedmeister
13 years ago
I doubt it is an outlet problem, though it would not hurt to check. Rather, I bet some of the insulation on the wiring internal to the stove has degraded and is now touching something. You're going to have to pull the stove away from the wall and check the state of the pigtail and wiring. Pay particular attention to the wiring to the coil tops. That wiring gets really hot and flexes when you move the coils for cleaning.

HELP! - got electrical shock touching stove chassis when off

Comments (5)

spencer_electrician

fasola-shapenote
Original Author

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HELP! - got electrical shock touching stove chassis when off

Comments (5)

spencer_electrician

fasola-shapenoteOriginal Author

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pharkus

kudzu9

weedmeister

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fasola-shapenote
Original Author