Electric Cooktop runaway heating at random.

I'm not an appliance repair person but I like to tinker before I throw in the towel and get the professionals.

I have an older GE electric cooktop, the one with the coils, that has been around for over thirty years. Recently, I have found that some of the coils will randomly decide to get red hot and make cooking turn into a smoke show. I replaced the coils themselves but the problem appears.  This is at random, with sometimes months at a time without issue. I've tolerated it for a while but after some locally grown smoked porkchops got charred, I feel like I need to be a little more proactive.

Where should I start looking if you were in my shoes?

The dream is to switch to a gas cooktop, but I need to install some ventilation in my kitchen which will require a bunch of work. I so want to be able to cook with a wok the way that it is 'meant' to be utilized.

One day!

Sounds like you might have a thermostat problem.

I assume you are talking about the burners and not the oven.

I have a solution for the oven though not for the burners.

Maybe try cooking on low.  I do this to keep from heating up the house.

Presumably there are knobs that control the heat setting. Could these be getting shortcircuited somehow - water or dirt ingress perhaps?

Sounds like you have an infinite switch/s that is stuck. It uses a bi-metal piece to control when current is applied to the burners. Look behind the burner knobs or if you have a control panel. They are easy and cheap to replace if you can source them for your particular use.

R. Ford wrote:Sounds like you have an infinite switch/s that is stuck. It uses a bi-metal piece to control when current is applied to the burners. Look behind the burner knobs or if you have a control panel. They are easy and cheap to replace if you can source them for your particular use.

+1, very likely the culprit.

Timothy Norton wrote:The dream is to switch to a gas cooktop, but I need to install some ventilation in my kitchen which will require a bunch of work. I so want to be able to cook with a wok the way that it is 'meant' to be utilized.

One day!

As a temporary measure, perhaps you could use a portable gas cooktop

https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/kiwi-camping-country-cooker-singer-burner-11-500-btu-black/p/362188

If you have a gas bbq, are your burners interchangeable that you can swap one for a ring so you can use a wok on it?

R. Ford wrote:Sounds like you have an infinite switch/s that is stuck. It uses a bi-metal piece to control when current is applied to the burners. Look behind the burner knobs or if you have a control panel. They are easy and cheap to replace if you can source them for your particular use.

You are the best, thank you so much.

I think this is likely the culprit, or at least the next best thing to troubleshoot in the process. Now I get the play the fun game of matching parts to appliance model.

I've been down this road a couple of times. It's a pain when one of the front burners becomes unreliable. I ended up switching the knob/thermostat with one of the back burners until the new one came in. Part of it was not wanting to reach to cook and part was other people forgetting and burning their food.

Timothy Norton wrote:I so want to be able to cook with a wok the way that it is 'meant' to be utilized.

I know this is not the question, but if you want to do wok cooking you need more firepower than the average US gas stove can give you.

A rocket stove, even a little dinky portable one (or a jerryrigged one made out of big tin cans, or bricks, or mud), however, CAN do that for you.
Just a thought. (nudge nudge)

edited to add:
(I do a lot of wok cooking so I bought a stove with a specific wok burner. I call it the "afterburner" because it's got 3 fire rings and HOLY CRAP it gets hot. An industrial kitchen burner might work as well. It is absolutely essential for the 'wok hei' taste you want, and there doesn't seem to be any real alternative.)

Tereza Okava wrote:

Timothy Norton wrote:I so want to be able to cook with a wok the way that it is 'meant' to be utilized.

I know this is not the question, but if you want to do wok cooking you need more firepower than the average US gas stove can give you.

A rocket stove, even a little dinky portable one (or a jerryrigged one made out of big tin cans, or bricks, or mud), however, CAN do that for you.
Just a thought. (nudge nudge)

edited to add:
(I do a lot of wok cooking so I bought a stove with a specific wok burner. I call it the "afterburner" because it's got 3 fire rings and HOLY CRAP it gets hot. An industrial kitchen burner might work as well. It is absolutely essential for the 'wok hei' taste you want, and there doesn't seem to be any real alternative.)

You are right about most gas stoves not really having enough heat for a wok. I use the fish cooker burner outside when i need to use the wok.

This begs the question, how many BTUs are needed for a Wok?

John F Dean wrote:This begs the question, how many BTUs are needed for a Wok?

25k is recommended for stir frying with a wok as far as restaurant design goes.