Electrical

Multimeter Basics - Range Elements

Learn how to test electric stove burner elements using continuity and ohms settings on your multimeter. This video shows how to identify good vs. bad elements and explains why relying only on the tone function can give you misleading readings. Know your meter, trust the specs, and install the right part with confidence.
Diagnostic
Hard Skills
Appliances
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Transcript

 In this session, we're going to go over how to test a stove burner element. So I have three elements in front of me and I wanna also show a difference on the multimeters. So right now what we're gonna do is test this, so the meter's on tone, and we're gonna test each element just by tone alone. And then we'll do it by.

S as a measurement. So if the element is good, I should hear this. Okay. So this element is good. It looks good. It is good. Okay. The next element. Okay. Doesn't look so good, but let's make sure if it is good. I would have a reading. Now my meter says ol, which means open line, infinite reading. This is bad, not just visually, but also you know, mechanically.

Technically it's broken. Okay, now let's change to another element. Now this element, it looks pretty good, so who knows if it's good? That's right. I should get a tone. Okay, now I do not get a tone on that. So this element is bad. The second element that we tested is bad. I want to go back to the first element and show you something about your meter.

And if you don't know, check your meter. Your meter may not be exactly the same as mine. So I want you to take a look at your meter and make sure you really understand the measurements that you take. So if I measure this on a tone for this element, it shows 39 ohms. Okay? Now what I'm gonna do, I'll hold this, so it has good pressure, is change it to the ohms.

Now remember it said 39 ohms. Okay? So I'm going to go to the ohm setting and now it says 47. Seven ohms, some meters that have the reading for a tone just to check continuity are really not measuring the ohms. You'll get a measurement, but that doesn't mean it's accurate. If you want an Ohms reading, you put it on ohms and this is 47, so just check and make sure that you understand which one your meter does.

Some meters will do it automatically, but there's a significant difference between 39 ohms and 47 ohms, and you have to know the difference as a technician, so you put the correct part in. So this element itself is good and the other two are bad. This is how you test an element continuity, and then oms, which you can find on the schematics or the spec sheet for that appliance.