I received a frantic email from a reader on Thanksgiving Day. It was from a lady whose oven had stopped working. It turns out that it was just the bottom oven heating element that had gone south.
That one is an easy fix since most heating elements are plug and play. That's the good news. The bad news is that I doubt she could find one on Thanksgiving Day in time to cook Big Bird. Also, they can be hard to find sometimes since there are so many models. The search box below is the one I use to find hard to find replacement appliance parts.
As long as you have a few basic tools, it's actually easy to troubleshoot an electric range. Of course, there's the electricity to beware of (that's my disclaimer) but other than that, it's fairly straightforward.
I've got a Maytag oven myself. I bought it when Maytag was it's own company and they still made quality appliances. They make shabby goods now and forget about getting service in a timely manner. Oh Maytag repair man, where have you gone?
Other appliances are a bit more complex. Refrigerator troubleshooting, for example, involves compressors and refrigerant. Some of this work requires a license. But there are still many things a homeowner can repair.
The bottom line is that it sometimes pays off and saves money to try to repair appliances yourself.
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