How to Safely Replace an Electric Oven Bake Element

Happy Monday, Friends! I recently replaced the bake element in my electric oven for the first time so I thought I'd share my experience and several lessons I learned in the process. Does that make me an expert? Nope--but I want to encourage you that if I can do it, I bet you can too 

Let me begin with a few disclaimers. First, my vintage oven is a dinosaur from the eighties, but I love my vintage painted oven with its center griddle and smaller side oven! While it can be exciting to get a shiny new appliance, I've learned that newer models often don't last as long as the older ones. They don't make them like they used to! I will also tell you that before I started, I watched a bunch of different YouTube videos to find a tutorial that most closely resembled my oven part, which is what I would highly recommend that you do. I would also suggest looking online for the replacement part. You can use your serial number for reference. Amazon has many different varieties that are reasonably priced plus returns are easy if you happen to select the wrong one. Here's a quick before and after view.

Lesson #1 -  SAFETY FIRST: Turn off your breaker before you attempt any repairs! Favorite Son is an electrician and although he lives in a different state than me, I'm glad I sent him this photo before simply unplugging as I almost did. He informed me that the type of box outlet pictured below is prone to shocking and that he always turns off the breaker before beginning any repair. ✅

Here are the only tools I needed: 

*Multi-bit screwdriver for removing the bracket screws/bolts

*Small needle noise pliers

*Optional: baby oil* thick rubber band

Start by removing the bracket screws from the bake element--easier said than done with an older oven, but below are some tips that helped me:

Lesson #2 - Did you know that most appliance screws are 1/4" which is the same size as the open end of a multi-bit screwdriver? I didn't but it worked for mine! 

Lesson #3 - Have you ever tried the rubber band trick for helping remove stuck screws? It worked for one of my very stubborn screws! I know it sounds far-fetched but check it out, here!

Lesson #4 - Did you notice I said the rubber band trick helped with one of the screws? I also learned that baby oil works as an effective lubricant. It took me several tries of spraying and waiting but it finally loosened the second screw! 

I'm sharing these lessons because they could be helpful with future DIY repairs. 🙂

After wrestling with the screws, I was a little intimidated by this part of the repair because in most of the videos I watched, the tubes with the connectors at the end were visible after removing the brackets. Mine required a little tugging and I found that the small needle nose pliers I use for jewelry helped. 

IMPORTANT: Be careful that the connector tubes don't fall behind the oven! Since nearly every video I watched mentioned this, it must be a common mistake. For that reason, I did not unclip the connector from the old element until I was ready to clip on the new one. It just requires a gentle tug to remove the old piece before snugly attaching the new piece to the oven. This is the replacement element I ordered and you can see the connectors a little better here.

Here's the new one installed! You may notice that the brackets on the new element are more narrow than the old one, but Favorite Son assured me that this isn't an issue and he was right. I've been cooking with it for a few weeks now and my DIY repair cost me less than $30! 

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What do  you think? Would you attempt a similar DIY?