There have been many questions concerning the failure of the hot surface indicator lights on electric cooktops and stoves and ranges. It seems as though they like to stay on and not shut off. So I did some research and will combine that with my experience to give you an explanation of what has happened and what you will need to do to correct the problem.
The first thing to remember is that on some cook tops the indicator light will come on when power is first applied. The light may stay on for 30-40 minutes in some cases.
Do not be alarmed by this, it is just a way of showing that the light does indeed work.
Now for lights that seems to be a problem and do not shut off. Give any indicator light at least two hours of cooling time before getting alarmed. If it is very warm in the house or kitchen the time may be longer. If you have an electric stove over an oven and you are using the oven then the times can be even longer. The heat underneath will prolong the cooling of the burner. Likewise in the summertime the time it takes to shut off will be much longer then in the wintertime, especially if your house does not have air conditioning.
The indicator light is controlled by a heat sensor either attached to, or near the burner. In some cases the sensor can be replaced separately and on other units the sensor is attached and part of the burner assembly and therefore the whole burner will have to be replaced to correct the problem.
Finally there are a couple of different ways that the indicator lights operate. On some ranges there is one light for all the burners. If this is the case then the sensor wires will need to be unhooked one by one to find exactly which burner is causing the false reading.
One other stoves each burner has an individual indicator light and so it is easy to see where the problem is.
Appliance parts can be purchased online easily but the replacement of these parts is not always easy and it can take quite a bit of experience to know how to replace these parts safely and efficiently. These types of repairs are often not something that the average homeowner wants to try to do.
If you do want to try and tackle this repair yourself, here is a tip about how to buy
Appliance Parts Online.
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