Replacing some parts on a standard Kenmore electric range is a lot easier than it seems. If you have basic tinkering skills, you can save yourself the repair costs by doing it yourself. This is even true for some electrical components, like the surface element control switches.
What controls the temperature regulation on an electric range?
On an electric range, you regulate the temperature of each burner (also known as surface elements) using the knobs on the front panel of the range. These knobs allow you to regulate between the various temperatures you use for cooking, from low, medium-low, medium, medium-high to high, usually in increments from Low (1) to 10 (high).
Each burner control knob has a respective surface element control switch located on the other side of the panel on which they sit. This is what really controls the burners, communicating the proper temperature between the knobs and the respective burners.
Surface element control switch: common issues
Some common issues caused by a faulty surface element control switch include:
- Electric burner does not turn on at all
- Electric burner only works at low temperatures
- Electric burner only works at high temperatures
- Electric burner only works at low and high temperatures
All of these issues are certainly annoying! In my case, my front right large burner (which is the one I use the most) only worked at low and high temperatures.
Where to find replacement parts for a Kenmore electric range
If your Kenmore unit came from Sears, Sears Parts Direct generally has you covered. If not available on there, try eBay or any similar reseller market.
Your range’s model can be found on an information bracket located inside the oven door. It looks like this:
To figure out which replacement part you need, you can enter your Kenmore range model number into the search box on Sears Part Direct. Scroll down until you locate what you need. Note that sometimes, older parts have since been replaced with a newer model, which will be indicated when you locate them on the site.
You can also look up your individual part number to go directly to the component page on Sears Parts Direct. Individual components, such as the surface element control switches, have their model number stamped on. You can locate this, once you follow the below instructions to access the switches, but here’s what they look like. Type A goes with the smaller burners, and the part number is 318220080; type B goes with the large burners, and the part number is 318220081. These are the numbers you want to use to look up the replacement part on Sears Parts Direct.
How to replace a surface element control switch on a Kenmore electric range
IMPORTANT!
Before starting, either unplug the range from the wall or turn it off at the circut breaker!!!
1. UNPLUG THE RANGE FROM THE WALL OR TURN IT OFF AT THE CIRCUT BREAKER BEFORE PROCEEDING!
2. Remove all coils and trays from the range and set aside.
3. Lift the range cover. The range cover lifts from the front like the hood of a car. Most ranges also include a support strut to hold up the cover while you work.
Note that grease buildup may cause the cover to become stuck. In this case, try to wedge a knife or other flat, sturdy object between the front corners of the cover and the counter to carefully force it up.
4. Remove the temperature control knobs.
5. Remove the brackets housed below the knobs using a flathead screwdriver to carefully loosen and turn counter clockwise.
6. Pull the entire top panel up, and set aside; note that the oven light switch may remain connected to the panel, in which case you can just turn the panel to the side to set it next to the range while you proceed.
7. Remove all screws holding the control bracket in place using a larger phillips head screwdriver. Note that the 790 model has six screws, and that you should NOT remove the screws directly adjacent to the oven and time control panel. Carefully pull the bracket back to expose the surface element control switches. You may need to close the range cover at this point to loosen up the wires and gain access to the surface element control switch you want to replace.
8. Locate the surface element control switch you want to replace. Remove the screws from the front side of the bracket holding the surface element control switch in place with a phillips head screwdriver.
9. Take a picture or draw a diagram of the current position of each connection. Reference this when connecting the new switch. Note that each color corresponds to a code etched into the control switch terminals.
In my unit:
- Black wire: L1 (power negative)
- Orange wire: P (power indicator light)
- Brown right: H1 (heating coil)
- Brown left: H2 (heating coil)
- Red wire: L2 (power positive)
10. Disconnect each connection. Depending on how old your unit is, you may need to gently pull the connections off of the switch using a pair of pliers. Once disconnected, remove switch and set aside.
11. Connect wires to appropriate connections on replacement switch.
12. Place mounting bracket on the knob connector, and then install the switch to the main bracket covering all of the switches. Screw switch into the main bracket cover using provided screws and a phillips head screwdriver.
13. Ensure the knob screw is in the OFF position and replace all of the screws holding the main bracket to the range.
14. Reset the cover and knob brackets, carefully tightening each one with a flat head screw driver to hold the cover in place.
15. Replace knobs, trays and heating elements, restore power and test.
How to Find Your Doorbell Transformer
Doorbell not working? Looking to upgrade to a fancier doorbell like a Google Nest Hello or Ring and need to know if your transformer is compatible? One thing you need to check is your doorbell’s transformer. But how do you find your doorbell’s transformer?
Last weekend, I installed Google Nest WiFi and a Google Nest Hello doorbell system with a Google Nest Hub. The doorbell system requires a bit of pre-work, including verifying if your existing doorbell system is compatible with the Google Nest Hello doorbell.
What is a doorbell transformer?
A standard doorbell is a closed-circuit, low-voltage connection, activated when someone presses the doorbell button. In order to provide this low-voltage connection, a transformer is required to convert the household power down to the lower voltage required by the doorbell mechanism.
The standard doorbell mechanism is mostly DIY serviceable, as the voltage is low enough to not provide any danger. It is still a good idea to turn off the power to the transformer before servicing the doorbell mechanism. However, before you do this, you need to know where it is so you can turn off the breaker at your electric panel.
READ MORE: How to Troubleshoot Google Nest Hello Doorbell Error NC033
What transformers work with a Google Nest Hello doorbell?
One important piece of information you need before installing a Google Nest Hello or Ring doorbell is the type of transformer powering your existing doorbell. If the transformer is too weak, you won’t be able to power your fancy new doorbell, and if it is too strong, you might fry it.
Google provides a fairly comprehensive guide on figuring out your current setup and its compatibility with its Nest Hello hardware. For United States installations, the wires coming from the transformer to the doorbell mechanism need to be between 16 and 24 volts, and at least 10 VA. For most transformers, this is labeled on the front of the transformer.
However, you still need to locate your transformer to verify this!
READ MORE: How to Set Up Google Nest WiFi
How to locate your doorbell transformer
Home Depot provides a pretty good overview of how to find and test a doorbell transformer. The transformer is a small metal box connected to high voltage electric wires from your home electrical system, and to smaller white or gray wires connected to your doorbell(s).
According to Home Depot, doorbell transformers can be located in the following areas:
- Outside the home along the siding
- On a wall in your garage
- Fixed to a wall in the basement or a closet near the front door
- Tucked in the wall behind the chime
- In your attic
- In the crawlspace
The last location is where I found mine. I crawled under my house to the area under the front door, located the smaller gray wire and then traced it back to the transformer, which was under my living room for some reason.
Once located, I noted the fact that the transformer was indeed labeled 16V and 10VA. Good to go!
How to troubleshoot or replace your doorbell transformer
Since the transformer connects to your home’s main power, it is highly recommended to have a professional electrician perform this work. Your location may also fall under certain permit and inspection requirements. One main thing you must remember is that you need to turn off the power to your entire home before attempting such work.
As this involves electrical work, I do not recommend doing this yourself unless you have significant home electrical experience. I will defer to another site for these instructions!
Hopefully this helps you locate your doorbell transformer. Whether you need to troubleshoot an existing transformer or verify your transformer for use with a doorbell upgrade, you will need to know where it is located.
How to Troubleshoot Google Nest Hello Doorbell Error NC033
This weekend after successfully installing a Google Nest WiFi network after overcoming a few issues, I moved on to my Google Nest Hello Doorbell. While I was able to finish this installation in the same day, it did encounter a major issue near the end.
After locating my doorbell’s transistor to verify that the doorbell was compatible, I followed the instructions on the Nest app to install the sensor in my doorbell’s chime mechanism and then replace the doorbell itself. However, I got stuck near the end of the process, when the Nest app tries to connect to the doorbell and configure it on my WiFi network.
The setup came up with an error “Your camera couldn’t connect to another Nest product in your home to finish the setup process” with an error code of NC033. Unfortunately, this error code does not show up in Nest’s official Nestcam error code troubleshooting guide. However, it’s pretty much the same as NC030.
The troubleshooting for this error advises you to ensure that your mobile device with the Nest app is on the same WiFi network to which you want to connect your doorbell. That wasn’t much help for me, because my iPhone was definitely on that network. Turns out, this is a somewhat common bug with one of two workarounds.
How to Fix Google Nest Hello Doorbell Setup Error NC033
Workaround 1: Remove any spaces or dashes from your WiFi’s SSID
Apparently, the Nest app on the iPhone or iPad has a bug where it does not play nice with a WiFi SSID that has spaces or dashes. Mine had a dash in it. However, with so many other devices already set up on that SSID, I did not feel it was worth changing it. So, workaround 2:
Workaround 2: Restart Setup Using an Android Device
Luckily, I still had my older Android phone. I connected it to the WiFi network and installed the Nest App. This time, setup completed without any issue. For some reason, the Android version of the Nest App has no issues with the SSID name.
Now you know how to work around this mysterious new error that shows up on some iOS devices when trying to set up the Google Nest Hello Doorbell!
How to Set Up Google Nest WiFi With an Xfinity WiFi Modem
This past weekend I set up a Google Nest WiFi network.
The size of our new house called for a more powerful, extended network, so I took the opportunity to try out these Google Nest WiFi devices. I started with a router and one point, to be followed by a Google Nest Hello doorbell camera.
However, the setup was not as easy as the instructions would indicate. I actually started trying to set these things up over a week ago, and due to multiple failures, had to roll back to our previous Xfinity network.
I knew that the Xfinity modem would need to be in bridge mode in order to disable its WiFi functionality. However, each time I connected the Google Nest WiFi router to the Xfinity modem in bridge mode, the router failed to find an internet connection during setup. After countless full network reboots as suggested by the Google Home app did not fix the issue, I finally called Google support.
The main issue: I still had an ethernet cable connected to my laptop and the cable modem, while the modem was in bridge mode. Therefore, the cable modem could only accept one LAN connection, which was going to my laptop.
Here are some setup instructions for anyone who would like to set up a Google Nest WiFi router with an existing Xfinity cable modem and router and hopefully avoid my issues.
Yes, you can use your existing Xfinity WiFi modem with your new Google Nest WiFi.
Besides the Google Nest WiFi kit (router, power supply, ethernet cable), here’s what you also need:
- Access to your Xfinity modem’s setup page via a computer
- A mobile device (iPhone, iPad, Android, etc.) with the Google Home app installed
- An ethernet cable and any necessary adapters to connect your computer to the Xfinity modem in case anything goes wrong
How to Configure Bridge Mode on your Xfinity WiFi Modem
Bridge mode disables routing functionality on the Xfinity modem. This clears the way for your Google Nest WiFi device to become your WiFi router. It is important to remember that bridge mode disables both WiFi and hardwire routing. When in bridge mode, only one ethernet port on the modem can be used, which is typically reserved for connecting a router.
How to configure bridge mode on your Xfinity modem:
- Disconnect any ethernet cables connected to the Xfinity cable modem’s LAN ports.
- Access the Xfinity modem’s admin panel by browsing to 10.0.0.1 and logging in (default login is username: admin and password: password, unless you have changed it).
- Browse to Gateway > At a Glance.
- Change the Bridge Mode setting from Disable to Enable; confirm when asked. The router will now go through a 90 second refresh cycle, at which point all routing will be disabled and only one ethernet port will be able to be used.
- Once the modem has completely finished its refresh cycle (indicated by a solid light on the ‘online’ indicator on the front of the modem), connect the ethernet cable that came with the Google Nest WiFi device to port 1 on the back of the cable modem (figure 1).
- Connect the other end of the provided ethernet cable to the network port (indicated by the globe icon) on the Google Nest WiFi device (figure 2).
- Connect the power to the Google Nest WiFi device, and allow about 30 seconds for it to power on. The device is ready for setup when the white light on its front is a slow pulsing white.
- Open the Google Home app, and begin the setup.
Figure 1: back of an Xfinity cable modem with Google ethernet cable connected to port 1
Figure 2: underside of the Google Nest WiFi router with Google ethernet cable connected to internet port
How to Roll Back Setup and Return to Xfinity WiFi
Already in bridge mode, having issues with setup and need to return to your Xfinity WiFi? This is where it pays to have the ability to have a hardwire ethernet connection from your computer to your Xfinity modem. Otherwise, with WiFi disabled, you will have no way to access the admin page, and your only option is a factory reset of the modem. This will clear all of your settings, including your previous WiFi’s SSID and password.
- Connect an ethernet cable to port 1 on the Xfinity modem.
- Connect the other end of the ethernet cable to your computer.
- Open a browser window and browse to 10.0.0.1; login using the default or your previously configured login information.
- Go to Gateway > At a Glance and change Bridge Mode from Enable to Disable; confirm when asked. The router will now go through a 90 second refresh cycle, at which point routing will be turned back on. You should then be able to connect to your old WiFi network.
Hopefully this explanation of bridge mode will help you quickly setup your Xfinity cable modem and your new Google Nest WiFi. Always remember to disconnect any external devices from your cable modem’s ethernet ports before connecting your Google Nest WiFi router!