Whirlpool electric stove

[mrcaptainbob]

Neighbor lady thinks she needs a new stove. Just got it six years ago. Model: RF315PXMW. The issue is that two of the burners are going almost max heat regardless of the knob position. Is this an issue of deteriorating heat elements? Or are the knob controls going bad?

[HayZee518]

range

sounds like the controllers [switch] is at fault. the switch controls which burner elements are turned on. normally one common and two hots to the burner rings. in any case 240 is applied to the burners, one element being lower than the other.

[Dan O.]

Elements only on HIGH

Neighbor lady thinks she needs a new stove. Just got it six years ago.

6 years is not very old for an electric range. I very much doubt that this problem would justify replacing the whole appliance.

two of the burners are going almost max heat regardless of the knob position. Is this an issue of deteriorating heat elements?

An element failure would usually result in no heat or in some occasions, reduced heat. The only thing that could cause them to operate on high only, is a failure of their respective control switch as HayZee said.

INFO LINK > Electric Range Surface Elements
INFO LINK > Electric Range Surface Element Switch

On that particular range different switches are used for the large and small surface elements (see the following links).

LINK > Element Switch, Small
LINK > Element Switch, Large

A single 'universal' element switch (see the following link) could be used for either large or small elements if needed.

LINK > Universal Infinite Heat Switch

JFYI

Dan O.
Appliance411.com
The Appliance Information Site
=D~~~~~~

.