The Oven Detective

On the way home from the casino on Wednesday, discussion turned to our oven. It has not been working like normal for the past week. Seems like it doesn't get hot enough. I first noticed when the slice of raisin bread I put in it for toasting took twice as long. Then, on Tuesday night, I cooked an individual pizza for Farmer H. The cheese was not melting on top. I left it in longer. The edges looked done. Farmer H reported that yes, the edges were done, but the middle was doughy.

"I think the top element is broken. When I looked in a few days ago, only the left edge of that loop was a little bit orange. The whole bottom element was glowing orange. It was set on 425, like with your pizza. It doesn't seem to be toasting my bread. Or cooking your pizza through."

"That's impossible. The top element doesn't heat up anyway, unless you're using the BROIL setting. Besides, it's all one piece. So you wouldn't see only part of it glowing. It's all or nothing."

"I know it's one piece. I looked in to see the shape of it, in case I need to order a new one, like we did when the bottom element broke. All I know is that I saw that left edge of it dimly glowing."

"Well. You might of seen it right when the wire broke, and it was just cooling down."

"Huh. I thought it didn't get hot unless I was using BROIL."

"It don't."

"Then what you said doesn't make sense."

"Alls you have to do is Google it to see that I'm right. Pony. Google it on your phone."

"My top element has been broken for a while. And it used to glow when I turned on my oven. So you're wrong, Dad. I'm looking at it right here. It says both elements are used during the BAKE function."

"Well. It depends on the brand of oven."

Anyhoo... Farmer H was supposed to test our oven when we got home. He went over to Shackytown Boulevard instead, to get some items out of his Fishing Shack to take to his SUS2 (Storage Unit Store 2). But later, he went to the kitchen to try the BROIL setting.

"It ain't broke. Don't order an element. It lit up when I put it on BROIL. It could be that the thermometer in there is broken. So when you set the temperature, it don't heat up enough. The only way to check that is with another thermometer. I think I have one at my shop. I'll bring it home."

Well, Farmer H did not have one at his shop. But he stopped to buy such a thermometer on his way home. Hasn't tested it yet. We'll see what I need to do to get my oven working normally again...