Shocking!!

[hitekcountry]

I got a call from the rental management co. that manages my apartments telling me that one of my tenants had a complaint about the electric stove and that she received an electric shock from touching the stove. OH that's not good, I don't want any thing to do with any one getting hurt.

Time to run down to HD and buy a new stove but I might as well stop in and talk to the tenant and coordinate getting in the new stove. So I'm talking to the tenant and she's telling me she was cooking and stirring something on the stove with a utensil in her right hand and touched the stove with her left hand and got a shock. That's when I realized that there wasn't anything wrong with the stove.

What happens is the heating coils on an electric stove create an electromagnetic field around the coils. When you move a metal object through the electromagnetic field it induces a current in the metal object that you're holding and then if you touch any metal on the stove you get a shock. I explained all this to the tenant and that I could buy a new stove and if she did the same thing moving a metal object through the electromagnetic field she would just get shocked again. She just needs to use wood or plastic or any non metal utensils to cook with.

 

[NSBound]

Huh? I use steel implements all the time when cooking and have never received a shock.

 

[Thomas]

I as well use metal cooking objects..no shocks.

Have you check ground also neutral..might be static??

 

[hitekcountry]

I believe she was using an aluminum pan.

 

[Skyco]

I don't think there is any way she generated enough EMF stirring a pot to feel.
I do think you better go check out the burner for electrical leakage before someone gets hurt.

 

[Coyote machine]

It makes no sense- the stoves burners should be electrically isolated/insulated from the metal of the stove. Sounds like a bad ground, possibly internally on the stove chassis or from the conduit and wiring going to/fro the stove.
Make sure there are no transient leaks by duplicating the conditions and putting a meter between the utensil and the stove body while wearing rubber soled shoes and rubber gloves.
*Do it with the lights off in case there is any glow from your body while doing it
*Just kidding- be safe!

 

[hitekcountry]

The exact same thing happened to my sister in a new house with a new stove using a wire Wisk stirring something on the stove and she got a shock.

Also the tenant said she remember the same thing happening at her parents home when they had just bought a new stove and she was doing the same thing when it happened.

 

[roamerr]

Might wanna check the ground wire....

 

[dirt clod]

The burner being used most like likely is shorted to the outer casing. turn the burner on and touch volt meter probe to burner and to a good known ground. Any reading of voltage means you need new burner. There is no reason a metal pan on any stove should shock the user other than a short.

 

[NSBound]

You think Toyota has a big recall. What wiuld happen if electric stoves all over the country shocked people who use metal implements?