Yesterday, while cooking dinner, I turned the GE wall oven (model: JTP85BA2BB) on to bake at 350 degrees. About 15 minutes later I walked past the oven to notice a bright fire in the right corner of the oven. I opened the oven and noticed that the bake element (bottom of oven) was burning as if it was a big slow fuse (no, there was no grease involved). The fire looked like a "magnesium fire" or the fire you see when welding where the heat/light/fire is very localized but hot and bright. The element proceeded to burn and I attempted to put it out with a small bit of water, then some salt (as I had no sand) and finally a fire extinguisher. None of these worked. As I watched the fire slowly burn towards the end of the element and the wall of the oven, I did not know whether the fire would continue into the oven wall so my only choice was to get bolt cutters and cut the element where it hadn't burned yet. Luckily there was enough of the element left to do this before something worse happened.
I called GE Consumer Relations (800-386-1215) and, after apologizing (gee thanks - that helped A LOT last night when I called the "24 hour" line to find out it wasn't open "24 hours"), they want to come and "diagnose" the issue at no charge. I don't quite know what they are going to diagnose. I can tell them this - the element is burned beyond use and the oven is also currently useless and could have started a much worse fire were it not for some quick thinking. Luckily, I had tools handy to stop the burning.
This oven has never had ANY problems outside of the fact that the microwave above it and connected to the entire unit is on the recall list (door switch) and I am in the process of arranging a service call for it. Personally, I now believe they should consider recalling the whole unit (microwave AND oven). I feel lucky I didn't set the unit for delayed start as I had originally intended as more than an element may have been charred and burned.
Lastly, this seems par for the course as I have/had three out of four GE appliances that I received new with the house when I moved in recalled or damaged due to what I consider sub-standard quality and workmanship (1 - dishwasher that stopped working and leaked all at the same time which I replaced and then found out was recalled 6 months later, 2 - recalled microwave, and 3 - the wall oven above).
I strongly recommend not purchasing ANY of these GE appliances and if you do... Caveat emptor! You may be getting something you didn't plan for...
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