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For starters I know nothing about electrical stuff, please keep that in mind.

We had a very strange occurrence where (no breaker was tripped) one of our electrical lines behind one of the breakers no longer receives electricity. This happened at the very same time as our stove top stopped working, which is on its own line.

I took the stove top apart and took a look, measured electrical flow. Our house doesn't seem to have a Phase 3, because that cable is just cut, so it uses L1 and L2 in its cable, however when I measure the presence at the end of the cable (which is connected straight to the stove top), only one of the veins actually carries a current (It was either L1 or L2)

Now I'm thinking that somehow the cable broke. Aren't they both supposed to carry a current? The connection on the stove top surely assumes that they should.

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  • Is the stove top the only device not working? Check your heaters, ac unit, water heater, clothes dryer, etc.
    – JACK
    Commented Jan 3, 2021 at 17:31
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    "For starters I know nothing about electrical stuff, please keep that in mind" Honestly you need to call an electrician. Sticking your hands into 120/220V devices looking for "current" may get you seriously injured or killed.
    – Ron Beyer
    Commented Jan 3, 2021 at 17:32
  • Where are you on this planet?
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Commented Jan 3, 2021 at 20:55
  • As 3 phase asked where are you since you are talking 3 phase , what brand of panel do you have? There are some out there that may have this issue Zinsco being one brand and federal pacific, stablock. Both known for problems in North America.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Jan 4, 2021 at 8:20
  • @ThreePhaseEel In Sweden - getting an electrician here is hard and takes times, which is why I'm seeing if there's something I can do myelf.
    – Sir Rogers
    Commented Jan 4, 2021 at 10:31

2 Answers 2

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So what actually happened was that one of the main fuses tripped in the main electricity line. When I got a hold of an electrician via phone, their recommendation was to check those, along with a description of what they actually were and looked like.

Also an important thing I wanted to share that I hadn't seen here that those main breakers can often be replaced with different/wrong fuses, which can be a fire hazard. So I made sure to replace them with the same specs.

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Yes, electrical wires can break, or connections can break or come loose, or transformers can fail, there are many ways part of your circuit could be dead. But if it were to happen inside or ahead of your panel, ALL circuits connected to that line would be dead, not just the stove. The stove may be your most obvious one, but anything that takes 240V, like your water heater, A/C unit, Heat Pump, and any 120V circuits connected to that bus in the panel will be dead too.

But if it is only a break or disconnection of a wire in your stove, that would not affect anything else.

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  • Actually a bad connection to the buss at the breaker is not unheard of and 2 old brand that it was common. I have even seen this with current name brands like square D and Siemens and cutler hammer.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Jan 4, 2021 at 8:23
  • @JRaef our heat hump is also malfunctioning with an error. I thought that's on a different breaker since the stovetop is supposed to be on its own. Do you know what could've happened?
    – Sir Rogers
    Commented Jan 4, 2021 at 10:24
  • @EdBeal The house is old, I'm assuming so it the fuse box, and the electricity lines. The last time we had an electrician over he upgraded the one for the stove, because the old one wasn't strong enough to take all the electricity. I'm really trying to troubleshoot what's wrong, because if it's possible that one of the veins is dead my first step would be to get a new cable, connected that to the stovetop, see if the problem was the cable to the stovetop. If that fails I'm thinking it could be in one of the cables between box and outlet. Does that sound reasonable as an approach?
    – Sir Rogers
    Commented Jan 4, 2021 at 10:34
  • Sir Rogers you should invest in a volt meter even an inexpensive one can help troubleshoot problems like this. Other than Hager fuse blocks I have limited experience with that brand. Prior to replacing the wiring verify at the source or you may end up throwing $ and time at the problem with no change.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Jan 4, 2021 at 14:24
  • @EdBeal So I managed to reach an electrician via phone. Turns out one of the main fuses tripped, but since I'd never seen a fuse like that I didn't know it was one. A quick stop to the general store, and a replacement later everything is fine :-) Thanks for the help!
    – Sir Rogers
    Commented Jan 5, 2021 at 15:28

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